Francie Goes to Janelle and Brad's Wedding!

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Saturday afternoon we all went to Janelle and Brad's wedding in Campbell together. Janelle has worked for me for over 3 years and is one of my favorite people. She is from Hayes, Kansas and married her college sweetheart, Brad, who is from San Jose. The wedding was outside in the gardens at the Ainsley House in Campbell and then the reception was indoors nearby. Her colors were pink and orange and everything looked great! Janelle did so many of the details herself (while working AND in nursing school!) and it was all perfect. Francie was lucky to be included and Brad's mom and Janelle's mom both recognized her from her blog! (Hi Brad's mom and Janelle's mom:) It was a great party and we met so many nice people from their families. Congrats Brad and Best Wishes Janelle!

Janelle about to walk down the isle with her Dad

"Get a load of that dress mom!"

It was a beautiful spot to get married

Exchanging the rings

The "J" and the "B" in Gerber Daisies

Husband and Wife!

At the reception...

The guest book frame (with a picture from our house at their shower!)

Big girl with her Daddy

The Cupcake Cake

Francie making friends

Janelle did the flower arrangements herself (I was playing around with these photos, some cheesy effects but hey it was a wedding!)

Francie playing with Alicia at the table, she was cracking up!

The favors one of our Brilliant Babies moms helped make... she cut out ALL of the tags for Janelle!

Janelle and Brad's seats

M&M's with their names on them

First Dance



The Bridesmaids

and Groomsmen

Janelle's cute family

and adorable Janelle and Brad :)

Dinner is served

The Academic Trainers girls!

The cute boys we sat with at our table Jack and Ryan with their mom Janie (and their little suits were from Janie & Jack ;)

Dad walking her around on the patio... she was a little cranky, I think she has a top tooth coming in (still only two bottoms so far!) but we tanked her up with some Children's Tylenol (Thank God for the "dye-free" white kind that doesn't stain the dresses!!)

and she fell asleep after dinner in her stroller for the night (at least I brought a blanket that matched Janelle's colors so she "camo-ed" right in :)

Ready to dance without the baby! (Oh yeah Baby Ann was SUPPOSED to babysit but decided she wanted to go out in the city "after we got home"... we weren't ready to enter the world of "we have to get home for the sitter" so she came along and we stayed til the bitter end! (don't worry Francie WAS invited:)

Scott and Alicia

They did a really neat thing instead of throwing the bouquet/garter and had all married couples come out on the dance floor for a dance then asked them to step off the dance floor based on how long they had ben married until the couple that had been married the longest was the only couple left... Janelle and Brad gave them the bouquet. What a cute idea!

And another fun idea... the table numbers corresponded to photos of both Janelle and Brad at that age! Here they are at "4 years old"

Alicia and I (Baby Ann did redeem herself by finding my dress on Saturday while she was out "personal shopping" at Marshall's... based on the tags on the dress it was about 90% off retail. Good work Ann)

Ready for a toast Janelle! You better not drink both of those or all 95 pounds of you will fall over :)

Bottoms Up!

and time to dance the night away...

Still sleeping under that blanket, time to head home Francie!

We love you Janelle! Have fun on your honeymoon!!

Francie at Brilliant Babies

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Thursday Auntie Baby Ann was supposed to head back to Nashville for her grad school classes that start in July... but there was a major accident on 880 in the East Bay and you pretty much could not get to Oakland where she was supposed to fly out. So she changed her flight to Monday and now we get her all weekend!! YAY! We went to lunch with the Johnets and Heff then played at Brilliant Babies with Francie for awhile. She LOVES to play up there now and runs around like she owns the place. :) She can hold her own with the big kids moving around the train table, crawling through the tunnels, playing with the musical instruments and generally tearing the place apart. We had some fun with the dress up chests today...

Francie the Octopus!

"I hear you making fun of me mom."

We snuck into Dad's office and let her crawl in to surprise him in her costume!

Heff wanted to know if we had a more appropriate GOAT costume in the dress up room... that's waht he calls her in his office since she eats all of the paper "neatly" stacked all over his office.

Downtown Block Party

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Wednesday night was the "Go Green" Downtown Menlo Park Block Party for merchants to set up booths, restaurants to move their tables outside to serve on the street, games, activities and live music all along the street. Academic Trainers and Brilliant Babies sponsored a booth for kids to do "green" paintings with apple stamps and their hand prints and we had tables set up for kids to get REALLY messy (as if finger painting isn't messy enough?) and play with GAK, a mixture of corn starch and water that makes this weird super slime stuff. We had old AT t-shirts for kids to wear over their outfits and we had a great turnout of kids and families!

"Make a Tree" and the easels

Fun with Gak

Finger painters

We made a mess of the street!

Don't Leave ABA!

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Tuesday night was "Going Away Party Number 17" for Auntie Baby Ann before she heads back to Vandy. We rode bikes over to Menlo Oaks for drinks at Ann's party with the fam and her friends... then we went for round two at Mark and Sarah's across the street for dinner. They made us a "thanks for watching our chickens" dinner which was delicious and exotic as usual. Their chickens grew so much while they were gone in 8 days and are now awkward teenagers in their big chick outdoor cage until Mark builds them a permanent hutch. We wandered back over to the Johnet's for a short stint to see Ann's friends who had gathered for late night pizza action and then headed home.

The city crowd came down for dinner... we missed Allison but Francie was wearing a cute bubble suit outfit Allison gave her. Thanks Allison and Happy Birthday!

Uncle Jerry played catch with her toy and Francie couldn't figure out how she could not get it to hit the ground! Quick reflexes Jer :)

Sunday Night Dinner at the Skidmores

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Sunday night we biked over to the Skidmores for dinner to celebrate Ann and Clark both graduating from college and getting into the real world (well, almost the real world for Baby Ann). They recently finished remodeling their house and it looks great. We played some ladder golf and Heff beat us all... just making up for me "out-shooting" him at the range I guess. :)

Swimming with Grandpa

Baby Ann and Michelle

Reaching for trouble

Making faces at Randall

Heff and Clark hitting up the kegerator

Francie entertaining Ann and Jannie

The "O" Face

These three last seen in this backyard for their Kindergarten Teddy Bear picnic together :)

Kisses for mom

Ann is always such a great host!

Clark, Ann, James, Em and Heff

Jerry, Allison, Michelle and Matt

Jan, Francie, Ann, Earl, John and K-Bac

and rounding out the table... The Heffs

Auntie Baby Ann got Francie all comfy in her PJ's for some cuddling

Sleeping on dad before the ride home

Shopping with Auntie Baby Ann (aka ABA)

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Francie got to spend the afternoon Sunday with her ABA while Mom and Dad worked on projects around the house. ABA loaded up the diaper bag and Bugaboo for an adventure on her own (She is very good with Francie despite never having babysat her entire life!) They wore matching outfits too, vintage vans, cut off jean-shorts and t-shirts... Francie had to look as cool as ABA! They went to visit her friends and then did some shopping at Stanford SHopping Center. Baby Ann is only here four more days before she goes back to Nashville for her 1-year Masters Program... we're going to miss her!

"WHAT!? She can't leave... she hasn't changed my diaper yet."

"Showers by Em"

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Saturday afternoon was Marla's Baby Shower given by a very talented host, her big sister Em (James' girlfriend). Marla is due with a little boy August 1st and looks beautiful. Em is VERY excited to have a new little one to spoil and was squealing in delight as Marla opened all her presents for the baby. Congrats Marla (and you too Em;)

All the girls

Francie was delighted to be included :)

Everything looked beautiful

Em did a great job on all the little details

Red Velvet and Chocolate Cupcakes from LA Sprinkles! (delivered specially by Em's friends!)

Francie getting kisses from her A.B.A.

Flowers from their garden!

It was a HOT day (reminded everyone of our record breaking HOT wedding day!) Em and Ann got sprayed by the pool cleaner while they were cooling off...

Francie took a little nap in the shade while we ate lunch

Jannie and Em (everybody liked the Red Velvet cupckaes best!)

Opening presents (with a little help from Em)

Signature "JanKnits" for the baby boy!

"You mean she makes stuff for babies BESIDES ME?"

After the party we cooled off in the pool... Francie got to go swimming with her new friends (who admitted after we left how worn out they were playing with a baby!)

Nice hair Francie-pants

Joe and Marla (Em's parents) Thanks for having us!

Happy girl in her birthday suit

"Aw Em don't listen to Jannie... dunk me again!"

Silly girl

You don't even have to have clothes on to play "SO BIG!"

Me and my Francie-doodle

Back in the pool with the sisters Em and Marla (getting some practice holding a baby :)

Marla and her boyfriend David... they'll have their own soon enough!

Matching Moms

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Friday night Paige, Chris and Icie came over to BBQ some burgers with the babies and we were all (accidentally, I promise) wearing the exact same outfits... blue jeans, a white ribbed tank top and flip flops. Must be the new mom uniform huh? Baby Ann and her friend Nicole came for dinner too and Nicole was fascinated with how we all had babies and asked lots of questions about being pregnant we were happy to answer for the sole purpose of grossing out my sister as much as possible.

Heff loves sneaking the "getting ready" for a photo picture in :)

Chris getting the baby to sleep

Shoot Em Up

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Friday afternoon Francie went to play with Jannie so Heff and I could go to the Los Altos Rod & Gun Club for a shooting range double date. We met our friends Ross & Lara and a friend of theirs to shoot pistols on the short range and then Heff and I ventured to the long range ourselves to shoot rifles and his new big gun. The range masters were in awe of his new gun the "Warbird" and called their friends down to check out how much bigger the bullets are than a 30-06... you can shoot an elephant with this thing! We stayed until they closed the range and had fun together on our afternoon date.

Heff with a smokin gun

Learning to shoot a pistol

Double date with Ross and Lara on the range :)

The contest target (I beat Heff 18 to 17 with a shot in the bullseye... beginners luck :)

Lara with a 40

Heff sighting in his new Warbird rifle

Aunt Kat's handmade knit blanket came in handy over the sandbags for shooting the big gun :)

My rifle target with a three shot grouping at 100 yards! (Greg Weber are you proud of me?)

Faces of Francie Friday

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I haven't done a "Faces of Francie" post in awhile!... here she is:

I love these personalized onesies I got on Etsy that say Francie! They just came the other day... the lady who makes them custom screen prints each one and they come in a cute little wooden box with her name on it too.

Looking cute with her Lucky jeans Emmy ;)

Today we went to the park to play with some other babies and their moms in the morning after taking care of our chickens and the five NEW chicks we are chick-sitting for Uncle Mark! It's amazing how fast these chickens get big, awkward and ugly:) But all still alive Mark! Then we met Jannie and Auntie Baby Ann at University Circle (where Heff used to work) where Ann has a 2-week temp job scanning EIGHT file cabinets worth of documents (aren't you jealous?) Someone in my neighborhood sent the job out on our email list so passed it on to her and even though it sounded pretty rough (scanning 8 hours a day) she took the job to get my Dad off her back about her shopping habits. Of course she did have to do a little shopping to dress "business casual" for the job! She wanted to take Francie up to her office to meet everybody who knows her as "Ann the Scanner."

Dad took Francie on a run this afternoon. It was so HOT today, they were brave. Here is Dad amazed that for the last two months he didn't know her water bottle had to twist to get anything out of it... funny he never understood why she only dribbled when MOM gave her water!

Big mitts and big feet... sorry for those genes Doodle :)

She is much more used to her "Chariot" now. It has all kinds of pockets for toys and snacks and even a neat place to keep her bow while her helmet is on :)

A Day Full of Play

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Wednesday was a crazy day... Francie and I had a lunch date at a new place in San Carlos with Alexis and James, went to visit dad at the office, went by the 30% off sale at Le Cirque (my fav baby boutique... go shop if you live here!) and had an impromptu playdate in the store with the owners and friends who work there (one has a 6 month old baby boy Conor). Francie tore up the place emptying bins of toys, blocks and trucks and "oo-oo-ing" at the giant steiff giraffe. Then we met Kelli and Landry for ice cream and to check out their new house. We got home just in time to go to the neighborhood summer "series" of cocktails and kids parties down the street. It was CRAZY with kids and babies!

Somehow Dad was too busy talking and didn't notice Francie had other plans for that hummus besides actually eating it

Lots of love from Emma and Owen!

After the cocktail party we walked to the park and then to sushi for dinner

I took Francie down the big slide in the background on cardboard boxes so we'd go really fast (the bid kids showed us how to do it)

Hope you had a fun day on your nine month birthday Francie-pants:)

Francie and Isabel in Room 1 Kindergarten

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I forgot to post these cute pictures from last Thursday when Andrea and I took the girls to Aunt Kat's Kindergarten classroom to meet all 21 of her Kinders! She has them well trained :) They sang songs for us, performed their end of the year "Little Engine That Could" and kept the babies very entertained. Happy Summer Aunt Kat!

"You're not dropping me off here at SCHOOL yet are you mom?"

Francie's Date with Dad

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Francie gets to have lunch dates with her dad on Tuesdays... he finds fun things for them to do, usually on bike even :) Today, them let me tag along with them. We went to the Palo Alto Children's Museum and Zoo. I had never been before so Heff and Francie showed me all of Francie's favorite animals. Heff calls the zoo a glorified Humane Society, as they boast a raccoon exhibit, an old one-eyed owl, a hawk that was hit by a plane, a peacock found wandering the streets years ago and some other random animals. Francie liked the geese and ducks best... maybe because her dad has been working on her duck calling skills lately (the other day when Heff put her down for a nap I went in to find her asleep with only a wooden duck call in her hand... she really can blow on it too!) After the exciting trip to the zoo we rode our bikes to Peninsula Creamery for lunch and milkshakes.

Waiting for dad to come home from work at lunch to take me on my date!

Francie's new party trick, playing "How big is Francie!?"... "SO BIG!"

At the "zoo" hanging on tight to dad when those noisy geeks honk away

Up close and personal with a raccoon...

Not so sure about that one dad. (Francie in her "Crater Lake" basebal cap Auntie Baby Ann and Matt brought back from their road trip last week)

Oh yeah, I forgot... they have BATS too

Trying to see her Goose

Walking down the bridge with her Dad

and playing on the frogs with the big kids before we head to lunch!

The Nativity Carnival

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Last weekend was the annual Nativity Carnival for our parish and the school. It always marks the first weekend of summer vacation in Menlo Park and we've been going since I can remember. My Dad and some of the "St Raymond's" Dads have always done the Tri-Tip BBQ dinner on Friday and Saturday night. Academic Trainers sponsors it since we've been open and it's a busy weekend BBQing up lots and lots of meat. This year we sold "Slider" mini tri-tip sandwhiches which were a big hit. Thanks for everyone's help!

Heff, John and Kermit at the grill (Nativity actually bought their very OWN BBQ this year after borrowing John's all year long... John was happy to have to bring his anyway when the Burger Booth went through three broken gas grills and needed the tried and true mesquite charcoal method afterall:)

Chrissy and Kathy were a huge help selling those sliders!

Jannie and Francie (who went through about five outfits over the course of the weekend)

BBQ Captain John

Francie hanging out watching the Carnie crowd pass by

And making the rounds with friends who stopped by the booth! Hi Pat :)

Ann, Dad and Mare

John, Jan, Chrissy and Kathy

Friday night a bunch of our friends stopped by with the babies... Francie and Isaac sitting on the blanket for about 2 minutes before they crawled off into the dirt

Late night with whichever babies weren't sleeping in the corner in their strollers:)

Getting a little silly...

Must have been these shots of patron (hey at least there isn't a live goldfish in mine this year)

It's not a carnival without some pink cotton candy!

The Legrands... Estelle, Bert and Icie

Auntie Baby Ann home from her road trip to help out (she was pretty happy about that)

Heff holding Estelle with Bert (Estelle's baby daddy)

Time to head home... call the drivers!

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After lots of water, a little Advil and some sleep we were back in action Saturday night!

Francie in her Carnival best

"You guys know these parents I got are nuts right?"

Nothing like nursing a baby while drinking a beer in your camo lounge chair at a carnival by the caution tape

Ummm. Tri-tip with grandpa's special Pappy's rub

Heff!

The girls all back to help out again Saturday (you girls were the best!)

At least we put her in some PJ's when the sun went down Saturday night

"I got my ABA here."

It never gets old... "SO BIG!"

Silly girl. You're a good sport Francie.