Tuesday, March 8, 2016

January & February 2016

Let's backtrack and talk about what we've been up to so far this year!

Frankly, our January and February felt like a barren wasteland of nothing to do. Coming off the holiday season, during which each weekend was booked solid with fun activities, the quiet of the new year was somewhat unsettling. The weather was cold and the calendar was empty. Woe is me!

But, we made do. It's our style, I suppose. Here's what we came up with :

In January, E.J. turned one-and-a-half-years-old. Say what? We celebrated with the traditional Half Birthday Cake, and since his slacker mother forgot to make sure we had 1.5 birthday candles, his mathematician father cut a "3" candle in half and saved the day.

Happy half birthday, E.J.!

E.J. and I had some fun together while Ellie was at school, including a breakfast date at Metro Diner and a couple of playground outings.

Believe it or not, he ate most of that food on his plate. Remember when he wouldn't eat? That was funny.

Fun at the St. Johns Town Center with Mama

We went to MOSH for a model train exhibit and fun in the treehouse.

Peek-a-boo, Ellie!

We had some fun at Riverside Park, where we heard geese honking and found it to be SHOCKING.

MOM ARE YOU HEARING THIS.

We also went to the zoo twice in January.

Eric and the kids

Zoo!

Grammy came to visit...

And somehow, E.J. ended up with a new BB8 toy!

...and we went down to St. Pete for a weekend, where we went to a children's museum with Kelley, Cathy, Heather, and Eric's cousin Tara and her family; went out to Steak 'N Shake for lunch (E.J.'s first time!), and saw Heather utterly rock the role of "Anita" in West Side Story at the Show Palace Dinner Theater.

Pediatrician Ellie giving check-ups at the children's museum; E.J. chowing down on some cheese fries; and Heather!

We had a nice dinner and visit with my Uncle Mark, who was in town for business.

Ellie wasted no time and gave him a seat on her "train" right away.

We saw some beautiful sunsets during our walks/runs in the evenings.

Lovely.

Oooh, aaaah.

We also had a fun playdate with friends at Pump It Up...

Look at Ellie climbing that big slide!

...and at a playground near the home of my "mentor mom" from my moms group.

Cuties!

In February, we enjoyed a pocket of warm weather with some fun in the front yard...

Bubbles, bikes and rollerskates. Oh, my!

...and bike rides for E.J. and me while Ellie was at school.

Headed to the other side of the river!

Unfortunately, we also endured a stomach bug that slowly but surely worked its way through the entire house. Ellie was the last to fall, and in so doing she managed to cut a Grammy visit short and cancel a weekends' worth of fun Valentine's Day plans.

Poor little E.J. was Patient Zero.

However, we did make the most of Valentine's Day in between nursing the sick back to health!

First, Ellie had a Valentine's Day party at school. She signed her name to her classmates' valentines for that. Plus, she made valentines for her teachers and she and E.J. made some for family members.

Signing her valentines. Actually, she's drawing a turtle on this one for Lucas, because Lucas is her favorite friend and she loves turtles.

Ellie and Eric also got to have another daddy-daughter date night at Chick-Fil-A. They had dinner, rode in a limo, danced with a princess cow, ate a milkshake with a spoon, and played in the play area. Every girl's dream date, am I right?

Is this not the cutest?!

On Valentine's Day, Ellie was sick but E.J. looked like this:

For heavens sake.

So there's that.

After Ellie was healed we celebrated belated "Love Day" with pizza and a heart-shaped red velvet cake.

Belated Love Day!

E.J. went to his first Nature's Newbies class at the zoo, which features a variety of sensory stations for play, an animal encounter and storytime. He loved it! We met a bunny at the first class.

He liked meeting the bunny, sure, but his favorite part was climbing the stepladder to wash his hands in the sink afterwards. I kid you not. This class was money well spent, folks.

We also made a trip down to St. Pete for Ellie's birthday party (full post on that coming soon!) and to bid farewell to Heather before she left for Japan.

These kids are going to miss their Aunt Heather!

And, of course, we went to the zoo! The kids and I spent Leap Day there, where we crafted, ate green Leap Day cupcakes, checked out the animals, and the kids killed me with cuteness as they walked around holding hands.

My heart.

Not too bad, right? We came up with some fun! And March is promising to be much more jam-packed, so stay tuned!

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