My Birthday

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I had a great birthday! Turning 33 was a relaxing easy day thanks to my family...

We started with soccer practice in the morning

Soccer girls (Maisie's shirt is more like a dress on her :)

Francie pratices her "Free kicks" and "traps" all day at home - Emmy taught her some moves

This was the first day of practice and Francie loved it… Maisie kind of watched form the sidelines but I bet she'll get in the action next week. As you can see Francie is a little tall/old for the crowd so I switched her to the 3.5-4 year old class for next week that meets right before this 2-3 year old class. Thought I could sneak them both in the same activity but I think Francie will have more fun with some big kids.

hanging out in the baseball dug-out after practice

Then we walked back downtown for frozen yogurt/Dora popsicles and then lunch (backwards I know- it was a birthday-day :) Maisie was so tired from soccer and still not feeling 100% after her shots so she fell asleep in the Ergo I brought for Janie - it worked! Emmy was with us all morning but had to leave before lunch so I had my stroller-ergo-skateboarding girls by myself walking downtown until we found Jannie

and Janie snoozed away in the bassinet

We had a nice lunch outside in the sun with Jannie and Ann Skidmore at Casa Lupe. Yum and margaritas to "cheers" not being pregnant on my birthday for once!

The girls managed to steal both Jannie's and my iPhone to play on the steps for awhile… whatever keeps um happy while lunching :)

After nice long naps at home we had a late dinner at Il Fornaio with my parents, Ann Skidmore, and my brothers James and Jerry at 8pm. The girls were great and I got lots of funny cards and the hilarious "Awkward Family Photos" BOOK from Jerry- we were all cracking up at the pics and then he said "oh yeah and check your iPhone" for the awkward BOW family picture from the last post he made - we were dying laughing!

ANd my favorite present from Heff- he caught me up on our family tradition anniversary bracelets and added a new twist, a little diamond for every year we have a baby! He found them with a little help from my sister from Barney's - I was pretty shocked to see a Barney's box from my husband! I LOVE them and the special tradition behind them- thanks Heff!!!

Visitors

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Janie has been meeting her share of new friends and family slowly but surely!

My Dad's brother Uncle Dan and Aunt Nettie were in town for a conference and came to our house with an adorable little dress, hat and fancy sandals for Janie. They live in Spokane and have really cute grandkids of their own who we don't get to see often enough!

Emma, Owen and Chrissie came to play and brought dinner one night- man we miss our neighbors!! Emma is still Francie's idol and Owen is such a big kid now, he was three when they moved in next to our old house.


and our new neighbors (a year new :) brought over their pet bunny for a visit last week… Maisie was SO excited.

it was really funny, he wanted to wait until his sister got back to take a picture of all the kids and told me to take my girls first. When I said "Maisie look at the camera" and she of course ignored me, he jumped in to hold her head up towards the camera and tried to hide behind her.

You can barely see him except the little hands on Maisie's head!

and of course we had to clean up for all these friends… three kids at the same time is no small feat.

and besides the point of this post but Francie is REALLY into The Berenstain Bears books right now. The Frimel Family passed on their very large collection of 49 books and she is obsessed with them (partly because they came from cool kids Kelly, Will and JP) and partly because she loves the stories and lessons - especially to spout them back to her sisters. I didn't know the author's son continued writing the books and they even had a third kid, Baby Honey Bear who stays a baby a la Maggie Simpson- there are some serious topics in the end of the series too! Thanks Frimels :)

and she still looooves this little baby girl

and also besides the point but just keeping things even-steven… Maisie is obsessed with all things spicy and tells Heff the tobasco or sauce he puts on everything is "PICY DADDY!"

in other Maisie news, look who can sport a bow with finally enough hair on her head?! (this was the day Francie and I went to pre-school and Emmy had a just-Maisie special morning)

I love Janie's expression sometimes like "Oh jeez, what is coming next around this place?!"

Janie and BlaBla

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"BlaBla meet Janie. Janie, meet BlaBla"

"I got ya kid."

"Once you start rollin over your face won't be so squished Janie"

Just hanging out

"Woah - that doll just got a lot bigger"

"Oh wait, that's my sister"

Sister love can be a lot

"Oh no- is the other one going to come attack me now?!"

We love you Janie!

You are a good sport to take ALL the love you get in stride

Maisie took this picture of me and "Janie Girl" (the nickname the girls started that seems to be sticking around)

Birthday Love

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I'm having a great birthday so far - how could I not with these three around!?

And Heff worked from home until 8:30 this morning when Emmy came over to ensure I got to sleep in - my favorite birthday present and much needed after poor Maisie was up with a fever (from her immunizations we think) from 1-3:45am and then Janie up after that. But instead of being crazed up all night I was just feeling lucky to be these girls' mom. And thanks for the Tinkerbell and Dora mylar balloons Heff! (Emmy said he told her he left them in the hallway to remind the girls it was mom's birthday :) Off to enjoy this good weather for the day while it lasts...

Rainbow Brights

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Bedtime in stripes... I tried to take a couple pictures of the girls before bed the other night- after 10 minutes of snapping pictures I am sweating and exhausted- it's not easy work! I expect we'll get about one good picture a year for the next 10 years if we're lucky, but I guess the outtakes tell the real story anyway :) Lots of fun with these little monkeys- especially at bedtime. The other night the two big girls had a sleepover at Jannie's and Heff said "as much of a pain it is to get them all PJ'ed up, books read, milk dolled out and put in bed- I miss not having bedtimes even for a night!"

The girls love to "help" Janie do tummy time ("umm-ee hime" if you hear Maisie saying something barely perceptible- that's probably what she means)

the little nut

Francie really wants to hold AND carry Janie everywhere- we're working on only doing this in small doses (at least until she can at least control her own head!) But Francie is pretty gentle and sweet with her...

As good as it gets

strange- I wonder what bossy-big-sisterness is going on here? ;)

a rainbow of fruit flavors

MAD MAD Janie MAD! I think that's enough torture for one night. Sorry Janie - but this might just be a taste of what life is like with two doting big sisters!

Pretty Excited….

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About our big day tomorrow... (besides being my birthday :) Can you guess what class the girls start tomorrow by the subtle hint above? ;)

They'll be off and running!

and hopefully in better mood's than they were this afternoon trying on their new cleat's… oh life is so hard when you are 1 and 3

ahhh now I remember the source of the sadness- only ONE Dora ball!

happiness somewhat restored after we found the red soccer ball… always something sharing with your sisters!

Preschool Girl

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Last Wednesday Francie and I went to "observe" her class at Montecito Preschool where she will go to next year! She was SO excited and was counting down the days. Jannie and I had gone for a tour the week before and it seems like the perfect place for Francie. They have bunnies chickens, frogs, lots of bikes and of course arts and crafts. She'll be in the Fours Program three afternoons a week which works well with our sleeping-in-kind-of-schedule :)

Getting ready to go! (had to observe the morning class at 9am = why I look so tired)

My big girl

The classroom is so cute and they have four teachers for 20 kids so they got to do all kinds of short little projects and activities moving around the room from table to table

Circle Time in the Yellow Room (I was sitting in the back with Janie (who was getting lots of attention, one little boy who looked like the Jerry McGuire kid kept looking at her and saying "I just love babies")

Snack time - but they had to practice cutting straight lines with scissors before they got their apples and graham crackers, I like the discipline! :)

Her favorite part of the day….

riding the "5-cycle" five person bike with the other kids!

I think she's ready for school - I'll be so sad but we still have five months of the un-scheduled life before SCHOOL starts forever! (we're easing into it with afternoons at least, Jannie told me not to do mornings when I was considering it as she said "It will ruin your life!" and Heff wonders where his wife and daughter got their night owl genes?)