Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family!

I hope you are having a wonderful day with good food and lots of loved ones! We're finally coming out of a mess of a few weeks, which could only have been brought on by the kids licking every surface at school/nurseries (and perhaps their friends, too) or something....they brought home just about every contagious illness they could get their germy little hands on. Needless to say we've been in quarantine mode for, well, November. Everybody is trending up now, but unfortunately there are still germs afoot so our Thanksgiving plans with family were cancelled.

But, we're still enjoying a wonderful day with each other. The kids absolutely loved the Macy's Parade, and they were pumped to don their turkey shirts I made (that will now only be seen by anybody outside of our family in photos, but ah well). We're still cooking our feast, have been checking in with loved ones via FaceTime, and have plans to trim our trees and watch Charlie Brown Christmas tonight. It's a good day. As Ellie said earlier, "This is a happy Thanksgiving!"

Even considering all the illness and altered plans, how could we be down this Thanksgiving? We have so, so much to be thankful for this year: Eric's job, which is work he's passionate about that pays him well and allows him to be home with us; Ellie's school, where she is excited to learn from dedicated teachers with good friends by her side; E.J.'s nursery classes, where he is so adored that the volunteers are sad when he gets placed in a different class for the day; our new home, with all the space and room for our kids to play and enjoy each other; our church, where we are really beginning to feel at home; and our neighborhood, which is finally giving us a sense of community that we haven't felt in years.

And of course, above all, we're thankful for each other.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. Enjoy and give thanks.

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!

Ellie's First Day of VPK

Today was Ellie's first day of school!

Ellie's first day of pre-kindergarten!

Ellie was very excited to start school this year. I worried a little about how it would go, as she was really hung up on her class from last year: "But I just like my Busy Bees Class! I like my Busy Bees teachers! I like my Busy Bees friends!" So, we've been talking up this new year and new class as being for four-year-olds. See, last year, she was three, so she was a Busy Bee. Now she's four, so she's a jaguar.

It seemed to do the trick! She still was a bit apprehensive about new everything, but we went to orientation last Thursday and as soon as she saw her classroom, a few old friends, and all the fun new things in her room, she was ready to go. She is going four days a week this year instead of two, and just judging by the teacher's orientation talk and the decor around the classroom, the focus is going to be on preparation for kindergarten, much more so than last year. I'd be lying if I said tears didn't come to my eyes a bit when the teacher mentioned kindergarten next year, because HOW?!?!

This big four-year-old is ready for her Jaguars class!

This morning, we got up and ready (she reverted back to singing the "Daniel Tiger school song" to remind herself of everything she needed to do before school), then walked to school.

I love that we can walk now!

When we got to her classroom, she went right in and barely even looked back. No goodbye hug or anything! She was ready, and went right over to find her cubby for her lunch box.

So grown up!

Of course, it was also a "first day" for E.J.: I decided to start going to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Bible study on Mondays, and the church offers nursery care for E.J. Not only that, they extend the nursery care for an additional two hours after the moms' programming is over, so you can go run errands or do whatever you want kid-free for a little while. Today was the first day I took advantage of that! That meant that E.J. had to bring his lunch to school, too, which meant he got a note in his lunch box just like Ellie and took a backpack with him like a real little school boy.

Lunches packed and ready for the school day!

First day of MOPS nursery!

So, after Ellie was happily in her classroom, we dragged crying E.J. out (I think he thought he was going into her classroom with her and was very upset when that was not the case, poor thing), cheered him up and sent him off to his room. Then, I hit the grocery store for the most serene shopping trip I have experienced in years.

Eric and I went together to pick both kids up at 1:00, and both were in great spirits! E.J. loved his note in his lunch box and made sure to show it to all his friends. Ellie said she had a good day and was excited to show us the "kissing hand" she made. She said she played picnic with her friends and sang songs. Overall, it was a great success!

Ellie at the end of her first day!

And so begins another year! I'm very proud of my little schoolgirl (and sort-of school boy) and I'm thrilled she's so excited about school. We're off to a great start!

November 2015

I figured I'd kick off my triumphant return to the blog with one of those more general recaps I was talking about because, hey. We had a really great holiday season!

Spoiler alert: the kids were adorable in November. E.J. melted my heart into a giant puddle when he wanted to wear his Mickey in Ellie's ring sling, and somehow he is turning into quite a little boy (no longer a baby)!

Babywearing E.J.

LOOK AT HIM.

As for Ellie, she continued to rock her trademark fashion sense in her free time, when she wasn't busy taking painfully sweet school pictures.

Looking amazing, as always.

Ellie's first school picture!

Our month got off to a great start with a day spent in Gainesville for the UF Homecoming Parade. We had a great time taking the kids around campus to all our old haunts!

W. Family in Gainesville - Go Gators!

Heather came to visit and she and I got to have lunch out, just the two of us! We even had some margaritas. Heeeey.

Just living the dream.

We finally made it out to the St. Johns Town Center for their Christmas tree lighting! They had live music, an appearance by Santa and fireworks, which Ellie handled quite well thanks to her "ear mouse."

Let's light up that Christmas tree!

Eric and I got to have a date night to see the new Hunger Games movie, thanks to a visit from my mom!

Also, we found a movie theater with a bar and recliners. So. LET'S DO THIS.

While my mom was in town, we also had a little "girls' night out" for movie night at the zoo. We got to ride the carousel, pet the stingrays, enjoy a BBQ dinner and watch Finding Nemo on the Great Lawn. Ellie was quite tickled about being out at the zoo after dark!

Girls' night!

Ellie had her first school program! She played the part of the turkey in the school Thanksgiving skit (while dressed as a pilgrim), and afterwards we were able to stay for a "feast" in her classroom. It was adorable and she did great!

Ellie's Thanksgiving program, including her list of things she's thankful for. Don't mind my weeping over here.

We went down to St. Petersburg for Thanksgiving, where we enjoyed a tasty feast at my dad's house followed by dessert at Kelley's house with Eric's family, including new baby Summer.

Top: Dinner with my dad and Heather, including Ellie pointing at the one thing on that whole table she would willingly eat: rolls.

Bottom: E.J. meeting new cousin Summer, and Ellie loving on cousin Colton.

After all our feasting, we helped my dad trim his Christmas tree. It was nice to have Heather here for all of that this year, and it was E.J.'s first true exposure to the wonder of the Miss Piggy ornament.

Papa's house is ready for Christmas!

The day after Thanksgiving, Heather treated us to a day at Busch Gardens (via some free passes she had), and we had a great day there.

Busch Gardens!

Busch Gardens highlights included meeting Elmo...

The kids are SO HAPPY right now.

...Ellie actually going on stage (by herself!) during the Christmas show...

You might look at this photo and think she's a natural at being on stage, but just you wait. I have more recaps to come.

...and taking in another (excellent!) show in the company of Tony Dungy.

E.J. just kicking it with Tony

And of course, we wrapped up November by dusting off our Christmas spirit! Bring it on, December!

These festive children are ready for some more holiday fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Ellie Kitty

Doesn't this little kitty have the prettiest blue eyes?