May 2016

We had a really busy May this year! In addition to the Disney weekend I already recapped, we also did a ton of other stuff.

We went to the zoo's Garden & Wine festival, where Eric and I sat and sipped free wine samples while the kids ran around like lunatics. It was delightful.

They clearly had a terrible time.

Wine!

Ellie had her four-year well-check-up (thanks to insurance issues, it was a bit delayed), where we learned she is 43 inches tall (95th percentile!) and weighs 43.5 pounds (91st percentile!). She endured four shots, and when she was given the opportunity to choose a prize from the prize box she asked if she could take one for her baby brother, too.

And of course, she went to her appointment dressed in full Doc costume.

We went to a "Star Wars Jump" at Pump It Up, where the kids were able to make their own light sabers (which was great, because we have such a dearth of light sabers in our house) and battle Darth Vader while bouncing around on the inflatables like crazies. They had a blast and it was an excellent kid-energy-runner-outer.

They both look completely stunned but I promise, they loved it.

We wrapped up my year at my moms' group, much to my chagrin. The kids brought flowers for their teachers (E.J.'s teacher cried when they had to say goodbye to him), and my fellow moms and I had a little end-of-year party complete with table-decorating contests. The theme was Children's Literature, so I put a bunch of leftover goodies from Ellie's Alice in ONE-derland first birthday party to use!

Sweet kids bringing flowers to their teachers

Our Alice table

We also spent some time outside enjoying the nice weather before the suffocating heat really set in.

Playdate with our moms' group friends!

Pizza picnic at the train park. Always a classic!

Enjoying some park time with this cutie while Ellie was at school.

(Of course, a mere moment later he got his head stuck in the tree, because TODDLERS.)

Jumping in puddles by the river!

E.J. got in touch with his inner ice queen.

He's the Elsa to her Anna.

I made matching Star Wars pajama pants for Ellie and myself.

Twinsies!

The kids and I learned about weather at MOSH's May Little Learners event, and studied how different objects float/sink and how ice melts.

Little scientists at work

Ellie and I enjoyed a Girls' Day Out to see a child-friendly production of "Snow White" at the Alhambra Theater. It was very interactive and fun—a great introduction to live theater for little ones! Ellie really enjoyed it.

Ready for our girls' day!

Ellie at the theater

My mom came to visit and helped me plant some flowers in my flower boxes on the front of the house! They are looking rather sad now, despite my best efforts, but they're scrappy little things and are trying to hang in there. Bless them. They sure were adorable when they were first planted, at least!

Flowers!

We also went to the beach with my mom, and E.J. had a blast. This was quite a relief to me, as he hated our previous beach trip. This time, he couldn't get enough of the waves!

Happy beach baby!

Showing Ellie the little coquina shells

Laughing with Grammy

The cutest.

Eric and I went to his high school's senior prom! Eric and I went to his actual senior prom together 15 years ago, so it was fun to do it all again, complete with pre-prom photos by the river and dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. The actual dance was...louder than I remembered my own prom being, so we hit the photobooth and then spent some time with the other old folks out in the peace and quiet of the lobby. We used to be cool, I promise.

Prom-ready!

I took E.J. to a toddler painting class while Ellie was at school one day and he drew a lovely picture (of snakes), and then promptly dropped his canvas through the cracks on the front porch of the little boutique that hosted the class. Well, it was a lovely picture while it lasted.

A true masterpiece!....that now lives under the porch of that house.

My dad came to visit, and we had a nice time taking him around town. He also got to join us for Ellie's ice cream social at her school.

Out to dinner with Papa

Ice cream at school with Papa!

My dad also sent Ellie a Target gift card as a congratulations gift after her very successful spring ballet performance, and Ellie had a blast picking out a new toy and paying on her own with her "money."

She was so thrilled.

We also went to Eric's high school's spring football game...

Awwwwwwww

...the members-only opening of the new "Darwin and Dinosaurs" exhibit at MOSH...

Dinosaurs!

...and the Jacksonville Jazz Fest downtown (we actually had so much fun when we went the first time, we went back again the next night!).

Look! A kid-free photo of the grownups! Remember when we used to take those?

And, we wrapped up the month with a very fun Memorial Day: we spent the morning at the zoo (E.J. and I went through the Destination: Dino exhibit and Ellie and Eric fed the stingrays), then in the evening we had a little backyard pool party and picnic!

Eric and Ellie at the stingray exhibit

Too bad you can't hear him "rooooaaaarrrrr"-ing through the photo.

Backyard fun!

Sweetheart!

Happy Ellie!

And that was our May!

Mother's Day 2016 (and a Lesson in Social Media Appearances)

I had a great Mother's Day weekend this year!

We kicked things off with a trip to a sunflower field for some flower-picking on Saturday:

With my kiddos in the sunflower field

Picking wildflowers with Ellie

Family photo

With my little sunshine

Didn't we get some lovely pictures? Doesn't it look like such a perfect spring day? Don't you just look at those pictures and think, "Wow, what a beautiful, idyllic day—a happy family frolicking through the flower fields, darling children happily helping their loving mother select the perfect flowers and enjoying the springtime sunshine"?

Well, I feel it is my civic duty to tell you the truth about that day. We'll call this a lesson in "things aren't always what they seem on social media." Because here's what you don't see in those pictures: the hour-and-a-half wait, in the blazing hot sun, to get inside. The sweltering temperatures. The pouring sweat. The toddler who decided he was super mad about everything and wanted NOTHING: He didn't want to be held; he didn't want to be put down. He didn't want to eat; he didn't want to not eat. He didn't want to drink; he didn't want to not drink. He didn't want to run; he didn't want to stay still. He just wanted to be angry and by golly, he was taking everybody down with him. You also don't see that by the time we waited an hour and a half to get in, the fields were majorly picked over and all that was left was the sad-looking sunflowers, and even those were few and far between. You don't see the older child SCREAMING bloody murder because she could hear cicadas humming and thought they were bees buzzing all around her and she was TERRIFIED. You don't see that mother pleading with her children, "PLEASE. WE DROVE AN HOUR TO GET HERE AND WAITED FOREVER. PLEASE JUST PICK A FLOWER WITH ME."

There were happy moments in there, of course. Those are the ones we took pictures of. And overall, we left with a good feeling about the day. But please, don't look at my photos and think we've got it all together, that our kids don't cry, that every outing is a walk in the park and we're all smiles and pretty pictures. There's some ugly, not-fun stuff going on there, too. I feel like we can all use a little reminder sometimes that what people put out into the world is usually the pretty, polished version!

And now that I've got that off my chest, I can share the rest of the weekend!

On Mother's Day, I received some really nice gifts. Eric helped the kids answer some questions about me again this year, which I loved. Ellie also made me a lovely little flower pot in school, complete with a sweet little pink flower (that actually endured its life under my care all the way up until our 10-day St. Pete trip last week, when it died a sad, neglected death).

E.J.'s answers to Eric's questions, haha! 

Ellie's answers! 

My pretty little flower

At church that morning, the pastor spoke about mothers and all mothers received a carnation. After church, we went out to eat at a little restaurant near the beach, where after lunch I was treated to a dance performance by Ellie.

Dinner and a show!

Lunch selfie with my best girl 

Then, we went to South Beach playground for some more fun.

Hanging out in the "castle" with E.J. 

That evening, we had Mother's Day cake after dinner! Ellie was very excited to help make me a surprise cake. A great end to a fun day.

Happy day to me!

I'm lucky to be the Mama of those two sweethearts!

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!