Tag Archives: Charlie Bears

Christmas โ€™22ย ๐ŸŽ„โœจย [Advent Day 2 + Zoo Lights]

Buddy and Sarah may be really small when compared to us, but I bet today they felt like giants looking down on the in-progress LEGO bookshop! The bookshop has lots of little details to explore. Christopher and I are having lots of fun putting it together. One of the minifigs was staring right back.

Today’s Jurassic Advent Calendar surprise was this little worker:

The LEGO City Advent Calendar had my favorite surprise yet. The first minifig!

This little guy is ready to send his letter to Santa. I wonder if Santa’s gotten my letter yet.

๐ŸŽ„ Snail Interlude ๐ŸŽ„

He fell asleep with his head on his friend’s shell…

โœจ๐Ÿ˜๐ŸŽ„ Zoo Lights ๐ŸŽ„๐Ÿ˜โœจ

Today we had an awesome treat. The three of us went together to experience Zoo Lights at Zoo Miami. It was a first for all of us, and a very romantic night that brought memories of our Tampa trip of a year ago –the first truly romantic trip together.

The first stop was to get hot chocolate and some treats. Our partner got two hot chocolates, one for me and one for him. Christopher had some of mine. He also treated me to a really good rice krispie treat which I also shared with Christopher.

We got those magic glasses that had things wherever there is colored light. We had zebra, giraffe and elephant glasses. They were very trippy. I think the elephant glasses were the best.

I brought Igloo with me, and had my snail Christmas sweater on, since it was an ugly sweater themed night. The zoo hosts themed nights throughout the many nights of Zoo Lights.

There were magical looking animals all lit up throughout the zoo…

By far the most special thing was getting to see the bears. I guess because it was nighttime, and less busy people-wise, a lot of the animals were out –either from curiosity, or because they were nocturnal.

I was able to get merely a foot away from a bear, separated by glass of course, and I don’t know why, but this had such an effect on me. I’d never been able to see a brown bear so close, and when it locked eyes with me for a few seconds, it made me cry. I was so happy about that brief connection.

Speaking of animal connections –the second best was an american crocodile. There was a large tube going through the water enclosure, and the crocodile was laying on top of the tube. So if you went through the tube, you could see its belly, and put your hand right up against it, and feel the rumble of its tail sliding through it.

That on its own was awesome, but the gator then slid down to the floor, and snapped right at my face, looking at me as it did so. Its teeth clicked against the glass!! I almost lost my mind from excitement, and screamed “HOLY SHIT” completely forgetting that I was surrounded by elementary school aged children, several of whom began yelling “Did you hear that?! WHO SAID THAT?! SOMEONE SAID A BAD WORD!!” but no one seemed to realize it was me. Lol.

Anyway, everywhere there were pretty light displays. Here are some:

I particularly loved this Pridey tree:

Right past the bamboo forest (an experience on a normal day) they’d decorated everything with giant glowing starfish, jellyfish, and urchins. It was incredible!

Here’s some video:

Here’s some photos I took of Igloo. I enjoyed carrying her around.

There were many photo spots, here’s Christopher and I on one of them:

I took this photo at the restaurant we were originally going to have dinner at, but it was SO expensive! We actually had to go somewhere else.

In the end we went to a very traditional Japanese restaurant that had amazing food. I got to try plum wine there and we even bought an extra bottle for tomorrow’s party. I can’t wait for that! It’s turning out to be a really fun month in spite of some stress.

A Day Out! ๐Ÿ’•

I got to go out on a date with our partner today! ๐Ÿปโ€โ„๏ธ๐ŸŽ€๐Ÿ’—โœจ Itโ€™s been a while. I brought Igloo with me, but just for the car ride.

We began by going to the Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables, where we had brunch at a little French restaurant.

Look at this adorable dollhouse (dollhouse?) display we saw! ๐Ÿญ๐ŸŽ€

Later we went to Dadeland Mall. I got to visit another LEGO store. Here’s some DUPLOโ€ฆ

Cool spacey setsโ€ฆ

Excited to start seeing Christmas stuff!!

They had a pirate statue! ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ

I also got to stare lovingly at the set Iโ€™m asking Santa for Christmas ๐Ÿฅฐ Christopher said I might even get it if Iโ€™m good!

Our partner treated me to very fancy sweets at a French confectionery. I got to have marzipan for the first time in a long time! Very pretty ones. And macarons!

On the way home we were treated to a beautiful sunsetโ€ฆ ๐ŸŒ‡

For dinner back home, I made tilapia with rice. It turned out amazing but the glaze was too strong. Less ginger next time!

Meet Igloo! ๐ŸงŠ๐ŸŽ€

Today’s been a really happy day! Last month our partner asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Well I knew I wanted a Charlie Bear from him… I have a couple of stuffies that he’s gotten for me and I really treasure them, but I wanted very badly to have one of my precious, fancy teddies that was from him. So I picked Derek, which I believe is a 2022 Charlie Bear.

It ended up being one of my biggest Charlie Bear disappointments. No charm, and actually sloppy quality, kind of a shock for a Charlie Bear. Maybe they switched manufacturers. I didn’t know what to do because I wanted to just be happy about my new bear and not make any fuss to our partner or appear ungrateful, but this bear cost over $100. ๐Ÿ˜ž I wanted to love it.

So eventually I decided to go through the return process, and Charlie Bears USA was really sucky with that. Which is also strange for them. Communication sucked, I actually had to contact Charlie Bears UK to get them to make Charlie Bears USA reply to me. The entire process took a long time.

Anyway once the refund was confirmed I’d picked a new bear (Daria) crossed my fingers, and waited. Today she arrived, and it was such a relief to see that she has the old Charlie Bear charm!

I named her Igloo, and she is my first polar bear. I feel like she looks even cuter without clothes, but without an outfit she is just another bear from the shop. When she is dressed, she is my bear:

She’s so cute, and soft, and has some weight to her, and a jingly bell collar. I am very pleased. Here she is keeping me company while we enjoy date night. We were playing Quoridor at the time.

Speaking of, for date night we also opened the T. rex Breakout LEGO set, and have been having a lot of fun with it (it’s not finished yet) but I bet we’ll continue working on it this weekend and I’ll take photos then.

Aventura Mall Outing! ๐Ÿช๐Ÿป

Today was fun! Once I did the grocery shopping for the week, and got the chores out of the way, we had a little impromptu outing after I got our partner out of bed (the GIF above being a pretty accurate reenactment of my efforts).

Like the rest of the weekend, it was rainy, but nice out. We went to Aventura Mall, and I brought Soufflรฉ along for the adventure.

The first thing we did was have lunch (“Chinese” mall food!)

Then we went to the LEGO store, where an employee very kindly let me exchange Christopher’s torso for one without boobies. ๐Ÿ˜… I couldn’t find a green one, but oh well. Now he looks like this:

The LEGO store is unpleasantly packed on a Sunday afternoon, but Christopher and I still had fun looking at sets we’d like to have while our partner waited for us outside while having some chocolate milkshake thing.

On that note, the place he got the milkshake at had really cute and colorful cookies, so I took some photos!

I really liked the goofy, Sesame Street inspired one:

I continued doing lots of housework for the evening, including cleaning the snail tanks, and made tilapia for dinner. It was the first time I fried it, I really liked how it turned out. Overall, it was a great weekend and I get to finally look ahead to a full week for arting for the first time in a long, LONG time, as well as visiting my mom on Tuesday and my mom-in-law next weekend! ๐Ÿ’•

A Surprise! And More ๐ŸŒˆ๐ŸŒณ

This morning I woke up to the most wonderful surprise! ๐Ÿฅบ After our morning cuddles, Christopher told me to go check the door for a package. This was waiting outside for me! I can’t stop looking at it! ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐ŸŒˆโœจ๐Ÿช

Of the sets that appeal to my special interests this topped the listโ€ฆ I would have been so bummed to miss it, but I was fully resigned to that fact because I did not expect new sets for a while. I can’t wait to put this together with Christopher on another date night! ๐Ÿฅฐ

๐ŸŽ€ Marzi ๐ŸŽ€

During the recent effort to remove stuff out of storage and donate what we do not use, I came across my little Marzi. Marzi is my only “true” doll. I do not often post about her because I know that, unlike my teddies and dinos, many people find dolls creepy. ๐Ÿ˜”

So I had to make the decision, either display her properly or donate her no matter how much I love her, because it is a pity to keep such a beautiful, high-end dolly in a bin. I could not bear to part with her, so today I gave her a little TLC!

Her beautiful long hair was clean but a little frizzy so, following online advice, I combed it perfectly, wet it, combed it again, conditioned it, and combed it again.

I read I should let the conditioner dry hard before rinsing, so I did that. She was very patient!

I really love Marzi as much as my teddiesโ€ฆ I wish people didn’t hate dolls so much or find them so creepy but I know it is nothing personal. ๐Ÿ˜… I just love most toys though.

Soufflรฉ kept her company and took selfies with her, I think he might have been flirting though. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

After I rinsed most of the conditioner off Marzi’s hair, Soufflรฉ helped to comb it.

Here’s the end result! These two photos are very similar, but I wanted to properly show the ribbon on Marzi’s hair.

I love how poseable she is. She looks so cute with her little hands behind her back.

Marzi had actually been on display in my library for a long time. But when our partner moved in, I gave up my library (a very small sacrifice for the reward). A ton of my things got moved or donated, but Marzi went into semi-permanent storage. I’m really happy to have her out again.

A Relaxing Afternoon ๐ŸŒž๐ŸŒˆ

Today Mwako and I stayed home! It was a more relaxing sort of day. After I finished all my chores, we watched cartoons, colored, and made bead necklaces. I also played some Pokรฉmon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX while Mwako took a short nap, and then he watched me play for a little while. Below are some photos I took!

๐ŸŒˆ Coloring ‘n Cartoons ๐ŸŒˆ

Cartoons and coloring was our first activity! We watched Courage The Cowardly Dog, and Mwako colored giant Bluey coloring pages while I worked on (finally!) finishing my squirrel page:

Totodile helped!!

All done! This page took me forever. Now I have to laminate it.

At this point Mwako laid down for his nap. I played Pokรฉmon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, and when he woke up again, he watched me play for a while. Then I did more chores and brought down all we needed to make stuffie bead necklaces!

๐ŸŒˆ Making New Name Necklaces! ๐ŸŒˆ

I was overdue to make necklaces for Totodile, Beta, Ludwig, Soufflรฉ, my pyroraptor Fajita, and my incoming polar bear, Igloo. I didn’t manage to finish them all, but I finished a few.

We had juice boxes and watched Franklin while having our fun with beads. Franklin is one of my all-time favorite “kiddy time” shows. Nothing makes me feel so small as watching this cartoon. It is so very lovingly done, and watching it on out giant CRT is a huge treat.

I know this CRT is on the way out, having occasional issues, and I have to say that now that the game room is looking so nice and neat, I really don’t want that to happen. ๐Ÿ˜ž I feel like I’d rather invest a little to keep it going longer. It doesn’t have the best picture, but it has that special something, particularly in this room.

Here is Mwako’s puppy, Patch, with his awesome new necklace!

And here he is showing off the page that he helped Mwako color:

For dinner I made panko-crusted chicken breast which turned out really good. I’ve started to add a little milk in my egg mixture for breading and the result is amazing. I went to bed fairly caught up with my chores.

Mwako goes home tomorrow, but tomorrow is date night. So it’ll be a day of chores and then spending time with my partners. By Friday I’ll be back to commission work!

Mwako’s Here Again! ๐Ÿฆ

My friend Mwako arrived today for his week-long visit! Today was a calm day, we had burgers for dinner and hung out, but first we went to take care of our friendsโ€™ dog and kitties, since they are traveling at this time. Mwako and Soufflรฉ came along!

Hereโ€™s some pics of them: Louie, Tammy, and Sienna!

And a cautiously friendly stray in the neighborhood.

Back home, after dinner, we played giant UNO! Christopher thought it was extremely silly and complained a lot during shuffling. ๐Ÿ˜‚

They were very unwieldy but we laughed a lot!

Afterwards, Mwako tried to stack the cards high!

A short moment of triumph before immediate disaster. RIP ๐Ÿ’€

Now I am very tired and off to bed. Hoping we can go to the mall and the LEGO store tomorrow!

Back To The Future LEGO Set!

Tonight my husband and I played with LEGO! It was so much fun. We put a DeLorean together!

Soufflรฉ joined in the fun!

More in progress picsโ€ฆ

It was a blast!!

I can’t wait to put more sets together! ๐Ÿ‘€โœจ๐ŸŒˆ