#1. Super Duper Wonderful Friends
Yes I know they have been gone for 2 years now, but I will always think of Melanie and Liam when I think of Pensacola. They were known in our house as "MelLiam". It is so special to have a best friend in someone and have your child love their child too (and I've been lucky enough for that to happen 3 times!!). The 4 of us spent countless hours together. Liam was a great friend for Bryce. Bryce was very shy and Liam was definitely not and brought Bryce out of his shell. Bryce was scared of Liam when they first met. Liam was a wild man and was a little too much of a good thing for Bryce! Bryce warmed up to him though after Melanie and I became close and soon after that he wanted to be around Liam all the time. This was one of the first times they played together, at Chuck E Cheese I think.
They laughed and were silly the whole time they were together (unless someone was mad at the other of course, they were 2 and 3 years old!!)
MelLiam at CeCe's Christening
Liam couldn't be at Bryce's 4th birthday (they moved in Dec. 09 to England) and he was devastated. His good friends Jacob, Caden, Xander and cousin Daniel came though!
It took a while for Bryce to find that super special bond with someone again, but he found that in James. James was in his 4 year old class at LEP. They've been close ever since!
When Melanie lived here we seemed to do a lot of Mom's Nights Out! There was an amazing group of moms in the playgroup then and we all enjoyed each other's company so much! I miss Melanie and her huge personality every day. I can't wait until they move back and we can have a reunion and I can finally meet little Luci!
We became close with Robin and Steve and their kids James and Sam (James, CeCe and Sam were all born in 2009) but for some reason I don't have any good pictures of all of us. Maybe things were too crazy when we were all together?! Here is CeCe and Sam playing at our house.
Sigh, Robin moved away and I was again left goodfriendless. Then my sister told me about a sorority sister of hers (and mine but was 4 years younger than me) that was moving to Pensaola for her husband's job. He had been in Anthony's fraternity but they were 4 years apart too so none of us really knew each other. They had a little girl only 3 weeks older than CeCe, perfect! Through Blakeley we found each other's blogs and met for lunch one day. We hit it off right away and have been hanging out together ever since! They became known as KellyKate. Funny how my kids do that!!
CeCe and Kate playing at the fountains at Plaza de Luna right after they moved here. The girls got along from day one and thought of each other as their best friends right away. There has definitely been some friction here and there, they seem to fight like sisters to me. There can be screaming and tears and then 5 minutes later they are running around together giggling again.
CeCe and Kate trick-or-treating last year
Aww, so sweet!
They even shared a birthday party this year. I just knew we would get to do this for their 3rd birthday too :(
CeCe was having a tantrum/meltdown one afternoon and walked away from the group to have her fit. She got mad at me when I tried to go talk to her but she let Kate lay down next to her. Next thing I know, CeCe stands up laughing. Thank you Kate!
Kelly is an amazing friend. One of the sweetest, most thoughtful people I've ever met. I am very lucky to call her a friend and I know we will remain friends forever. I am sad I won't be around every day to watch little Luke grow up!
We have so much fun playing with our next door neighbors Abby and Mrs. Sarah. We usually play with them outside every afternoon when the weather is nice. Abby is 13 months younger than CeCe and loves watching Bryce and CeCe play. She jumps right in with them now!
Thank you to all of our friends for making Pensacola such a happy, fun place for us! We are going to miss everyone so much. Saying goodbye to close friends is such a hard thing to do. Thank goodness for blogs, facebook, email and the telephone though!
