St. Petersburg Vacation

I mentioned that we spent over a week in St. Petersburg prior to E.J.'s birthday party, and we really had a great time! With Eric really not working, it really had a vacation feel to it and we enjoyed ourselves very much.

Of course, we were greeted by an insane storm literally the moment we crossed the bridge from Tampa into St. Petersburg. The streets flooded quickly and it was pretty sketchy driving the rest of the way, but we made it to my dad's house in one piece!

Ominous.

This is not my picture, but was found on social media the day we drove in. This is in Eric's old neighborhood, where we met! It wasn't quite this bad by my dad's house but it was pretty bad.

For the remainder of our stay, we kept ourselves very busy!

Ellie and Eric went to church with Kelley and Cathy, and then all of us (plus my dad) went downtown to the St. Pete Pride festival.

St. Pete Pride

Silly faces with my girl

The kids had some fun with my dad's new french horn and my old flute!

Is this not right?

Little flutist to be, perhaps?

Ellie got to help Papa make brownies, and all the perks that come along with that:

Yum.

We spent a lot of time playing in the backyard and especially swimming in my dad's pool!

My dad picked up this little slide so the kids could slide right into the pool!

Cutie

Happy swimmers

E.J. gets it.

We also had Aunt Debbie, Molly, Santiago and Milena over for a swim after E.J.'s birthday party!

Poor, sleepy Milena!

Santiago and Ellie, back at it again

And, Eric and I became accustomed to evening swims with cocktails after the kids were in bed. See? I told you—vacation!

Glorious.

We also went to visit Toni and Gramz's gravesite, and were able to see the headstone for the first time. They are buried in such a nice, peaceful spot and we brought flowers for the kids to leave for them. Afterwards, we went back to where Eric and I first met, and let the kids play on the (remodeled since we were there) playground where we first actually talked to each other!

The kids playing where we first met

I used to watch a 15-year-old Eric play basketball on this court. Now I yell at his son not to throw sticks here.

By the pool where we met 18 years ago!

We also had dinner with various family members, Ellie had a sleepover at Grammy's house, and we did tons of running around in preparation for E.J.'s party. It was a full and very nice visit!

This Is Party You're Looking For!

Note:

I apologize for the blurry pictures; please see disclaimer in righthand sidebar.

To see clear photos of this party, please check them out on my Shutterfly share site here.

Ellie's 4th Birthday Party!

I realize that I've posted about Ellie's celebration on her actual birthday, but I still haven't posted about her birthday party! As with all past birthday party posts, I'll divide this bad boy into two installments: all the general fun will come first, and details will come next.

Ellie's party was held on Saturday, February 27th at Lake Seminole Park. We had her party a month before her birthday this year, because my sister was leaving to go back to Japan on March 4. Heather had not been able to attend any of the kids' parties before, thanks to job schedules or being on the other side of the world or both, so we figured rather than have the party over spring break as usual and exclude Heather again, why not go early and have her be able to come? And so, we did.

Of course, having the party in February introduced a new element we had not yet encountered in all of our four years of throwing parties at Pavilion 3 at Lake Seminole Park: cold. The temps were pretty chilly! Sorry, my northern friends, because when I say "chilly" I mean low 60s, but still. The Floridians in attendance came bundled. I had thought, "sure, we're having the party about two weeks earlier than normal, but how big of a difference can two weeks really make for the weather?" As it turns out, a rather significant difference. And, of course, it was literally the last cold day of the year and I don't think the temperature has dipped out of the 70s since, but whatever. We've now handled wind, rain, bugs and cold. Let's see what the park throws at us in July!

Ellie requested a Star Wars themed affair this year, which was a shock to all of us. For months and months she was asking for a Little Mermaid party, but once the Great Star Wars Obsession of 2016 hit, that quickly changed. More specifically, she requested a droid party, with no "Dark Vader." I did the best I could to focus on droids and keep the bad guys at bay, as you'll see in my next post about party details. I guess I did an acceptable job because Ellie loved her party.

This party was also different from others in that we held it at 4:00 in the afternoon, as opposed to our usual morning parties. That meant that we put the kids down for their naps that afternoon, then left them in the care of Papa and Aunt Heather while Eric and I went to set up. Papa and Auntie then dressed them and brought them to the party with perfect timing, and Eric and I managed to get set up right on schedule. We're getting this down to a science!

So, we were ready to party!

We're ready to celebrate Ellie!

As people started to arrive we just sort of mingled about, eating and chatting. I had a bubble machine running and pool noodle light sabers for the kids to play with, which was a big hit!

Ellie and cousin Charlie at play

Charlie taking a breather

My happy Ellie!

When everyone had arrived, we began our Star Wars Relay. I will go into more detail in my next post, but we divided our guests into four teams and each team competed in four legs of the race. Everyone was such good sports! It was really fun. Even Ellie got into it!

Top: Eric explaining the game; Middle: everyone lining up for the 2nd leg, and working hard in the 3rd leg; Bottom: Final leg!

The Yoda (Green) Team was first to complete all four events and was crowned our winning team! They processed in for our awards ceremony and were given their medals.

Our winning team: Aunt Rachel, Uncle Mark, E.J., Papa and Aunt Heather

Processing in!

E.J. sort of lucked into victory - he wasn't assigned a team, but became a Yoda Team member by default on account of he wouldn't let Papa put him down. But hey, He still gets a medal!

Shortly thereafter, it was time for cake! Ellie was as sweet as ever when we sang to her and happily ate her R2D2 cupcake.

Happy birthday, dear Ellie!

Singing to the birthday girl

VIDEO: Happy birthday, Ellie!

After cake, we just let everyone hang out and chat for a while. The kids played with the bubbles and light sabers some more, and everyone took pictures with our photo props. It was so nice to visit with everyone! We always love having the opportunities to catch up. I got to meet an old friend's sweet new baby girl, and Eric got to visit with his friend Eric who came to the party dressed as Darth Vader! We also got to welcome a few more family party rookies to the mix: Eric's Aunt Patty and Uncle Steve (bless them for coming even though they didn't feel well), my Aunt Rachel and Uncle Mark (in town from Pittsburgh!) and new baby Summer. We love that all of you come to celebrate our kids with us!

Photo prop fun!

E.J. was ready to duel Darth Vader!

E.J. and Papa, out for a walk

With Heather and my mom

Charlie having fun in the bubbles

Colton and Patrick perfecting their light saber skills

Proud parents of the birthday girl

Even the grown-ups had some fun with the light sabers!

We did take some time out of our visiting for Ellie to open presents, and she got some really nice things! Thank you, friends, for being so generous! Ellie loves her new toys!

Gifts for the birthday girl!

Of course, in addition to the cool weather, one thing I failed to anticipate when planning a 4:00 p.m. February birthday party was sunset timing. We closed the place down!

Park closes at dusk—better hustle!

Most guests cleared out except for the usual few who stayed to help clean up (thank you!), and that was a wrap on Birthday Party No. 4 for Ellie!

Happy birthday, Ellie-girl!

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!