Mannys Birthday

Today was Manny's birthday so we spent the day on the boat. We went out the Boca Inlet to the ocean and fished, then back inside to the Boca Lake (just after the inlet its actually the bay and on the intracoastal) where we swam, then off to a canal to try crabbing, only we did not have chicken bait so will try again next time.

Manny caught 2 fish while we were on the ocean. The one we kept was a mangrove snapper. This one wasa tropical reef fish, so we threw it back. Its a white grunt:



we didn't anchor in the ocean as we found out our anchor line was too short, and also it was a bit too rough. longer anchor line is on its way, and if we get out on a calm day we will anchor and swim.

we had the snapper as an appetizer at home before going to dinner at a nice and noisy festive on the beach spot.

The birthday cake:



Live image via webcam of Lake Boca:

http://lakebocacam.com/

The Marina

We got a 20' bowrider boat, and are keeping it at Marina One in Deerfield Beach, but its almost in Boca since its right on the border. Its only about 4-5 miles from our house. The boat stays in dry storage - you call ahead and they put your boat in the water for you, then put it away when you finish.
Today was the day Manny moved the boat to the marina from Pompano, and we went there to meet him. Here is the view coming from the bridge to the dry storage area. The big building is where they do inside storage and have boats for sale, etc. The docks are to the left where they put the boats in the water. The little building you see is actually where the trash is, so cleverly hidden. if you walk down past the row of trees/boats there is the building with bathrooms, etc. (see earlier post about marina one).
Shayna's favorite thing, the vending machines. Shayna and Skyler are in front of the ice cream vending machine:

Halloween Shopping

WE got the bug, and went to the Spirit halloween store in Delray, since the Boca one did not open yet. I have a plan for thier costumes, so have started getting some of it. They will be a bit evil this year- skull and crossbones, black, bloody swords...kind of evil pirates.

anyway, shayna and skyler had fun trying on various wigs, props and sunglasses:

Duck

Skyler made a duck with his Knex toy:

Shayna's new blog

I gave Shayna the old digital camera to use, and asked her to use the photos in her blog. She started a whole new blog, under her same profile, so please read it and check it often:

http://juicyfruitie.blogspot.com/

Surf Fishing

We went to the beach at Red Reef Park here in Boca tonight to try surf fishing. after 5pm you are allowed to surf fish (at least in Boca). well Manny fished while Shayna and Skyler played and I relaxed and enjoyed the gorgeous view.

Shayna and Skyler playing:

Skyler using his fishing net to play in the sand:

Building castles:

Postcard worthy scenery at sunset/dusk:

My first experience where the kids could go to the beach after school.

Flip flops

I got skyler his first pair of flip flops today, and he loves them. Its much easier for the pool and beach, and a basic requirement for living in SE Florida:

Fishing Museum #1

Saturday we spent the day at the IGFA Fishing Museum and Hall of Fame, then to the huge Outdoor World store next door to it. I was very impressed with the museum, very well done, and one of the best we have been to so far.

Here is Skyler in the hallway/lobby, looking at the starfish. He loves starfish. You can see Shayna down the hall, she is using an interactive educational computer.


To start, you go into a movie viewing room to see an IMAX type movie about fishing. Boy did this movie make fishing seem amazing. They had a great soundtrack- I told Manny we need to play such heart pounding music when we go out on the ocean to fish. When the movie ends, as the screen lifts, it reveals a huge window and the building is made out to look like the bow of a big boat. Really cool.

This was one of the exhibit rooms, all about fish. Looks like this giant fish is about to eat Shayna and Skyler:

Camping

Actually, we were in the Outdoor World store next door to the fishing museum in Davie. We had loads of fun and laughs trying out this tent and cot:

One of these days we may try real camping, something I only ever did once for one night as a 13 year old at sleepover camp, so not sure if that counts. I spoke to a mom in the tent who said there is a camping area in west florida that has a petting zoo.

we also spent a good deal of time talking to a hemingway-esque man in the GPS section figuring out the different GPS/fishfinder combos. we later found out he is the only employee there who knows the subject very well. he has become our outdoor world contact. we also have a favorite employee at Boaters World in Pompano, named Tom.

Fishing Museum #2

This was a real hands on interactive museum. The highlight was the fishing simulator. Here is Skyler fishing at the Sailfish station. Luckily the museum was near empty so we didn't have to wait.
No fishing museum would be complete without a giant marlin and a bona fide sportfish boat:

as per the Florida museum rule, there were also live animals at the museum in an outdoor walk through exhibit, which included alligators.

Marina One

we went to look for a marina after school today. This one was the top contender so far, Marina One which is almost in Boca, right on Route One at the north end of Deerfield. Therefore, to me, it really has a Boca feel, and even looks like a typical Boca place- stone, Spanish architecture, lots of neutral light colors, Spanish tile. Here are Shayna and Skyler at the building where the bathrooms are, there are also vending machines and the big hit- an ice cream machine. also water fountain. There is an outdoor shower here too:
From the previous photo you walk on a wooden bridge to get to the outdoor dry dock storage area. It turns out that it was an interesting bridge as they were hundreds of little crabs all in the coral boulders you see to the right. we had a lot of fun looking at the crabs scurry about:

No school today

There was no school today, because of Rosh Hashanah, so we had arranged a playdate at the beach with Shayna's classmate Carissa, her mom Janette, and we met thier friends there: Alyza, her brothers Dylan and Austin, and thier mom, Pam.

Pictured below, the 3 ten year olds (Alyza, Carissa, and Shayna) and Dylan (age 4) and Skyler (age 3). the ten year olds still enjoy playing in the sand, which makes me happy because they are growing up too fast:

There were a lot of fish swimming at our feet today, and we did some snorkeling to see them. They looked a bit like baby parrotfish.

Potty Trained

Skyler as of today is now wearing real underware during the day. His preschool teacher advised me to keep him in underware and not switch back and forth (we had him in underware and pull ups off and on the last few weeks and mostly pull ups) . she said there were a few other kids also training in his class, and to send him in with a few spare pairs of underware and shorts. so I sent him to school today with real underware, and he used the toilet before I left. when I picked him up he was still wearing the same original underware and pants.

It is now Thursday night, so two days and he has only had one "accident."

Kid K'nex

Skyler received a birthday gift today from his Aunt Christy, Uncle Mike and Cousins Pete and Sam. It was an undersea pals Kid Knex, and as you can see, it was a big hit with Skyler!

He is proudly showing off his creation he made all by himself (not on the paper that came with it). He made a cat. It has a purple butt (his own words), legs, tail, neck, and face. He later added a yellow piece to the face, as a tongue sticking out.

Sugar Sand Park- Part 2

after playing football, we took Skyler to the playground at sugar sand park. here are a few more glimpses into the playground that is so big we still have not been to the entire playground.
skyler going down one of the slides:
Dinosaur bone sandbox and the tip of the tiki hut structure:

I had to mention the tiki hut, since to me that makes it such a Florida playground.

Football Practice

Skyler started football this week, he is on the Steelers team. He had his first practice Monday, and Manny took him to Sugar Sand park to have him practice/learn the basics:
there was a nice grassy field at the park behind the main buildings and the basketball courts.

Letter A

Skyler made this letter A out of his magnetix pieces:

Skyler is in a phonics enrichment class one day a week after his regular preschool class. They do a new letter each week and do worksheets for each coloring in the letter and practicing writing. They also look for the letter (learning recognition). So far he has done a,b and c. I asked the teacher for blanks of the worksheets and will make copies so he can practice his writing at home. we will also start working on the letter sounds.

Backyard Fishing

We tried fishing in the canal right in our backyard today for the first time. Shayna caught a fish right away using a lure Manny set up. The bait fish we caught using the net were too small.


Here is the fish she caught. It measured 8 inches. We think its a spotted sea trout (at least that is what it looked like in the salt water fishing guide book):

Note: The dirt patches you see are the remnants of where the trees were before they were all sadly cut down last Thursday by the County. The 3 feet by the canal is owned by the County and they are doing a project where they can access the canal. so hopefully some new trees or bushes will be planted to give us back some privacy and some of the lost ambiance.

Canal fun

We got Shayna and Skyler a fishing net at Boater's World today and they tried it out in the late afternoon in the canal behind our house. So far we haven't done much on the canal besides look at the wildlife. There are hundreds of little fish that swim around the dock. They both took turns seeing what they would find in the net. Skyler purposely went after the green foliage, he called it "seaweed."


here is Skyler looking at the little fish in his hand:

we may try to fish in the canal on Sunday, and see what happens.

Pool Sense aka Sixth Sense

"I see soup."

This is what Skyler said when he looked at the side of the pool.



The shapes in the tiles remind him of Ramen noodle soup.

Goody Bag

When I checked Skyler's backpack Thursday after I picked him up from school, all it had inside his"communication baggie" was a Thomas the Train goody bag. Skyler had fallen asleep on route to the Del Prado car line, and even after he woke up he was not giving away any information. I had called the school while waiting in the car line anyway, to ask why the schedule for next week was missing (they give out a detailed paper describing what they will do each week, a review of the past week, and so on), so I inquired about the goody bag. His teacher, Miss Teresa, called me back and said that the day before they had a birthday party for Connor and he gave out goody bags. I really will try and get there early one day this week so I can peek in and see what they are doing.

I gave Skyler the goody bag today, and he found this novel place to hang it:
Note: the orange balloon is leftover from his birthday. Its the only one surviving.

Shooters

We went to the famous Shooters in Fort Lauderdale for dinner tonight. We didn't plan on going there, we were looking for another restaurant on the intercoastal that Manny had found when he was here in May. We couldn't find it, so started to just head for the intercoastal and see what we could find. Almost like magic, as we crossed the bridge towards A1A, there we saw Shooters on the east side of the intercoastal. This was the place that we had tried to go to when on vacation, but never made it. Its a known hot spot in Lauderdale, and a really fun social scene. People come by boat and car and it has been featured on travel channel. There are 3 restaurants in a row, Shooters and the middle one, La Playa are owned by the same person, and the 3rd one is Charleys Crab. The La Playa is more of a club like place (it may have a menu, not sure) with a pool and is 21 and over. You can sit either inside or outside by the dock, which is nice to watch the boats go by and look at the boats docked. Shayna liked when a boat went by playing loud dance music. Here are Shayna and Skyler at dinner with a big boat behind them:

Afterwards we took a short walk, looking at the boats and enjoyig the ambience. There were all kinds of fish swimming in the dock and boat lights, and it was fun to watch them. We also saw a school of maybe 15-20 big fish, Manny says they were redfish. The La Playa was all lit up in bluish lights (very pretty) and was playing really good music as we walked by. In the lobby area where you wait for valet to get your car there is a big aquarium where Skyler and Shayna enjoyed looking at a lionfish and a big Dorrie and a little Dorrie fish (from Finding Nemo).

Oh if Manny wants to get me off the beach a little faster he just says "lets go out to dinner."

Shooters web site:

www.shooterscafe.com

Castle Building

Skyler filling the little castle sand mold. He is able to make a little castle now.


Manny started building this castle with Skyler and then Shayna and I helped. I said to Shayna and Skyler, why don't you look for shells to decorate and something to be the flag, and Manny got out the dive flag.

The finished castle:

Details that Shayna added:

We did some snorkeling today, this was South Beach, so no corals or rocks, but we did see some cute little fish, which like to hang around your feet.