November 08, 2012

Berkeley Day

November 08, 2012/ Mary Heffernan

Sunday we piled in the car to drive to the East Bay and hit five stops in Berkeley for some house stuff - Berkeley has all the cool stores but MAN I don't like leaving my bubble :) It was a little (ok- a lot) crazy trying to shop in that town on a Sunday with four little kids. Heff was calm and cool but I realized for the first time that FOUR kids five and under is actually a bit nuts! Good thing I don't venture out very often :) They were pretty well behaved for antique shopping and lighting store shopping - but Maisie stepped in something so foul on the streets of Berk I won't even blog it! But we had to ditch her shoes and carry her the rest of the day, at one point SHE was in my Moby wrap, haha it looked ridic. And it was dirty and crowded and I'm a big whimp. But we got a few of the thigs we needed and headed back over the bridge happy to be home.

First Stop - a "California Home" store entirely dedicated to Arts & Crafts style Craftsman furniture (the style of our new house) it was amazing to see all the stuff we have been looking at online all in one place! Were on the hunt for a dining room table but nothing big enough. Good to know about this store!

Then Urban Ore salvage yard. We used to come here often when we were fixing up our little house on McKendry. It's pretty awesome (except that time I mistook a public urinal trough for a "cool outdoor garden sink" GROSS) We were looking for a few matching brass pulls for the kitchen but no luck. We told the girls they each had an "eye spy" to look out for. Francie's was something silver and gold, Maisie's was something with four squares and JJ's was a flying pig. FOUND IT.

They found the "used bike parts" corner and screamed JACKPOT!! JJ wore this old broken Dora helmet the rest of the time we looked around. She looked special.

crazy kids in a salvage yard - always entertaining

Then we hit up The Wooden Duck for a more rustic dining room table. Good options but takes 12 weeks to make. What? I don't wait that long for anything but a gestating baby.

Then downtown for Rejuvination lighting and lunch - We felt a little out of place in Bezerkeley in our F-250 :)

November 05, 2012

Tessa 7 weeks

November 05, 2012/ Mary Heffernan

Tess is 7 weeks old as of Sunday- and smiling now! She is such a sweet baby. She has her cry-it-out time for 1-2 hours every night but it's getting better and better... and after that screaming fest she sleeps most of the night except 1-2 times to eat and go right back to bed. She lounges in our bed until 10am too so no big complaints here. Her sisters love to smoother her with "holds" and kisses and she;s a pretty good sport about it. We feel very lucky to have this cute little squishy newborn with us all day long!

Faces of Tessa - her little tear duct is still blocked, we went to a specialist at LPCH last week and are hoping it clears up by next week or she would need surgery, really hoping that isn't the case

she likes to hang out with Dad when he isn't "taken" by her big sisters

and she loves to be held more than anything else so we spend a lot of time doing this -

or more likely when I need to get stuff done - wrapped up like this

she is a good little snuggler

and goes along with whatever we are doing - most of the time without a fight!

Maisie could hold Tess 100 times a day if I'd let her (Francie likes to tell me what to do with Tess but is a little less interested in the maternal role - Maisie is all baby all the time like I always was!)

fun to watch you getting bigger Tess, but slow down :)

November 05, 2012

Baby Shower for Beth

November 05, 2012/ Mary Heffernan

Saturday we went to a Baby Shower for my cousin Beth who is due with her first on January 10 - a girl! Beth is second of the four "Brady Girls" and my Great Aunt Marge (maisie's namesake) is her grandmother/my grandmother's sister) It's so much fun to see the four Brady girls so close as adults knowing my girls will hopefully have that much fun one day! We had a nice lunch celebrating Beth and her baby girl on the way...

GiGi Marge and Tessa in the blanket she gave her

JJ was a lucky girl and got to go to Vasona Park with Grampa (aka BACK-A-WA) while we lunched - she loved it!

he dropped her off at the end to come in and say hi

Cousin Molly (the oldest like me :) was up from Santa Ana without her two cute kids - she was nice to entertain JJ with her phone pictures

This is kind of a crazy story - Beth's friend from Hollister saw Tess in her striped Jannie knit blanket and said "I LOVE that blanket! I just pinned one on Pinterest and told my mom she has to make me one just like that when I have a baby - I saved it on my phone and I've been showing all my friends, it's like the same blanket." I told her Jannie made it so it must be a similar design on Pinterest or something - she brings me her phone and says "See this is the blanket" and I said "HEY THAT'S MY BABY!" It was a picture of TESS from the hospital in this blanket that's been circulating on Pinterest. That's just crazy!!!!

All the "Sheehy" girls

Can't wait to meet Baby Potts!

November 01, 2012

Tessa 6 weeks

November 01, 2012/ Mary Heffernan

MaryTeresa at 6 weeks - getting to be a little chunker!

November 01, 2012

Halloween Extravaganza 2012

November 01, 2012/ Mary Heffernan

We had a rocking Halloween Extravaganza party at Bumble the night before Halloween! We took over Bumble and Area 151 and created a whole world of spookiness and fun. We had over 100 people but it worked great to have everyone spread out at the arcade with food and drinks at Bumble (plus facepainting and crafts in the Playroom) Parties like this make all the hassle of owning a restaurant almost worth it ;) Here were the pre-halloween festivities!

Heff took Area 151's choo-choo train on it's maiden voyage in the parking lot for rides. (It lights up with blue LED's at night - just wait for the Downtown Los Altos Holiday Lights Parade ;)

Francie got to come help me and Tess with set up in the afternoon while her sisters were napping. Result = awesome facepaint...

...and helping the "mixologist" tests his potions

40 bales of straw delivered - Rashelle and I rolled and dollyed they around to set up a little pumpkin patch and photo op when you came out of the haunted house. It's amazing how fast straw bales can fillout an big space - and how much work it is to clean them up the next day!

And when Heff came over to have lunch with me at Bumble I asked him what the chances were I could find a truck load of corn kernels by the afternoon. He claimed it couldn't be that hard - a few calls to feed stores later and he actually agreed to go pick it up for me, what a husband!

So we made a pit out of straw bales...

and threw in 600 pounds of corn! Jump on in

The tutoring room in 151 turned into a spooky haunted house complete with characters who jump out at you - my new events manager, Betsy, at Bumble is AMAZING at all of this!!