Our July 2016

I've recapped most of our month in July now: our St. Petersburg visit, Venice visit and E.J.'s birthday party were the major highlights (plus the beginning of our road trip, which is next up on the docket!). But, we did have some smaller fun events tucked in between the big things, too!

When we got back from all our July Fourth travels, we did a little belated birthday celebration for E.J. at home, complete with some of his favorite foods for dinner (hot dogs, baked beans and corn on the cob) and gifts from his family: a stuffed Spot (from The Good Dinosaur) from Ellie, and a big Millennium Falcon playset from Eric and me.

He loves corn on the cob!

Checking out the cool new toy!

E.J. also had his two-year well-visit with the pediatrician, and I am pleased to report that he is now in the 18th percentile for height (at 33.5" tall) and all the way up in the 11th percentile for weight (weighing in at a chunky 23 pounds, 6 ounces)! So basically, he's a beast compared to his former self. He also thought the toe-prick for his iron follow-up tickled and was very brave for his shot. He's such a grown-up!

Big boy!

On a related note, E.J. graduated from his high chair to a booster seat at the table:

So fancy!

Speaking of growing up, E.J. isn't the only one in our family with a July birthday! We also celebrated my birthday in a lovely extended fashion. I received a few early birthday gifts, including a beautiful personalized necklace from my babies and a great robe from Heather in Japan (plus kimonos for the kids!):

Thanks, Aunt Heather!

On my actual birthday, I received an amazing gift (a Cricut cutting machine, thanks to very generous family members!), ate a delicious spice cake, and spent the night at the zoo with my favorite people.

My birthday cake and Ariel-wrapped gift!

Night at the Zoo

We also did some crafting at storytime...

Roooooaaaaaaarrrrrr!

...enjoyed the July Little Learners event at MOSH...

Trying to manipulate blocks with astronaut gloves on

My Gym fun

Painting with "fishing rods"

...cooled off in the southbank riverfront fountains...

E.J. knows how to beat the heat!

...and tie-dyed shirts and painted Ellie's face at the Jax Moms Blog Park Hop in Hemming Park. (We actually had a terrible experience with the face-painter but Ellie looked cute anyway!)

Pretty kitty!

Eric and Ellie had a date day to see The Secret Life of Pets  in the theater.

Daddy-daughter date!

I also took the kids to a summer movie in the theater (Curious George). This was E.J.'s second movie theater experience and he did much better this time around! He loved it!

Happy movie-goers!

One evening when we were out walking in San Marco Square, we stopped by the fire station so E.J. could visit the fire truck and a very kind fireman came out to talk to the kids. He let them get in the truck and look at all the gear and even let them work the hose! They loved it, and Ellie now wants to be an astronaut, mama and firefighter when she grows up.

Thanks to this nice firefighter!

She is SERIOUS.

Eric spent a couple of days in Denver for his final interview for his NEW JOB (HOORAY), and while he was away, my mom came to hang out with the kids and me. We went to the beach, the splash park (when Eric got back) and the playground and had a very nice visit!

Ellie at the beach

What a beach bum.

Shipwreck Island at Adventure Landing, followed by lunch at TacoLu 

 Bike riding at the playground

In the playground tunnel with my Ellie

And of course, Eric returned from his interview with GREAT NEWS that required some champagne celebration!

Cheers to Eric's new job!

What a great July!

The Rest of Our April

Of course, all of our Disney tripping was a big part of our month in April, and Ellie's ballet recital was a major highlight. But, we did even more fun stuff throughout the month!

To kick off the month, Grammy came to visit/hold down the fort while Eric and I went to a marriage retreat weekend that was really great. The kids had fun with Grammy, and Eric and I got to spend some time focusing on each other and our relationship without those pesky rugrats running around and interrupting our conversation to tell us really important things like that they just saw a tree or what have you (this happens daily). Thanks, Grammy!

Grammy and the kids

E.J. had another Nature's Newbies class at the zoo, and we met a baby alligator. He and I also had a little one-on-one fun at the zoo itself, including a rare ride on the train.

Hi, alligator!

Train ride!

We all went downtown one evening for Spark Walk, which was the scaled-down version of One Spark from years past. It was not nearly as cool as last year, but it still was a fun atmosphere.

With The Giant Chicken sculpture in the Hemming Park fountain

We also enjoyed our first baseball game of the year, during the Jacksonville Suns opening weekend.

Baseball!

The kids developed a great love for picking flowers.

So many flowers!

Speaking of flowers, we also planted seeds at storytime for Earth Day, and they are miraculously still alive under my care, so they were magic seeds.

Little gardeners

We also went back downtown to Hemming Park for the Bourbon & BBQ Festival, which is really my kind of festival.

Ellie with our BBQ feast

The kids and I also went down to the St. Augustine Outlet Mall for Feel the Wheels. The kids really enjoyed it, with the helicopter and fire truck being particular favorites.

Feel the Wheels

We also went to the World of Nations festival and had a great time. We collected stamps in our "passports," and Ellie got a henna tattoo in India and a bookmark with her name written in Japanese in Japan. E.J. requested a photo with the big Chinese dragon and fell in love with his little American flag.

Fun at the World of Nations festival

Grammy came for another visit and we took the kids to TNT Gymnastics for their open gym, and the kids really loved that. They ran around like crazies, jumped on trampolines, bounced in a bounce house and climbed around in the foam pit.

Gymnastics fun

We ended the month with a trip to the beach, which started out fun for everyone but quickly turned into E.J.'s worst nightmare. He just hated it. I have no idea why, but the girls really enjoyed themselves!

Beach Day!

At that was our April!

Easter 2016

We had such a nice Easter this year! We took advantage of a lot of Easter events around Jacksonville (read: we did ALL THE EGG HUNTS), so we really stretched out our celebration. As it has been with recent holidays past, Ellie helped make everything more fun because she was just so into it. As soon as Valentine's Day was over, she was looking for the Easter decorations and shouting "HAPPY EASTER!" every time we left her presence. The kid loves a good holiday.

Anyway, we started things off with an egg hunt at Ellie's preschool church. It was supposed to be out on the lawn but rain forced things indoors, so the "hunt" consisted of kids pulling eggs out of baskets set on chairs and putting them in their own baskets. The kids loved it, but let's be honest, we're really playing it pretty fast and loose with the term "hunt," here! It was really more of a "gather." After the egg-gathering they had a potluck dinner and appearances by the Easter Bunny, which just thrilled the kids. They also loved dancing and running around like crazies.

E.J. gathering eggs

Easter Bunny!

We also went to "Tea Time with the Easter Bunny" at the mall. It was a pretty fun event, with crafts, games, food (and by food, I mean sweets exclusively), storytime and another "hunt."

Ellie listening to an Easter story with the Chick-Fil-A cow, as one does.

Hunting and gathering

Bucket full of eggs!

That same weekend, we went to the Easter egg hunt in Hemming Park. We had such a great time at this event last year, but this year it really blew up and was PACKED. It was pandemonium during the "hunts," and the event's Facebook page was filled with complaints from parents about kids leaving empty handed (to be fair, it sounded like much of the blame for that fell on the parents who were also pretty egg-greedy, and not just on the event organizers). Personally, we had a good time regardless of the heavy crowds! Each of our kids got a few eggs (Ellie got all pink, just like she wanted), and then we headed over to Sweet Pete's to meet the Easter Bunny. The line was loooooooooong, but we ended up with a nice photo for the year!

E.J. checking out his eggs after the hunt for his age group

MESS.

Happy egg-hunter!

Easter Bunny at Sweet Pete's!

On Good Friday, we went to church at the church where I go to Moms' Group. I thought they were going to have a nursery available for E.J. at least, but they did not, so I spent much of the service running around with him in the lobby. Ah well, I tried. That evening, Eric and I continued what has become a nice Good Friday tradition in our house:

Wine, Reese's in their optimal form, and a little Ted Neeley.

The Saturday before Easter we went to the zoo for another egg hunt, though this one did not require baskets. This year, the zoo set up a scavenger hunt. Each guest was given a paper with clues, and you had to find the animal in question and fill in a letter from an egg sign posted nearby. (All the animals you were looking for, of course, lay eggs.) When you completed your form, you took it to the Great Lawn to redeem it for a bag of eggs. The Great Lawn also had lots of fun activities: crafts, food, bounce houses, and the Easter Bunny. (That guy is everywhere!)

Ellie rocking a toddler smile by one of the egg signs

Ellie helped me fill in a couple letters on our form!

Easter Bunny at the zoo!

That evening, we colored our Easter eggs. I'm going to toot my own horn a little bit and talk about what a genius I was in devising a plan for un-dumpable cups of dye: I hot-glued styrofoam cups to a big piece of cardboard. The kids still splashed a bit (I'm looking at you, E.J.), but everything stayed upright!

Coloring eggs

Just go for it, E.J.

Pink eggs for Ellie!

Our finished eggs!

Playing peek-a-boo in his down time!

After the kids went to bed that night, the Easter Bunny came!

Busted!

The kids' Easter baskets!

On Easter morning, the kids woke up and dug into their baskets!

Here they come!

Ellie checking out her palm pet

E.J. playing with his new Millennium Falcon and Chewbacca PEZ dispenser

Then, we got dressed and ready for church.

They're killing me.

We went to church at Ellie's preschool church, and the service was very nice. E.J. hung out in the nursery the whole time, while Ellie came to church with us. When the time came, she went right up front for the children's sermon and then marched off with the other kids to children's church for the rest of the service. She's so grown up!

That evening, we had an Easter feast of ham, potato casserole, peas and rolls.

Easter dinner

Easter 2016 was a great one!

Easter 2016