“A Rockin’ and A Boppin'” Time

What a great week! It started with Ellie’s birthday party last Sunday, and progressed to fun around Chicago with Auntie Becky and Uncle Adam and my parents while everyone was still in town. It’s not often we all get the chance to hang out like this, and we had a lot of laughs. Each day when we parted, Eloise would cry. “But I miss them! They are my best friends!” Mine too, Eloise. Mine too. Thank you SO MUCH, Mom, Dad, Becky, and Adam for not only making Eloise’s third birthday party so special, but also for such a great time this week. I’m already looking forward to Christmas when we can all be together again!

*Ellie’s Third Birthday Party. What a great day! We had a very small, relaxed, giraffe-themed party at our house, complete with an abundance of balloons, and all of Ellie’s favorite breakfast foods. We pigged out, laughed a lot, leisurely opened and played with all of Ellie’s new toys, played pin-the-tail-on-the-giraffe, watched Ellie pull a piñata for the first time, “sang” happy birthday a la kazoo, took a long walk as Ellie tried out her cool new balance bike from Auntie Becky and Uncle Adam, and watched Ellie’s favorite movie together when our sugar highs wore off. It. Was. Just. Perfect. Or, as Ellie said before bed that night, “That party was GREAT! It was a rockin’ and a boppin’!” Can’t get higher praise than that!

*Family Photos. I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot while everyone was in town. The last time we took pictures of the entire gang was at Becky and Adam’s wedding several years ago! Although family photos will always be bittersweet for me…there will always be that glaring hole where Hannah should be…I will treasure these images for years to come. I’m not going to steal my parents’ thunder and post them now…I’ll save them for their holiday card!

*Time with Sue. Of course, we had to take Auntie Becky and Uncle Adam to one of Ellie’s favorite places in the city…The Field Museum…to meet her buddy, Sue the T-Rex. Ellie walks around the museum like she owns the place, pointing out her favorite dinosaurs and stuffed animals. She also insisted on wearing her new giraffe backpack the entire day.

*And at the Zoo! Another one of Ellie’s favorite places in Chicago is the Lincoln Park Zoo. So, of course, we had to introduce Auntie Becky and Uncle Adam to the new baby monkey there and Ellie’s other favorite animals. Again, Ellie’s new backpack made a prominent appearance!