A Beautiful Day in Paradise

There is no doubt that South Florida is one of the best places to be this time of year.  You can be outside and play or at the beach and not break a sweat while enjoying endless amounts of sunshine.  It's unbelievable to me when I turn on the news and hear of a snow storm up north and we are getting ready to go to the beach or I'm turning the air conditioning on.  We live in paradise (until June!) and I am so happy that we've been able to take advantage of what mother nature graciously provides us.  This past Wednesday we met up with the Clementi's for a fun afternoon at the Naples Botanical Gardens.  The weather was perfect and actually, so were the kids.  They had so much fun and  they can't wait to go back again!  I was so excited to try my new camera lens (thank you Tanya and Jordan!) in this beautiful setting with beautiful kids.  I think these might be my favorite pictures I've taken with my new camera so far.  

This was my 'money shot' for the day in my opinion.  The water in the background is magical and the colors are beautiful...and Mary too!

I think all of the kids like to play and sweep the floors inside the cottages at the Children's Garden.  You fellow Neapolitans know what I'm talking about!  The first thing these kids do is run inside, close the door (which no kid does at home) and start sweeping the floors (again which no child does in their own home!).  I managed to get a couple of shots of the kids in between cleaning sessions.

The next series of pictures are my favorites of many pictures I took of the flowers and butterflies.  I had to go through over 200 pictures that I took in less than 2 hours their!  I am thinking of making note cards or thank you cards out of some of these pictures.  (Jessica- If you can do smaller cards than the 4x6 size, let me know.  You can help me design some note cards with these next pictures. :) )

 I swear these pictures are unedited...These water lilies are just this gorgeous!

These last pictures are of the kids playing in the fountains before we left.  Again, there aren't many places in our country where kids are frolicking in bathing suites and playing in the water in February!  The Clementi's escape New York in the winter and come down here for weather and fun like this...

Wishing you all beautiful days in paradise!