Happy Halloween 2016: A Tale As Old As Time

Happy Halloween from the W. family!

This year brings the fifth installment in our Halloween tales! (Past years: 2012 Snow White; 2013 The Little Mermaid; 2014 Peter Pan & 2015 Tangled)

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful girl named Belle.

She was the most beautiful girl in town.

However, her fellow villagers considered her "odd" because she always had her nose in a book.

Despite her bookworm tendencies, her beauty caught the eye of the town heartthrob. He was as conceited as he was handsome, and he was sure that Belle would jump at the chance to be his wife.

Belle, however, had much bigger dreams for herself and found Gaston and his chauvinistic attitude less than desirable.

Meanwhile, in a castle out in the woods, there lived a handsome young prince who had been cursed to live as a monstrous beast unless he could earn the love of another by his 21st birthday.

The life of a cursed beast was a lonely one.

The Beast was angry at his lot in life and spent a lot of time roaring ferociously.

One day, the Beast caught Belle's father trespassing in his castle after becoming lost in the woods. Belle came to rescue her father from the Beast's tower, and offered herself in exchange. And so, Belle came to live with the Beast in his castle.

The Beast and Belle got off to a rocky start, but Belle was quickly befriended by some of the enchanted castle servants, including a candlestick named Lumiere and a clock named Cogsworth.

Realizing that this could be the Beast's opportunity to find true love and break the spell, the castle servants did their best to bring Belle and the Beast together. Soon, a friendship began to form.

The Beast even gave Belle her very own library, with more books than she had ever seen!

Before too long, Belle and the Beast were sharing a lovely evening of dancing in the castle's grand ballroom.

It was a magical evening.

It was quite obvious that love was growing between Belle and the Beast.

The Beast was so happy to have a companion!

Meanwhile, back in the village, Gaston was fuming over Belle's rejection of his marriage proposal. Feeling threatened by the Beast, he stormed the castle and an epic battle began between man and Beast.

After besting Gaston, the Beast growled at him to leave the castle and never return. Thinking he had defeated his opponent, the Beast turned to Belle, only to be stabbed in the back by Gaston. Gaston lost his footing and fell from the castle, leaving the wounded Beast in Belle's arms.

As the Beast lay wounded, Belle embraced him and whispered, "I love you."

Those words were all that was needed to break the spell! Before her very eyes, Belle's Beast transformed into a handsome prince.

And so, Belle and her Prince lived happily ever after!

Happy Halloween, friends!

Happy Halloween 2015: A Tangled Tale

Happy Halloween from the W. family!

In keeping with tradition, we have prepared a little story for you to celebrate this fine day.

(To see past years, click accordingly: 2012—Snow White; 2013—Little Mermaid; 2014—Peter Pan and Tinkerbell)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Rapunzel. She had magical golden hair that could heal injuries and restore a person's youthful appearance when Rapunzel sang a special song.

Rapunzel lived in the very top of a tall, tall tower, unknowingly held captive by Mother Gothel who wanted to keep Rapunzel's magic all to herself.

Rapunzel was lonely, though she did have her faithful chameleon friend Pascal to keep her company.

Rapunzel and Pascal played the days away, although Rapunzel dreamed of seeing the world outside her tower.

One day, a handsome outlaw named Flynn Rider was desperately trying to escape palace horse Maximus, who wanted to see him arrested for his crimes.

While fleeing his equine pursuer, Flynn found his way up into Rapunzel's tower.

Rapunzel bargained with Flynn Rider and convinced him to take her to see the floating lanterns that appeared in the sky each year on her birthday. So, against her mother's wishes, Rapunzel (and Pascal) left the tower for the first time. Rapunzel was in awe of the grass and trees and whole outside world!

Rapunzel and Flynn set off on their quest, which turned into quite an adventure. And, through all the excitement, they even fell in love.

Mother Gothel, however, feared losing Rapunzel's magic powers that kept her looking so young. So, she convinced Rapunzel that Flynn never really loved her and Rapunzel ran back to the comfort of her mother's arms.

However, Flynn truly did love Rapunzel and would not allow her to be returned to Mother Gothel's control. He stormed her tower to save her, only to be fatally wounded by the evil Mother Gothel. In his last act of bravery, Flynn chopped off Rapunzel's magical hair, thus thwarting Mother Gothel's wicked plans.

As Flynn lay wounded, Rapunzel cried for him. A single golden tear slid down her cheek and onto his chest. That tear contained the last bit of magic she had.

The magical tear healed Flynn Rider's wounds and revived him! Rapunzel was thrilled!

And so, all ended well. Flynn Rider made amends with arch enemy Maximus...

...Rapunzel and Flynn lived happily ever after...

...and Pascal never changed.

Happy Halloween, friends!

Happy Birthday, Achilles!

Achilles doesn't get nearly the blog love that he used to back in our pre-kid days, and frankly, in real life I spend a lot of time hollering at him to get out from underfoot...that is, when he ventures out from hiding (his often unsuccessful attempt at staying out of E.J.'s path of destruction). Poor little guy! I'm sure he longs for child-free NYC street festivals and long afternoons at the dog park, but our lives have changed quite a bit in all these years he's been a part of our family.

But, today is his 12th "birthday," or, the 11th anniversary of his adoption. And, we couldn't let the day go unnoticed. Ellie is especially excited about birthdays these days, so she helped me select a special treat for him at Target last week, and tonight we had a little mini party for him. We sang to him and she very kindly helped him extinguish his candle, then we all ate species-appropriate birthday party food. A good time was had by all.

He is ready for that plate of birthday treats!

Ellie stepping in to help with the candle!

Happy birthday, old man!

February Catch-Up

I can't believe we're almost done with February already! Time is flying, my friends. E.J. is almost eight months old and Ellie will turn three years old in just over a month. Eric only has about three months left of this school year. It will be summer before we know it!

But anyway, let's catch up on what else has been happening in February!

We had some really rainy days, which made for one stir-crazy mama and lots of puddles to jump in.

Jump!

Enjoying a non-rainy evening by the river

I love this picture of happy Ellie!

My mom came to visit, which was very helpful because I was sick with a bit of a cold. We didn't do much, aside from a little playground run just to get out of the house (this was after the aforementioned rainy days and I was itching for some fresh air).

Ellie sliding with Grammy

He's turning into such a little BOY! What happened to my BABY?

I found a ring sling that E.J. just had to have, and used some Christmas money to make it ours:

It suits him.

Ellie cooked up some fine banana swirl in her kitchen.

What a chef!

E.J. went upward, learning to both sit himself up...

Big boy!

...and pull himself to standing.

He'll just help himself to a toy, thanks.

His ever-increasing mobility also led to the expansion of "baby jail."

He's not amused.

E.J. also rocked some sleep training, and is now sleeping through the night and napping in his crib!

Look at that sleeping, would you!!!

Ellie discovered Siri on my iPhone and decided that we should regularly invite her to play with us.

Siri is kind of a buzzkill.

Achilles continued to reluctantly tolerate the children.

One of them is far more excited about their close proximity than the other.

Eric ran a half marathon out at the beach with his Marathon High kids.

We tried out a new storytime at the Mandarin library, where Ellie particularly enjoyed the craft.

She made a bear, and was quite pleased with herself.

Speaking of Ellie and storytime, she also went ahead and grew up and left me in the dust. One day at storytime she asked me, "Mama, can I go sit with my friends?" and I said, "Sure, Ellie." She very seriously looked at me and said, "Bye, Mama," then went and sat with the other kids. And my heart shattered into a million pieces.

How can I be so proud and so sad all at once?

Speaking of Ellie growing up, I registered her for preschool, to start in the fall. On the way home we stopped at the playground and she up and climbed this "rock wall" all by herself. ENOUGH GROWING UP ALREADY.

Then she came home and wrote her college essays.

E.J. continued to prefer eating inanimate objects to actual food.

I call this "expressive eating."

We did, however, find a food that he will willingly put in his mouth: wheat toast!

Progress!

Princess Anna did a little babywearing at Publix.

What a sweet little mommy princess.

Speaking of Anna, I got crafty and painted up some Anna and Elsa t-shirts for Ellie.

This way, she can still be in Frozen costume even when I make her take her Anna dress off.

Phew! That was close. She almost had to be a non-costumed child for a moment there.

Earlier this week we had a pocket of lovely weather (following up a few days of frigid-for-Florida temps), and we celebrated by playing in our backyard for the first time in 2015.

"It's fun to play baseball!"

We also had some fun with a box on our front porch.

Coloring her "rocketship"

"We're going to get a moon rock!"

On one particularly beautiful evening earlier this month, we had a great time at the playground. Ellie once again broke my heart by excitedly going over to "play with [her] friends"—she ran over to a group of older kids playing with a ball and started calling out, "Throw it over here! Throw it to me!" When they didn't, I absolutely died inside. But never fear! Her daddy found an abandoned ball and they had their own fun.

Nope. I don't have the stomach for this sort of thing.

Eric is a great dad!

That evening also included a sweet baby...

I can't.

...and a beautiful sunset.

February in Florida!

Not a bad little February, eh? There are still a few days left, which will likely also bring more storytime fun, another visit from my mom and a quick visit with my aunt and uncle, and some more jury work for me. A great way to end the month!