June 2016

I have a few posts in the works about June-specific events (namely, traveling a bit and visiting with family), but here's what else we were up to in June:

We kicked off the month with a morning at the Orange Park Kids Fest, which we went to two years ago (when I was massively pregnant with E.J.) and really enjoyed. We had a great time this year, too. The kids made some crafts, went for a train ride, played mini golf, completed a My Gym obstacle course and rode on a fire truck and construction equipment. Ellie also got a "princess makeover" and posed for a photo with some princesses, and we ended the outing with some time on the playground, mostly enjoying the tandem swings.

Fun at the Orange Park Kids Fest

I had some work to do from a mock trial that kept me pretty busy for the better part of two weeks (and is still on-going, yay!), but luckily it started right as Eric wrapped up his school year, so he was around to take over the child entertainment while I worked. They hit some storytimes and playgrounds and everyone seemed to have a very nice time.

Storytime at the library

A little light reading

Meeting Curious George at Barnes & Noble

Playing at the Town Center

Taking a break to smell the flowers

During one week of my work, Ellie was in Vacation Bible School, which she loved. As I mentioned in a previous post, they had themed dress-up days each day. My personal favorite was Crazy Hair Day, for which I was able to whip up a little rainbow creation, thanks to some last-minute Pinteresting and pipe cleaners.

Rainbow hair!

The rainbow hairdo also led to Ellie's discovery of and subsequent love affair with "doggy piggies." These higher pigtails have become a summer staple!

Our two doggies

Continuing on the subject of Ellie's hair, we also had our first adventure with curlers (or rather, curl formers) and she was quite pleased with the results.

She was so excited

Pretty girl!

We also hit the zoo a couple of times, both just for general fun and for their "Zoom at the Zoo" event the day before Father's Day. The kids (E.J. especially) loved climbing on all the trucks, tractors, police cars and motorcycles!

Checking our gorilla wingspans

E.J. loves it!

Ellie liked it, but at times it was a bit loud for her taste.

Playing with Daddy

In other exciting Father's Day weekend news, THE CAVS WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP! My little Parmanian heart was so happy. I watched the final minutes of the game through my fingers, too tense to really believe it could happen, and cried actual happy tears when it did. How exciting for Cleveland! Of course, E.J. and I had to represent my home town around Jacksonville the next day.

Go Cleveland!

I also got to spend some quality time with best girl on our Girls' Day Out to see Finding Dory at the San Marco Theater. Ellie has wanted to see a movie at that theater for months, but they only show one movie at a time and it has always been "grown up movies." I told her that if they ever showed a kid movie, I would take her there. Well, they showed Finding Dory, so off we went! We walked out there, ate a ton of popcorn, drank some lemonade, enjoyed the movie (Ellie really empathized with Dory, she really impressed me), then had some fun playing in Balis Park afterwards. It was a great afternoon!

Fun times with my best girl

That was our June in a nutshell, minus our St. Pete/Venice visits! It was a nice month!

Our Three-Year-Old

Ellie is three years old!

Now that we've discussed Ellie's party fun and details, let's talk about her actual birthday weekend. The Saturday before her birthday (March 28th - my sister's birthday!), we decided to take her out for a little birthday shopping treat. We started at Barnes & Noble, where we picked up the Tangled book she had been asking for and redeemed her Kids' Club free birthday cupcake in the cafe.

Birthday cupcake!

She stopped eating her cupcake to read her book. That's serious!

Then, we walked over to the Disney Store to spend a gift card she received from friends at her party (Thanks, Cathy!!!!). It just so happened the Disney Store was celebrating its 28th birthday that day, complete with party hats and a 30% discount on the entire store. When we mentioned to an employee that it was also Ellie's birthday, she gave her a "Happy Birthday" pin and put her "name in lights" on the video screen while the store played the Mickey Mouse "Happy Birthday" song. Fancy!

Partying at the Disney store

She's famous!

The celebratory discount allowed Ellie to really stretch her gift card and she used it to purchase a Rapunzel wig and Anna doll, both of which have become fast favorites in our house.

That big ol' Disney Store bag and THAT'S the face I get?!

Modeling her new Rapunzel braid

My dad came into town for the weekend, and he arrived that afternoon. The kids were thrilled to see him and we walked with him to the park, then called it a day and he went to check in to his hotel on the beach.

The rest of the day was mellow, though after the kids were in bed Eric and I enjoyed some alcoholic refreshments that my sister brought me from Japan in honor of her birthday. We also decked out Ellie's bedroom door: we blew up balloons and attached them to the door with tulle (I meant to use party streamers but forgot to buy them), so that when she opened her door in the morning, the balloons would fall down on her.

Happy birthday to Heather!

Ready for Ellie's birthday morning!

The next morning, I went in to get Ellie out of bed when she woke up, and after helping her change into her Rapuznel dress (naturally), she opened her door and got her balloon surprise. She was quite pleased (to quote: "Balloons! Balloons in my room! I'm so surprises [sic]! It's my birthday! I love my birthday!"), and actually just enjoyed the balloons for a few minutes before the "bonking" of baby brother commenced.

Balloon attack!

She loved it!

Bonk!

My dad came back over that morning and we all went out to Hemming Park for the Hippity Hoppity Easter Bash (see the post about it here).

Ellie and Papa on her birthday

That afternoon, the adults hung out while the kids napped. When they got up, we set up Ellie's new basketball hoop outside and had some fun playing with that.

Slam dunk!

What fun is having a little baby if you can't put him silly places?

Then we let her open up her birthday gift from us: Doc McStuffins' Mobile Clinic. She LOVED it.

Happily standing by her present

Checking it all out

We also made her a "Big Book of Boo-Boos" to color in

E.J. and Ellie giving alligator a check-up

For dinner we had pizza (Ellie's favorite!) and then sang and had cake.

She blew out all her candles by herself!

VIDEO: Happy Birthday, dear Ellie!

The next day, Eric was back at work but my dad was still in town so we took him to the zoo to show him around. We had a nice time, and Ellie didn't want to leave!

Checking out the rhinos with Papa

Group selfie!

When we got back home it was naptime for the kiddos and my dad left to head home, thus ending a very fun birthday weekend for Ellie. She seemed to really enjoy herself, and I'm so glad. She is the coolest three-year-old, and every day she impresses me, makes me laugh, and tugs at my heartstrings. She is really a very special little girl, and I hope she could feel how loved she is on her birthday (and every day, for that matter!). Happy birthday, bug!

Cinderella, Globetrotters and Animals - Oh, My!

For any who may be wondering, my sister made it safely to Japan. I was able to Skype with her a little this morning (yay!) and it sounds like she's settling in pretty well, though she's been busy. She gave me a little tour of her room via computer, and it looks perfectly homey, consisting of a small kitchen, bed, bathroom and plenty of storage space. She has already braved the outside world in pursuit of a wireless router for her room, and attempted a grocery shopping trip wherein she did not know what anything was. But, rest assured, she did get wine. She is more jet-lagged than she expected but has a few days off coming up (she's in rehearsals already), and she plans to rest and possibly have some fun with Tones. So, she's doing well!

Heather in front of Cinderella's castle at Tokyo Disney! (Photo shamelessly stolen from Facebook)

As for the rest of us back here on U.S. soil: we're doing well, too. My work project kept me very busy for very many very long days in a row, but it has now died down to just the "tie up loose ends" part of the program so I have a good chunk of free time back. That's the thing about the work I'm lucky enough to do: I don't constantly have something in the works, but when I do, it is all-consuming for a week or two. And then, I'm free again.

With our free time this past weekend we actually did a lot of rather fun things. First, my mom came to visit on Thursday and stayed until Saturday morning. Unfortunately work kept me from doing much visiting on Thursday, but Friday was quiet enough that we were able to spend some time together. We spent the morning at the St. John's Town Center for Barnes & Noble's story time, which was especially fun for Ellie because it included special guest Cinderella. Ever since our Disney trip (recaps coming, I promise), Ellie is HARDCORE in princess mode. She got hit by the princess bug BAD. So, she was thrilled. After Cinderella hour, we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the lovely weather at the playground and little pond area in front of Maggiano's.

Ellie watching Cinderella at story time

For the craft of the day, we made crowns, complete with sparkly star stickers that Ellie put on all by herself.

Cinderella admiring Ellie's crown

Chomp-chomping at an alligator statue at the pond

On Friday night, my mom took charge of Ellie while Eric and I enjoyed a date night. My sister's friend Simon is on tour as a dancer with the Harlem Globetrotters, and they had a stop in Jacksonville on Friday. He was kind enough to get us complimentary tickets (great seats, too!), and we had ourselves a little night on the town. Eric had always wanted to see the Globetrotters, so this was a perfect chance to do so. And it was great fun! What a show. Simon also hooked us up with some gear, including a personalized autographed game ball and other miscellaneous goodies that Ellie quickly claimed as her own the following day. Thanks so much to Simon for giving us a fun night out!

Some Globetrotter shenanigans! Top: Dance break! Middle: Globie showing off some crazy moves, and Moose hanging from the hoop; Bottom: Sneaking up on an opponent to mess him up during free throws, and Scooter throwing water in Moose's face (in retaliation, of course).

Having a fun night out!

Simon (aka "Sonic") doing his thing

After the game Simon let us skip the line to take a photo with Stretch, the 7'4"-tall Globetrotter. This photo was awkward because I tried to put my arm around his back but had to literally reach UP to avoid just grabbing onto his butt.

Contrary to Stretch, this Globetrotter is only 36" tall!

Saturday was pretty quiet - we just ran some errands and hung out at home. In the evening we got some Outback Steakhouse to go and caught up on some TV. Pretty nice little Saturday!

Also, Ellie had fun on her rocking horse.

Then yesterday, we took advantage of the increasingly gorgeous weather (hello, 75 degrees and sunny, where have you been all my life?) and spent the day at the zoo. We signed up for a year membership so we'll be able to go back more often, which will be great because Ellie loved it. She had a blast looking at all the animals and cried when we left. We will definitely be zoo regulars this year!

Eric and Ellie checking out the elephants

Brushing a goat

"Here, birdie!"

Saying hello to a monkey

I think her hair helped her channel her inner rhino

Animals!

Having a great time at the zoo!

We spent last night relaxing on the couch watching the Oscars, and that was a perfect way to wrap up a fun weekend. Now the countdown to more fun begins: in less than two weeks, Eric will be on spring break and we'll be heading south to St. Petersburg, where we'll host Ellie's 2nd Birthday Party (WHAT) and then will ditch her for a few days while we spend some time golfing/spa-ing/beaching for a little "babymoon" (aka, the last opportunity we'll have to enjoy some kid-free time for a while, because Plus One will be here before we know it!). We have lots to look forward to!