Movie Monday: Winnie the Pooh

I'm starting a new weekly blog schedule... This is our first Movie Monday! 

And this week I'm talking about Winnie the Pooh! 

Have you seen it? 

It's so cute! My husband and I loved it. Although we have a little bun in the oven, we will definitely be purchasing this one in the future. Winnie the Pooh is one of our favorites.. and boy or girl, we know our little one is going to love Pooh bear!

Plot Summary: During an ordinary day in Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh sets out to find some honey. Misinterpreting a note from Christopher Robin, Owl convinces Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet,Pooh, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore that their young friend has been captured by a creature named "Backsoon" and they set out to save him. (from imdb)

Our Review: This movie is definitely for kids! According to Rotten Tomatoes, it scored at 91% out of 100%! My husband and I loved it. Anyone who watches it has to keep in mind that this is a children's movie. So open your mind to see through the eyes of a child, and you'll love it too! Pooh is so friendly and love-able! We'd like to recommend it to ya! Enjoy and leave me a comment with your opinion!

One of my favorite things about this movie is the soundtrack! Zooey Deschanel does the theme song and a few other songs... Here is "So Long" by Zooey! Take a listen here: 

That's all I have for today! Hope you will check it out if you have some kiddos or just enjoy kids movies! 

Next Monday's movie: The Avengers!

Going with the hubs this weekend to see it! Can't wait! 

Thanks for stoppin' by:

xoxo Jen.

Florida Aquarium

Florida Aquarium
Tampa, FL
Date of Visit: October 2011

Cost: $21.95 Adult (We got in for $10.98!)

Hours: 9:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.

Early on living in Tampa we checked out our local zoo and local aquarium. We already posted about the Lowry Park Zoo and now comes our review of the Florida Aquarium.

We enjoyed this trip very much and got in for 50% off on our FONZ membership! It is an AZA reciprocal admission zoo. The full list of those zoos and aquariums can be found here. 

Highlights: The zoo is right in downtown Tampa and easy to get to. It is extremely affordable, especially with any AZA zoo membership. That membership gets you 50% off admission! They had a lot of moray eels which are pictured below. Noland and I love these crazy looking animals. The other animals in the coral reef looked fascinating. The shark dive was also very cool. Take a look at the goliath grouper in our picture what a big one. The Wetlands part of the exhibit was a fun area and we loved the animals here, especially the otters!

Lowlights: Our pictures came out horrible, but that is not the aquariums fault. All of the pictures in this blog post are actually from the aquariums website because our did not come out that well. Ocean Commotion was to cheesy for us. We will see if our kids like it when they come, but it was too cheesy for us. We missed the penguin promenade and there is no exhibit for it. If you want to see the penguins be sure to ask someone when they are coming out.

More Pictures

Goliath Grouper

Exhibit in Ocean Commotion

Shark Dive!

You can swim with fishes for an additional fee. We chose not to do this, maybe next time.

We missed these guys, but they sure look cool

Top of the Wetlands Exhibit

River Otter

We gave this place a 3 out of 5 elephants!!

It was a very good aquarium. However, it is nowhere near the Baltimore Aquarium or Sea World. Definitely above average though. If you like aquariums and are in the Tampa area check it out. Stay tuned for our Sarasota Aquarium review in our next post though and check which one you would rather visit. If you can only go to one zoo in the Tampa Area I would suggest Busch Gardens or Lowry Park. Or making the hour drive over to Animal Kingdom.

Let us know what you think of this post or the Florida Aquarium!

Signing off ♥jen

Lost & Found / Linky Party

Hey Everyone! This is my last week of grad school until the Fall and I am so ready for it to be over with. I have one paper and one test holding me from summer freedom and more blog posts!! This past weekend was awesome and we really had a great time on Saturday celebrating Noland's birthday. We had dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse (Noland's fave) and it was delicious!

image found here

Needless to say, today has been the day of the lost & found. This morning, Noland could not find his work keys anywhere. Lost. He searched his car and office while I searched all over the house. I called the apartment complex office thinking he dropped them.. Finally we remembered that he had gone to Publix yesterday to pick up some eggs for me. He's the best. So I called Publix and they had the keys but they described them and I wasn't sure. So I went up to Publix and there they were! Found.

While at Publix, I realized that I needed a few things so I picked up some groceries... At check out, I realized my credit card was no where to be found. Lost. Well I thought long and hard and then called Long Horn. Oops, I left it there on Saturday when we went to dinner. So, I went and picked it up.Found.

Thank goodness that I found them. Both of those items were very very important! Could have been in big trouble if we didn't find them. but luckily, we did. This week I would have lost my head if it wasn't attached to my body. Thank the Lord. There is so much joy in finding something that is lost! 

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On that note, Its Linky Party time! This party will be up all week as I'm finishing up school!
Here's some posts I loved from last Link up (2 weeks ago). This will be up regularly now! Sorry about last week! :)

 Spy kids ideas! over at Live out Loud

10 Restaurant Waiting Games over at Repeat Crafter Me

and Fresh Take Past Bake Recipe from Couponing and Cooking
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Rules are few: 

1. You must be a follower through GFC or Linky followers!

2. Link up whatever you want! --as many different posts as you want!

3. Tweet, FB, Spread the word & Please link back to my page at the bottom of your post!
4. Visit others and leave some love in their comments section!

Top Ten Zoos In the Southeast

It is my birthday today and one of my favorite things on this earth are countdowns and countdown shows. Because of that I decided that I would do a countdown of the top 10 zoos in the southeast. We live in Florida and I grew up in Virginia so the majority of the zoos I have been to are in the southeast. For purposes of this assignment we will call the southeast anything south of Baltimore on the east coast.

Add in Maryland and take out the non coastal states and then this map is where we are going off. MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL. We will count theme parks and aquariums as part of this countdown. Unfortunately if we have not been to the zoo it can not be included on the countdown.

10) Florida Aquarium, Tampa, FL
Review to come soon. Visit in 2011.

9) National Aquarium, Baltimore, MD
Review here

Main Tank at the National Aquarium

8) National Zoo, Washington DC
Review Here

The biggest draw at the National Zoo, their Giant Panda Exhibit. Well other than the fact that it is free!

7) Sea World, Orlando, FL
Review coming soon. Trying to wait for a return visit to get an updated review before posting.

Shamu

6) Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, FL
Review Here

Penguin Feeding at Lowry Park Zoo

5) Jacksonville Zoo, Jacksonville, FL
I've been to this zoo many times in the past, but Jenna and I just went together last week. Our review is coming very soon.

4) Maryland Zoo, Baltimore, MD
Review Here.

Arctic Fox @ Maryland Zoo

3) Busch Gardens, Tampa, FL
Review posted 3 days ago. Click on the FL tab for more on Busch Gardens Tampa.

This picture was not in the review. It is a Gorilla napping @ Busch Gardens Tampa.

2) Disney's Animal Kingdom, Kissimmee, FL
Review Here

Tree of Life @ Disney's Animal Kingdom

And the number one animal attraction in the southeast is.....
Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Full Review Here

They had close views of my favorite the Rhino!

They also had a baby komodo dragon feeding when we went.

Zoo Atlanta is very deserving of #1. It was so close between it and Animal Kingdom though.

However, if this was talking about each park and not just the animal portion, I would go with Busch Gardens Tampa. I suggest you check out all of these places if you can!

Let us know if you think we missed anything or if we need to check another zoo out. Also if you have different rankings please share.

-Noland

Happy Birthday Noland!

My husband.. He gets on blogger this morning on his birthday to post about how great I am!

What is he thinking? Haha! He really is the greatest! And today is his day!

I'm so thankful for him and his kindess. So here are

25 things I love about Noland:

1. He is the kindest & sweetest boy I've ever met. He genuinely cares about each person he meets and just goes above and beyond with sweetness.

2. He loves to go the zoo. I didn't go to a lot of zoos, aquariums and stuff growing up.. if I did, I don't really remember it! But with Noland, we have so much fun going the zoo and checking out weird animals I've never seen! Here's one of his favorite animals...the rhino!

3. He teaches me about sports! I mean I've always loved FSU football but now I know more about baseball.. and I've learned a little bit about basketball. I have a lot more to learn but he is always teaching me things!

4. He likes to go on trips with me. We've been on many adventures. Last night we went to a beach house an hour away.. He is so patient with me. I had a freak out because a rather large spider was on the inside of the windshield and I had to pull over, and get out of the car so he could kill it! We are always on adventures.

5. He likes superheroes! I've learned so much about superheroes.. my family is more of a Spiderman clan.. but I now know about all the other cool heroes.. and I'm getting prepared for future baby boys..

6. He makes me smile. All the time. I cry a lot too just because he's so wonderful. I could never have imagined someone more perfect for me.

7. He loves board games! And so do I!

Sequence is one of our favorites!

8. He's good with kids! He is the most patient person... And I feel like I've really learned to be more patient because of him! He even dressed up for my nephew's birthday once...

9. He loves Disney movies... me too. His favorite is the Jungle Book.

Baloo and Mowgli are so fun!

10. He has introduced me to so many fun things and helps me to always see the positive in everything!

11. He listens to me when I just need to vent about stress from grad school or whatever.

12. During Lent, I started listening to the Christian radio station here.. and he does too! It's cool cause they always talk about fun and interesting things.. and then we talk about it together.

13. I'm a dessert girl myself.. He likes ice cream, even my homemade kind! and he doesn't mind my cravings every now and then. Growing up my mom and I would run and get milkshakes on Fridays or something when we were craving it...everytime I go with Noland, I think of our late night Sonic runs!

14. Every night before we got to bed, we pray together. I love that he is always calling me to pray. He always remembers. I would totally forget.

15. He likes to exercise.. and although I don't exercise as often as I should. He is always encouraging.. and goes on walks with me which I really enjoy!

16. He likes  yard games! I never really played them until we met.. I love yard games because you get to go enjoy the beautiful weather outside and they are just fun! And we're both pretty competitive.

17. He snuggles with me whenever I want.

18. We never fight. I love that. If we have a problem with each other.. we just tell each other right away. Communication is wonderful!

19. We have shows we watch every week. He gets really into them too and I love when we talk about what we think is going to happen! That's fun! Right now, we watch Celeb Apprentice and Survivor! Let's go Penn & Troyzan!

20. He's so kind to my family...

21. He encourages me to be healthy! Eat grilled chicken wraps and veggies!

22. He helps me around the house.. especially lately with grad school being busy!

23. He always drives me... I hate driving. & I know he doesn't like driving my car cause it gives him less leg room but he never complains!

24. He's goofy with me.. and even dances and sings silly sometimes.. Mostly cause I'm a crazy goofy girl.

25. He's going to be the best dad!

Happy 25th Birthday Noley! I love you soo much! :)

I could keep going with the million things I love about him... those are just some...

but That's all for today. Thanks for stoppin by friends!

xoxo Jen.

Noland's Birthday

Hi everyone this is actually Noland again. It is my birthday and I just wanted to talk real quick about how great this birthday is and will continue to be. Every birthday from now on is going to be amazing because I will get to spend it with the most wonderful person in the world. Since I got to meet Jenna my life has gotten so much better and it has not stopped one bit. Every day seems to get better and I can't wait to see how amazing our little baby is that comes from this awesome woman. Today she made me eggs and got me a new ladderball game because my old one broke. We will be playing that game shortly. This woman is just amazing and I cannot wait to spend this and every other birthday with her. She makes everyday that much better.
Don't worry she will be posting some stuff in the near future and will be more active with the blog after school finishes this week.

-Noland

This is Jenna with our only niece. She is going to be such a good mom.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Tampa, FL

Date of Visit: December 4, 2011

Highlights: It is not just a zoo, but an amazing theme park. The rides are all awesome. This park also offers a sky rail that goes over the African animal part of the park. The diversity of animals is awesome. They have hyenas which most parks do not have. Several kangaroos, cheetahs (almost a whole themed area). Just amazing park. Noland says it may be his favorite amusement park he has been to.

Pictures!!

This is one of the cheetahs in the cheetah exhibit they have a small exhibit right outside the new Cheetah Hunt roller coaster. It is very neat how the park sets this area up.

Like most other animal attractions the park features many flamingos.

The zoo had hyenas which I had never seen before and Noland has rarely seen. They didn't even have these at Animal Kingdom!

I love these tortoises

There's a zebra among them! (OK, that's an inside joke for Noland's family)

My favorite, elephants!

This is the first time Noland and I can remember seeing a white one of these.

Tired from all that hopping all day

Crazy Tiger Bush

The real thing

There is our komodo dragon!

Orangutans

We gave it a 5 out of 5!

We both highly suggest checking out Busch Gardens Tampa for the animals and the rides. It is a great value and you can get a season pass for the price of going for one day.

That's all for now!

Leave a comment or your opinion if you have been to Busch Gardens Tampa!

♥ jen