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!

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!

Disney, Pt. 3: Hollywood Studios

When Eric and I finally got back to the hotel after our 10k, we had a little bit of time to relax, shower and eat lunch before heading out for the next big event of the day: our afternoon at Hollywood Studios! Ellie was very excited to see all the Star Wars stuff at Hollywood Studios, and dressed in full Rey costume for the occasion:

She looks amazing.

As luck would have it, by the time we got to the park, got our tickets all figured out and got inside, we were just in time to catch the new Star Wars show right as we walked in. The kids fluctuated between being really excited and a little nervous (the show was really loud), but for the most part, they liked it. Ellie loved the part where C3PO bonked R2D2 on the head!

The new Star Wars show at Hollywood Studios

Okay, so they were a little nervous.

After the show, we walked around a little bit. We saw the Jedi Training kids putting on their show by the Star Tours ride, and the kids took turns riding a speeder.

The kids were excited about the big AT-AT!

Ellie on the speeder

Look at E.J.'s little legs!

The kids really looked awesome in their Star Wars gear, I must say!

Our little Rey and BB8

Our next stop was the Frozen Sing-Along show, which the kids enjoyed.

Elsa and Anna in the show

We also took some time to meet Doc McStuffins and Sofia (who congratulated Ellie on her race when she saw her medal!), and saw the Little Mermaid Show (during which E.J. yelled out an enthusiastic "YAY!" a thunderous round of applause in a silent theater when Ursula was killed).

Ellie and Doc

Hugs for Sofia

We also took a little snack break. We splurged on a BB8 cup of lemonade and a TIE fighter of popcorn (both of which are still getting much love in our house, which softens the blow of the bill a little).

Rey staying hydrated

E.J. loved eating popcorn out of a TIE fighter! Bonus: now the TIE fighter serves as a place where he can hide important items like my keys. So that's great.

Of course, we also had to meet the available Star Wars characters: Chewbacca and Kylo Ren! Chewie was our longest wait of the day (30 minutes), but it was worth it to see the joy on Ellie's face when she saw him! E.J. was also really excited, but he was a bit more cautious when Chewie got close. Ellie said this was her favorite part of the day!

Big hug for her favorite Wookiee!

Look at that happy face.

Family photo!

Meeting Kylo Ren was funny, because when the kids walked in dressed as Rey and BB8, he immediately started circling them in a pretty menacing way and talking about how they were who he was looking for. Bless his little heart, E.J. was entirely unintimidated and just happily said, "Hi, Kylo Ren!" before spotting a picture of a planet on the wall. He then ran over, pointer finger at full speed, calling out, "Look! Look! Kylo Ren, Look! MOON!" That little dear just wanted to show his good buddy Kylo the moon. Can you even?

Honestly.

Kylo Ren!

Really, that was kind of a theme for the kids: they were just too beside themselves with excitement about all the Star Wars characters to play along with the "we're gonna get you, we're the bad guys" act. Take, for example, the storm troopers circling the kids outside in the courtyard. Once again, their acts of intimidation fell on blind eyes and deaf ears as the kids were just all, "THIS IS THE COOLEST THING."

Look how excited Ellie is!

"Hi, Star Wars!"

Another highlight of the day for Ellie: the Jawas we bumped into!

So happy.

Also, speaking of Ellie and cool Star Wars stuff, she looked amazing in her Rey costume and wore the full get-up for the entire day. She got tons of compliments all day long, and one woman was so smitten with her that she gave her a huge stuffed Yoda from the gift shop!

Our Rey!

Yay, something new for Mama to carry around the park!

He didn't get quite the attention that Ellie did, but let's not forget our little BB8, who also looked great both in his shirt and in the baby carrier slipcover I made, if I do say so myself:

Droid-wearing!

After all the Star Wars stuff had been checked off the list, we made one last stop at the Disney Junior show, which was another big hit.

E.J. sitting on Ellie's lap at the show!

Then, we called it a day. Eric and I had been up since 3:30 a.m. and, having walked/ran over 26,000 steps that day (my max-recorded steps per day via my Fitbit  - 12 miles walked!). Needless to say, we were pretty tired, as were our nap-less kids. So, back to the hotel for a pizza dinner and a good night's sleep before a busy day at Magic Kingdom!

Coming up next: Magic Kingdom fun, with Grammy along for the ride!

If you want to see more pictures from our day at Hollywood Studios, click here to see the full set.