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!

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!