Saying Our Goodbyes

Today is moving day! Even though we are excited and ready to move to North Carolina, we are still sad to say goodbye to our friends here. We will miss them and we were so glad to have met them. We made lots of fun memories with them such as horseback riding, ladies' night, parties at the park and plenty of great birthday parties for the kids. There was always someone there when I needed to talk or just have a mommy-chat while the kids played together, which often helped make my days as a stay-at-home-mom much easier and endurable.

During the past 2 weeks, we had a last play-date, a last mommy-night out, a last hug, and saw our favorite clown for the very last time. Amelia made Ooopsy a card and gave her some sunflowers too.

We said our goodbyes to Amelia's preschool teachers and her friends. Amelia and Elliot met their friends for the last time in the park and played in the sand/ lake. And on Sunday the kids played a last time in the front yard with our neighbors, Maci and Reese and hugged them tight when it was time to go. 

Amelia and Elliot also said bye to our neighbor friend Kayla, who also babysat the kids a couple of times. We couldn't have asked for better neighbors.

A couple of Sundays ago we met my dear friend Branka and her little boy Colin at a park for a play-date. We both know each other from our time at Palm Beach Atlantic University and have been friends since the very first day I stepped into the administration office to apply for my Master studies there.  

On Friday, Amelia said bye to her best friends, we call them the 3 amigos, Jax and Noah. They have been buddies since they were 6 months old. It will be hard once she notices that there won't be anymore play-dates with her amigos once we've moved. 

Despite all the hectic of moving, I was able to skip out of the house to meet my two girlfriends, Melissa and Ellie (Jax and Noah's mom) for dinner at Chili's on Saturday night. It kind of felt like my last supper. I'm so blessed to have met those two great and strong women 3 years ago and I'm happy to call them my friends. I will truly miss our play-dates and chats. And so will the kids. 

But despite the fact that we are leaving a good life and great friends behind in South Florida, we must go on with our adventure. The time has come for me and my family to go somewhere else and find our happiness. Let the adventure begin!

Easter Eggstravaganza

Today I took the kids to St. Bonaventure church for their annual Easter Eggstravaganza. It was a beautiful day for an egg hunt and some Easter fun outdoors.

The kids, especially Amelia were excited about the egg hunt. They had different egg hunts for different age groups so it was nice and calm. Actually, this  Easter egg hunt is the one I enjoyed the most as there were more than enough eggs for all the kids and there was no running or pushing and everyone seemed just happy. Even Elliot enjoyed picking up eggs and putting them in his basket.

Ready for the egg hunt to start.

Of course, the eggs needed to be inspected to see what was hidden inside (some stickers and candy).

They also had a bounce house, face painting and balloon twisting. Amelia decided to have a butterfly painted on her cheek. She looks so cute with it. Elliot on the other hand didn't wanted anyone or anything near his face.

Unfortunately, Elliot wasn't big enough to go on the bouncy slide but it didn't held him back from bouncing on the side of it and watching the kids go down. But his sister was such a big and brave girl and climbed up the big bouncy slide and had fun sliding down. She even went down headfirst.

And of course the Easter bunny was there too. Amelia loved seeing him and didn't want to leave his lap.

And she was oblivious to the screaming of her brother who wanted nothing to do with the white fluffy rabbit. Maybe next year he will be more interested in the bunny.

While we was there, we met Kellen and Sophia and were able to say bye to them before we leave town in a couple of days. The girls were so adorable hugging each other.

It was a great day, perfect weather for an Easter egg hunt, and a great finish to our time here in South Florida. I'm so glad that I was able to go with the kids (while Derrick got the moving truck and started loading our furniture) today as the next week leading up to Easter will be very busy and we won't have much time to do many Easter related activities with the kids. Now, it's time to finish packing our boxes and tomorrow we load everything on to the truck. And Monday morning we will be officially on the move.

Last Things to do in Florida

This week we are doing things for the last time while we live here. Between saying our goodbyes and packing, we are enjoying the great outdoors and the warm weather. Soon it will be too hot here to do much outside but lucky for us, we are moving to a cooler climate (and I can't wait). But until then, we are enjoying this tropical spring as much as we can. The trees are in beautiful bloom, which makes the morning runs so much nicer. 

Today, we went to Key Biscayne (Miami) to walk across the big bridge from the mainland to the key. The view was great from up there and the breeze was nice. 

Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch at Atlantica. Even the "cool" kids enjoyed their fresh fish fingers and fries. 

But the highlight of the day was for sure the stop at the beach. The kids loved jumping headfirst into the salty water and throwing sand and seashells back in to the ocean. And the water was just perfect. We may don't go often to the beach, but when we do we truly enjoy it. 

Since we are moving the week before Easter and I doubt that I will have much time to decorate or color any eggs this year, I decided that Amelia and I could paint some eggs during Elliot's naptime. I bought those white plastic eggs from Walmart (they look like real eggs) and they worked great for us. First, we dyed them a pastel color and then took our crayons and stickers and decorated them. It was a fun, quick and not-so-messy activity we both enjoyed. And we will have some table decorations for the new house. 

We also went to the park this week and Daddy and Amelia went for a long morning walk. Since it was so hot, she deserved to freshen up some afterwards. Naked and carefree is the way to go for a 3 year old.

This last week is just flying by. I'm not sure it is because we are busy packing up the house and trying to fit in as many fun things as possible. Or because Daddy is home with us and we are enjoying every moment together. Or because when saying bye to our many friends we don't want it to end. (I will have a separate post about our goodbyes by the end of the week). For now, I will leave you with some bunny-ears pics from the kids. Hopefully on Saturday we will meet the Easter bunny and take a picture with him.

Princess Amelia

Amelia loves any and every kind of princess. She really doesn't have any favorite. And she loves to call herself: Queen of Arendelle. Yesterday, she wanted to wear a new ($1 consignment sale find) dress and even though it is still a bit big on her, she loved it. Lately she loves to pose with her dresses. Of course, I took advantage of it and pulled out my big camera and did a mini photo session. Here are the results: I present to you: Princess Amelia!

Splish Splash Fun

Not much is going on here for the past few days, except that I'm slowly but surely packing more and more boxes while Derrick is finishing his last days at work. In every corner of the house are boxes stacked up and the kids anxiously watched me put stuffed animals and other toys in boxes and had me promise that I won't give them away. It must be hard for a 3 1/2 year old to grasp the context of moving. When we talk about it, she seems very excited and is looking forward to a new house and her new bedroom but then she assumes that all her friends are coming too and gets confused when we pack up things. Hopefully the transition will go smoothly and the kids will settle in easy into the new environment. I do expect some hiccups along the way but pray that they will only be temporarily.

Amelia build her own bed one morning and got comfortable reading her book.

But since it is impossible to pack the entire day, the kids and I did had some fun this week too. On Wednesday, we went to Amelia's preschool (the German School of  Ft. Lauderdale) to say our goodbyes to her teachers and her school friends. Amelia made a goodbye card, brought some cupcakes in and hugged everyone.

She was excited to see everyone as it has been over 2 months since she had her last day at preschool (we were busy traveling and preparing for our move).

Before leaving she was allowed to play a little while with her friends on the playground. Thank you for the great days Amelia was able to spent at the German School. She loved every minute of it. 

On Thursday, we met my friend Laura and her 18 month old boy Nicholas for an afternoon at the pool. They were vacationing at Bonaventure Vacation Club, which had a cute splash pool for the little ones. Even though the baby pool felt a tad cold as it was not heated, the kids sure didn't mind. 

They had a blast. This was also Elliot's first time splashing in a pool all by himself. 

Mommy had fun too and it felt like a beautiful summer day...only possible in Florida in March. Here, the boys were checking each other out. They are only 4 months apart in age. 

On Saturday, I went out with the other mommies for a Ladies' night while the kids stayed home with Daddy. As a treat, they had pizza for dinner. The pizza must have tasted great as both kids ate a whole big slice.

Since we are moving in 2 weeks, this was my last night out with my girls. We enjoyed a good cocktail, some live music, food and just being out by ourselves. It was definitely needed and lots of fun.

I will miss these ladies. Hopefully I'll be able to find some good friends in Mooreville as well. Because as much fun as it is to play dress-up and other games with the kids, sometimes I need time with my friends too. When you have children (especially small ones) it is easy to put friendships on the back-burner. After having babies, it took me a while to learn that it is important to nurture my friendships and enjoy once in a while a night out with them. It keeps me sane and happy, allows me to finish a meal and a glass of wine without being interrupted by a little one, and makes me cherish my little family even more when I get home after being out for 3 hours. So, here is a CHEERS to all my mommy-friends.  I'm so glad to have met each one of you!

Update on my little MAN

Since I don't do monthly updates for Elliot, at least once in a while I like to keep track of his milestones and developments. A few weeks ago, he must have hit another physical as well as mental growth spurt because he seems to have grown up overnight. His language skills improved a lot and his behavior is that of a two-year old and so is his size.

When we went to the pediatrician three weeks ago, at 14 months of age he was 33 inches tall and weighted 23 lbs. With those measurements he's definitely above average (an average 15-month old boy is 31 inches and 23 lbs) and the pediatrician predicts that he'll be taller than 6.1 ft. when he's grown. Elliot already reaches all the doorknobs, but luckily hasn't found out yet how to turn them properly to open the doors. We will be in trouble so once he does. He also loves riding Amelia's bike and he can almost reach the pedals too.

Elliot is quite verbal lately. I guess to keep up with his big sister, he needs to make himself being heard. He uses less baby talk and more two-word sentences for the past month. His favorites are: "I SEE"; "HELP ME"; "DO THIS", and "ME, ME, ME". And my favorite: "I DID IT".  And then there is the typical male grunting and "UHH" if he wants something. When he eats, often he only opens the mouth and says "AHH". Lazy, but cute. And when someone mentions number 1, like in 1 more minute, he holds up one finger and says "EINS" (German for one) or "ON".

I also noticed that he fluently understands German and English and reacts to commands in either language. This makes me very happy because being able to be bilingual from the beginning is much easier than learning a second language later on in life.

His preferred method of movement is running. Especially when Amelia and Elliot are playing chase through the entire the house. He also started dancing, which looks more like he is doing squats but it is so cute.  Here is a little video of him dancing last week during a clown show:

But he also became more stubborn and very cheeky. He now runs from you when he doesn't want to do something. And when you catch him doing something, he just puts both hands behind his back and pretends he didn't do it. It looks adorable, but also so cheeky. Here he is having a tantrum because Amelia took something from him. The other picture is me as a toddler in 1984 having a similar tantrum because some other kid pulled on my skirt. I guess I can see where he gets his temper from...

Oh, the tantrums....usually his tantrums are short-lived and you can easily distract him by redirecting his attention to something else. But the other day at the playground he had a major meltdown. I never saw something like that before. It lasted about 10 minutes and even me holding him or trying to distract him didn't work at all.

Other than those temper tantrums, he is a very easy going, loving and friendly child. We call him "Easy E". Despite his size. he doesn't mind being pushed around by his sister and rather sits down and waits for his turn then fight back. I have the feeling though that soon that will change and it will be a rude awaking for Amelia. He adores his sister and wants to do everything she does. Especially playing in her room with her toys. 

This boy loves the remote control, reading books, brushing his teeth and waving hi or bye to people. He also loves bath time and undresses himself (mostly taking of his pants, socks and diapers)  every night so that he can be the first one in the tub.

Elliot is such a boy - he loves water, dirt and getting into things he isn't supposed to- and his behavior differs a lot from his sister's behavior. He is curious, adventurous and not afraid of anything, which often scares me and I'm nervous how many more dangerous situations I will have to endure in the near future. But he also loves being cuddled and kissed and he definitely loves his "Mama". I'm so proud and happy to see him grow up and become his own little person (just don't grow up too fast, buddy!). But in my heart, he'll always be my little baby boy. We love you so much!