Lemonade For Sale

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Wednesday the girls and Emmy set up a Lemonade stand out front. Emmy got them set up pretty well and the Jannie/Grampa birthday present stand works great! Saves the cardboard boxes for painting projects and kitty houses. But they didn't get a sinlge customer and were kinda miffed about that :)

Maisie picked her "lemons" dress and JJ was all yellow - you'd think that would have helped sales right?! ;)

let the summer begin!

Sunnies

and yesterday they made a "day care" with dolls and pipe-cleaner streamers (Emmy's genious dollar bin find morning craft-of-the-day :)

these girls live a pretty good life!

Memorial Day Monday

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Heff and I both had some work to do Monday morning so EMMY took over with the ladies - and they were SO happy to have her back to their routine!! They gathered nature treasures from the Redwood Grove and painted them pink and purple at home :) Other than that we had a mellow afternoon - JJ has 4 molars coming in and isn't so thrilled but she's still a trooper. We had a pear and blueberry pie on the counter for dessert and Janie got abandoned at the kids table after dinner when the big girls ran off to play with the neighbor kids in the creek.

purple paint leads to purple hands of course - art project while 2 and 3 napped

and this was Francie's cool drawing from Sunday night - she asked for a pen and paper after bedtime and said she had an idea she needed to draw. She came back with the exact floor plan for the new business we are working on next to Bumble (a family friendly arcade) and drew all the games we have so far and where she thought they should go - thats "guitar hero in the middle of the back room- looks just like it!).

I was SO proud of her entreprenuerial thinking! She wrote "RCAD" which is very logical spelling right? :) There is a front room with games, a center courtyard with a tree and a back room with games then the parking lot where she wrote a tiny sign that said "NO Parking" (sign up now) and the sidewalk and street below it. Nice work France, I might submit this to city planning instead of the architects! 

and then last night I gave her a notebook and she came back out with this story. "Once upon a time there was a girl riding a bike." I added the date for her - Grampa is going to get on her about that one!

and the "AFU-BAT" aka alphabet of course

Three bugs on a dad. I was organizing the girls' closet (my favorite activity) while Heff read books and tried to snap a picture of them climbing all over him - but when J saw my phone out she looks up, pulls the binky out and says "CHEESE!" Silly J!

The girls ask Heff when they get a bath "Dad! Make the bath doll PEE!!!" awesome. ;)

 

 

Week Without Emmy is OVER!

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Last week Emmy was in Boston for our cousin (my goddaughter) Claire Elise's graduation from BC (congrats Claire!!) and we sure missed her!!! The girls were really out of sorts without their Emmy, one day Francie was acting up and we asked her what the problem was and she said "I just miss Emmy." we managed to survive the week but man are we glad we get Emmy back :) Here are some pictures just surviving a week without her.

Tuesday Janie and I took France to preschool while Heff took Maisie to Stockton to pick up Hank the Moose! We went to La Baguette for treats and a little shopping until the 11:30am pick up that sneaks up on us when we get there at 10am :)

Lots of afternoon water table play. This is JJ's "cheese" face. She will not stop until she has climbed to the highest point on whatever she is doing - a little daredevil in her!

Sister fun

Front yard soakcing up some sun while the girls collect snails and pill bugs

I found Francie out here reading her book on sharks one day

and she likes to stall bedtime by doing drawings - the I love Mom ones really seem to be the ticket ;)

Thursday while the big girls were berry picking JJ came to Bumble with me to set up for the party - she was a big help of course ;)

 JJ Lunch date Thursday with Mom and Dad - no complaints from the only child for a day 

Friday we had a playdate with our neighbors - they have a daughter Maisie's age she is so shy around but calls "her best friend" and ironically the mom went to Brian's high school in Red Bluff! 

They live on the creek too but have a pool of water and rocks in their bend that has crawdads!!!

and JJ picked a good week for a growth spurt - she slept until 11am Monday, 11:30am Tuesday and NOON on Wednesday!!! From 8pm the night before, not a peep out of her until I woke her up at 12. Arnerich blood through and through!

and I love the way Maisie sleeps (creepy mom taking pictures of her sleeping - that's me)  Love the leg cross in the camo PJs she picked

and last night it was Buzz Lightyear to the rescue :) - she's getting so long!

Friday night for my Dad's "real" birthday celebration (the one he knew about) we all met up in the city at the House of Prime Rib for a late dinner. Happy Birthday Dad!

Group shot in the "commemorative frame" from HoPR :)

Out on the town (first time I have been in the city since Christmas!) 

 

Then Saturday night dinner at home in sweats (my favorite!) - high chair crouch pose. nice JJ

 

and the weekend was mellow with lots of walks downtown and down time at home. My PINK girls!

Sunday night the girls were spent so we actually put them to bed early and made dinner for just the two of us - a rare event! Of course Francie came out about half way through to show off a drawing and we let her stay out with us and eat sticky rice. She goes "This is so fun. This is the best dinner I've ever tasted - I NEVER get to do this!"  I'll post her drawing next - it was pretty worthy of letting her stay up awhile! 

 

 

John Simo's 65th Surprise Birthday Party!

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May 24th was my Dad's 65th birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!! We planned to go to House of Prime Rib in the city Thursday night (on his birthday) but then he suggested we all go Friday night instead so we decided we had to do something fun for his real birthday, 65 is a big one! We planned a surprise party at Bumble - it was just going to be a few friends and no "theme" but things got rolling and we had a great turnout of friends, office partners and family.

Thursday morning when I woke up Heff said - "we should do like a "John Simonson for President - no more dipshits or morons theme' can you make a poster that says that?" Challenge accepted Heff and after a few hours we had campaign headquarters ready to go :) My dad loved it and now wants to frame the 7 foot poster that says 'dipshits' - is that going in the house? Sorry Jannie!! :)

My dad took the day off for his birthday and his request was to take the girls Strawberry picking at U-Pick Farms on Highway 1. The had lunch at a little diner on the coast and got tons of berries. Then back to their house to stall Grampa by giving the girls bath and meeting us at Bumble. Gave JJ and I lots of time to set up for the party! This was the Instagram from thier fun day...

Signature cocktails - The Sidecar and French "65" ;)

Mr Jerry Christmas - always playing the part for a theme party!

campaign hats and badges - we still had regular customers outside which was a good distraction when Dad got there

all set up



waiting for guests to sneak in

and lined up for the big surprise

James and Em

Heff trying to text Jannie - she left her phone in the back of the car so we had radio silence!

There he is! returning from a full day of U-Pick strawberry picking with Jannie, Francie and Maisie

Francie first

Just thinking he's here for dinner with the Heffs at Bumble....

"What the...?"

totally surprised!

good job keeping the secret too Jannie :)

Jannie and Grampa ready to party!

lots of great friends to celebrate



Nothing like a balloon filled party to keep her happy

John showing all the places he lived on our map

Jannie and her buddy JJ

Maisie had to get in there too

Uncle Jerry saved the day for JJ who let her balloon go in the highest part of the restaurant

the girls took over the playroom and were the "teachers" for the night

and we just got STARFISH in the tank!! But one of them climbed up on the coral and then the mean Puffer knocked it down - Francie witnessed all this and made her Dad "save it's life" by flipping it back right side up

Happy Grampa! (where oh where will this banner end up... that is the question :)

Maisie asked for a "whole family picture" but her sisters were busy

JJ joined the party

closing down the place

3rd child mutual love here

thanks to our Executive Chef Marc for the amazing food!! Sauteed shrimp on fried polenta cakes were incredible... and they made up a special Zabaione - my Dad's old favorite - on Angel Food cake with berried for one of the desserts. DELISH!

Janie might fly away (and not too happy about this either)

fun night!!!

maybe he'll really run!? ;)

Laundry Room Organized

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I know full well I am opening myself up for ridicule by posting these OCD pictures of the way I set up our laundry room :) I am counting the minutes until my sister calls me to tell me I am (a) a huge dork and (b) way too Duggar-ish. I deserve it! It's hard to keep track of matching outfits AND three sets of clothes that are very similar in size so I obsess a little on the clothes organization. I'm really bad at actually doing the laundry well (stains go to Jannie's for rescue 911) but organizing I can handle.

We "built out" the laundry room when we moved in (still rough with exposed ducting etc in the basement/storage off the playroom on the bottom floor, most of the house is upstairs on ground level) The laundry was upstairs off the garage but we made that a pantry and used this fairly empty space down here for laundry, a craft room and lots more storage.

This is what we start with - the laundry piles up in a big basket under the laundry chute that comes from the girls' bathroom. It's never ending!

This weekend Heff put a shelf up for me for bins - I made little labels for what goes where. We fold stuff in the bins until they pile up then take them upstairs and unload in the right drawers/places. It does make it a lot easier for the bigger girls to help out!!

The bins... you can make fun of my little illustrator "clip arts" I drew too.



Mom and Dad section (far less organizing needed :)

like the label for Heff?

Dresses to be hung on hangers upstairs

don't worry if the world falls apart - we've got laundry detergent covered over here

towels and bedding over to the left

The little stuff section - newly emptied bins for swim suits and undies Francie just took up and dumped in the shared drawers!

I have another system for separating which clothes go to which girls... the "Dot System" I saw on MckMama's blog. The oldest gets 1 black sharpie dot on the label of each item. The second gets 2 black dots, third kid 3 black dots and so on. So when we take the leggings or shirt bins up they get put in three piles based on dots (I admit this helps my nice cleaning ladies too ;) The other stuff like swim suits, undies, socks, dresses all gets put in the same spot since it's pretty easy to figure out whose is whose for these.

Ready for folding and putting away! We inherited this laundry table from my parents, it works great since it has a lip on it (throw loads of clean clothes on and nothing falls off). My grandpa bought two of them and my parents had one growing up. If we misbehaved our punishment was to fold all the laundry on this table... good memories ;)

*the bins (that aren't mis-matched) are from The Container Store and here and from Target!

and next I'll have to post the Playroom organization project we did last month, I never took pics and it's still a work in progress but this makes me happy seeing everything in it's place and labeled!

Weekend Review

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Janie loves to cheese it up with her Da-da! (he asks her "who wants to go with me?" and she says "MEEE!!!" and then he asks her "Who is a stinker?" and she goes "DA-DA!!" hehe. Kat, Oliver and Baby Lauren stayed to hang out through the weekend so we got lots of baby snuggles and cousin time in! Other than that we had a pretty mellow weekend with the girls....


We had some friends and Kat, Mark, Sarah and kids over Friday night for pizza and let the kids all run wild in the creek. There were 10 kids under 5 - it looked like a daycare in our playroom :)

Big girl Francie with Lauren 

Kat and I with the babies heading downtown for dinner Saturday night (Heff took the picture while we pretended to be sister wives :) I think that lady in the background is looking at us like we are crazy

Fiesta Vallarta mexican restaurant for dinner!

Sunday morning painting project (Francie built a ramp with Dad and then they both painted it pink and purple for the cats of course)

JJ must be on a growth spurt - she's been sleeping from 8:30/9:30pm to 11/11:30AM every day for a week! I go in to check on her and get no love. She's OUT!

Awake after everyone else had breakfast for cold eggs and OJ - no complaints just smiles from the well rested baby.

and we finished the closet project! Might add curtains or something but it's mostly done. Next is the laundry room project

Both days we walked the girls down through the Art and Wine festival on our street in Lincoln Park. Ice cream, beers, corn dogs and lemonade while we listened to the bands and looked at the sometimes pretty and sometimes wow-really? art ;)

France - we got some new Lilly Pulitzer shift dresses (their favorite item of clothing in summer and mine too since they wash so well and they can dress themselves!) in bigger sizes for France since we are fully stocked on 5 and under but needed some 6x and 7 with room to grow :) we get them on eBay (jannie hooked me) for a steal - you can go shop now too all my auctions have ended and Heff will be very happy if someone stops my from having any more ebay packages arriving at the house.

Maisie is a dancing queen - and growing up and getting braver! She is pretty shy but it's fun to see her coming out of her shell. Heff took her to "church school" (children's mass at 9:15 where the kids go to the other building for 15 minutes during homily) since she got kicked out when she was 2 for not being 3 yet and was so upset! She was SO PROUD to finally be able to go - Kat and I were home with the 4 other kids who were all a little out of sorts but Heff said she had a little sheepish grin on her face walking down the isle all by herself to join the big kids and came back so proud of her drawings she made for her sisters (I think they were supposed to be for Jesus ;) She also ordered a second corn dog all by herself and wanted more quarters to get more ketchup. The girls loves her condiments!

and Little J is a terror on wheels one minute and a little love/cuddle girl the next. We'll take her!

The neighbors asked Francie to join their "Nature Helper's" club. She said yes of course ;) They hunted our backyard and took photos and wrote in their nature journal - they found a Banana Slug and a huge lizard and had lunch in their "clubhouse". Right up Francie's alley.

and I got to do lots of this...

and Francie is still doing lots of this.... Happy Monday!

 

Thursday Swim Day

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Thursday morning we went swimming with Emmy, the girl, Kat, Donald Oliver and Lauren (well Lauren slept in her carseat :) Francie is a fish, Maisie doesn't like to get her hair wet and Janie just launches herself in with no plans of what to do once she gets under. Keeps us on our toes by the pool!

I love that Maisie said "It's ok Mom I can wear these broken ones - they still work." :)

Terror Baby on the loose

Emmy and her crew! (Emmy is going to Claire's Boston College graduation next week- we are going to miss her!!!)

Home for naps - JJ sleeping and I told the girls they could have 10 minutes of quiet time to play before Maisie nap. I found them in the front yard with a picnic so Kat and I joined them for an hour. Good way to avoid naptime Maisie!

Lauren getting some Vitamin D

 

Wednesday with Cousins

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Wednesday Kat, Oliver and Baby Lauren came to stay with us for a few days!! The girls were so excited, Maisie loves a baby, especially "Lornen" We had Mark and the girls over for dinner Wednesday night since Sarah was traveling and the cousins got some good creek play time in.

Wednesday morning we had a cool show at PLAY called "Furs, Scales and Tales" - the guy was hilarious and had 20 or so different animals.  Francie is a snake holding expert now.

Janie "Lennie Small" likes to squeeze them - watch out pets ;) 

When we got home Maisie helped me with a project in the girls room - pink closet! 

Watermelon break with cousins before dinner

 

Oliver and JJ (he runs around yelling "JJ!" all day, it's so cute) She is looking liek a boy, I know - but look at that hair coming in!

Firts one at the table for a "color dinner" (whatever makes them eat it :)

Hanging out with Lauren - so fun to have a newborn in the house!!

 

Tuesday Night Dinner

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Tuesday night we walked down to Casa Lupe when Heff got home from work for dinner - the girls were pretty tired after Francie had Bing and Maisie/Janie had "too much fun" with Emmy then the big girls had Farm School at Hidden Villa all afternoon but we rallied since it was so nice out and we had nothing planned tomake for dinner.  Maisie wanted to Ergo on my back....

 - but fell asleep half way down the street on the way!

and stayed like that until her food came.

Janie LOVES her rice and beans :)

There's Maisie Moo making a mess

I love her expressions ;)

Dad and France with a "look". Heff snuck a picture of me taking pictures and Instagramed it with "caught instagraming." busted.

Little Hood Rat ready to walk home

 

Insta-lately

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Just a few random updates from my iPhone the past week!... 

JJ ready for bed in a hand-me-down nightgown and crocs :)

Francie helped one of the girls at Bumble by participating in a research study for her, she worked for almost 2 hours at the back table at Bumble during our Bumble work day (we closed for some painting and kitchen upgrades) Kahana asked her a few hard words and when she asked 'curiosity' Francie said "Ohhhh. My mom hasn't told me that one yet!"

 

Love her official signature :)

All the hard working Bumble crew taking a break for pizza lunch while the kitchen was torn apart - come check out Bumble, it's sparkling!

 

 

Mother's Day brunch at Bumble with the family - Grampa and the little ladies relaxing on the new benches out front

 

Running home for a creek play-date with Clara Marie

and Saturday night we went to the East Bay for Brian's college friends combined 40th Birthday bash at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery - a Caddy Shack theme! It was so fun for him to see his old buddies... the East Bay is only an hour across the bridge but we never seem them - it was a fun night even if I was the DD ;)

France going to school Tuesday with her new lunch bag she got from Kahana as a thank you - she LOVES it

and Maisie Moo on the fence at Bumble making sure everyone is following the rules. She's the sandbox deputy (from outside the sandbox for a few days until her toes gets better, poor thing!)

Janie rough and tumble ready to dive in

Maisie back home - caught Ziggy for a fleeting minute, cat looks super happy :)

and it's Troopy time! Trying to decide if we take the top off this summer - Heff got new restraints for the back so now we have 2 booster and 1 carseat that don't move an INCH on the benches back there. Summer here we come!

 

Needlepoint Party

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Monday night Jannie's group of needlepoint friends (who meet every Monday to knit/needlepoint/etc) got together to celebrate that four of them have daughters or daughters in law expecting a baby! So they've all been busy making baby blankets and baby things to spoil the babies-to-be. We had pizza in the backyard at Jannie and Grampa's and the girls all got to come - they thought that was pretty cool but didn't understand why boys weren't invited (Grampa was watching Seinfeld in the family room)


Fun night and I LOVE the new blanket Jannie knit for baby #4 - COLORS! (we decided we need a new knit for each baby in the hospital - otherwise it's hard ot tell which baby it is in photos!) Isn't it pretty?

Big girl JJ on the "Hooose"

Taking turns on the trike wagon (Janie screaming "No! No!" to her sisters if they get a turn - gotta work on sharing :)

Round and round

Monkey on the bars

What a big baby!

Francie on clearing the dishes duty - found a way to make it easier :)

Jannie and her trikes - and girls!

 

 

The Big Toe Incident

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Friday afternoon we were hanging out by the pool at Rosewood (Jannie and Grampa were staying there for Mother's Day) and Brian took Maisie and Janie home to nap while Francie stayed to swim.  Makings of a great afternoon until after naps he promised Maisie a lillipop on their way back to Rosewood and stopped at the liquor store - where the huge (dirty) metal door opened over Maisie's big toe in her new pink saltwater sandal and just mangled her big toe and nail!! I got a text from Brian that said CALL ME!" - not a good sign! I met them at urgent care and Brian was doing a great job juggling a screaming Maisie and a "What the heck is going on?" Janie.  It wasn't broken so we just cleaned and bandaged - Maisie is a TROOPER!

DO NOT LOOK if you are squimish (i made it small - borderline inapprop to even post this gruesome picture but it has to show how bad it was!)

 

Trying to be brave on Dad's lap with the infamous lollipop (he grabbed and told the guy at the store he'd pay next time for!)

Janie just being a rascal as usual in Urgent Care

Back to Rosewood to pick up Francie (hiding because she doesn't want to go home or something) - resting up Maisie's little foot.

and since the incident - she has him wrapped around her little finger, he feels so bad!

 Monday morning special lunch date with Mom and Dad by herself after a check in with the pediatrician - milkshake for Maisie :) 

Dad is on wound care - he's an expert

and very patient to read her books while it soaks - I told you wrapped around his finger!!  Maisie you are a brave girl... it should heal without much problem will just take awhile!

 

Cats. Outta The Bag

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As my sister said when I called her to tell her we have cats in our house - "Well, Hell just froze over." I am not a cat person but when Ollie died the house did seem pretty empty with no pets and these kitties were looking for a good home (from a friend who was moving).  Francie has been BEGGING for cats forever - when we had the excuse Ollie didn't like cats, she would move furniture to make a cave in her room and say "look - I made a safe place the cats can live - pleeeease?!" So we gave in. We now have TWO cats.  As you can see from the baby Bjron above - Francie is OBSESSED.

Maisie is like her mom :) no she likes them but the one she "picked" is the Orange one Francie won't put down- who came with the name Dexter - but she calls HIM Penny and got him a purple rhinestone collar with a princess crown name tag. The other tiny one is Ziggy but is too fast to be cuaght most of the time :)

Love.

Francie finally caught a picture of Ziggy on camera in the pantry sink

furball- Maisie's face cracks me up.

 

They add to the craziness around here - but no complaints, they make the girls pretty happy and are easy so far.

 

Family Photo

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We were all dressed up (sorta :) to go to my godson James' First Communion party in Brentwood on Sunday on our way home from Red Bluff - so Kat and Donald snapped a couple family pictures of us. Then I realized we had a 3 hour car ride which included a stop for lunch and changed the girls into "car clothes" and back into the dresses when we got there :)

Waiting for Dad to join in on the fun

Might be my favorite - all of their faces are how they currently say "CHEEESE!" - not the best looks l)

Is this where I am supposed to say "I have my hands full"? ;)

convinced Heff to join us for a chicken coop shot

thankful for these crazy girls!

Red Bluff to Meet Baby Lauren

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We were back up to Red Bluff last weekend to meet 4 day old Baby Lauren (and see 4 week old Baby Molly again!) The cousins ran roughshot all over the place as usual and loved it. At one point I went out to see the kids and Patrick had locked all the girls in the horse trailer... Ellie had Janie on her hip inside with all the little girls yelling "Patrick! GET AN ADULT!" all the while Oliver was dipping his whole body in the green slimy slop bucket that catches water from the irrigation thing and grinning. Love it! :)

crazy kids

No beach? Just sun bathe on the rocks!

Janie on her throne

Mr Doverspike and his grandbaby Lauren

She is a darker version of Oliver - but very girly and beautiful of course!

and sweet little Molly

Ellie pulling the horsestall cart up the hill full of kids - then at the top she would jump IN and steer it back downhill. We were just waiting for that to end badly but luckily it didn't have much momentum so full of pounds

Barn babes (and still best buds) Oliver and Maisie

He's about bigger than she is!

The Baby Mommas!

It was Cinco de Mayo so Kat and Oma got a pinata!

Kids going for it

Not so happy to give away a STICK her is actually told to hit things with!

Back inside to eat their catch - Maisie and Patrick love

Kate (already into watching Ice Age) and France

Maisie "holding" Oliver

Oma and the latest additions!