Missoni Girls

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Jannie scored some Missoni for Target for the girls last week on the crazy day Target was sold out by 8:02am! You better believe she was there early at the Sunnyvale Target (our fav 2 story store) and found cute sweaters and ballet flats for the big girls and an adorable outfit for Janie. Jsanie and Oma were going to take the girls to lunch Wednesday but decided they couldn't NOT come to Bumble so we had a fun afternoon hanging out at Bumble with all the ladies.

JJ and the castle her sisters built

SO BIG!

She is officially a crawling machine

I love her expressions lately :)

I'm gonna get you!

Maisie in her BumbleBee get up she made with the playroom teachers

Silly girls

REALLY silly ;)

Emmers and JJ

Bumble/Missoni advertising ;)

Thanks Jannie for the cute clothes (and waking up early for them!) and Oma for all the help this week!

craziness. When is my husband coming home?! (he flew in this morning- TG and can't wait to post his trip pictures! don't check this blog for a few days if you are a PETA member)

Safari Adventure

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Saturday and Sunday we drove out to Santa Rosa for an overnight party at Safari West with some friends - the girls loved it! Brian was hunting with Donald (more on that later!) so Oma, AUnt Kat and Oliver came along with us. Maisie said "Mama- next time- we come here - we come with DADDY!" They knew it was right up dad's alley- tent camping in the wild with wild safari animals all around us! We didn't get all that much sleep but we survived a "camping night" even without my camping husband :)

Oma and Kat with the under 1 year olds ready to go on a Santa Rosa Safari

When we arrived they had a "petting zoo" out on the grass - Oma introduces Janie to a Burmese Python

Picking ou tour truck for the jeep tour

I didn't know they had monkeys on Safari?!

Francie says "MOM it's a Scarlet Macaw!!" (thanks Diego)

Big girls riding high in the Jeep
Francie
Maisie
Janie-I-Mean-GIRAFFE!

Pretty cool!

The King and Queen of Safari West - the Rhino's

Oliver snacking while he tours the wild

Maisie not so sure- she scooted all the way over when we came near big animals

and back to clean up for dinner in our tent cabins after the tour

Francie and her buddy who showed up dressed exactly alike!

Decked out for dinner! Why wouldn't you dress up as wild animals when you are among them right?! :) (check out JJ peeking out from the lion head)

I mean- Maisie you just crack me up (this was BEFORE she barfed all over mom after dinner and said "uh oh I barf on my cheetah costume?! You wash my cheetah costume mom!?" priorities.)

Oliver joins the crowd

Wild cousins

JJ the Lion says Raaaaarrr!

Janie trying to bat the lion mane out of the way

Maisie still has a thing for Oliver- and he loves her right back

"I see you Ah-ver!" - check out Oliver walking like a big guy!

That's a lot of wild animal bums in one shot ;)

Up close

Little Cheetah walking to dinner

Always on the lookout

The kids found a tree to climb and were pretty happy while we had wild wine on the patio :)

I missed the photo op but after waking up at 4am the girls snuck outside to say good morning to the giraffes when the sun came up. A pretty cool place for an overnight!

Stella's Strawberry Shortcake Party

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Last weekend we went to a birthday bash for Stella in Strawberry Shortcake theme - face painting, the Real Strawberry Shortcake, a puppet show and a pinata - pretty good party!

The Dads and the babies

Maisie Moo

Puppet show about a princess named Stella

balloon animals- this Strawberry did it all!

Reminded me of my Strawberry Shortcake birthday when I was 4 my mom's playgroup friends threw for me since she was 8 months pregnant with Jerry!

Happy Birthday Stella!

Heff and his baby girl

dropped the binky she was smiling so much

Maisie is not messing around- "where is my cake?"

Ariel and Buzz Lightyear face paint. can you tell which kid picked which?!

I like this pinata- it didn't have to have it's head chopped off to drop the candy!

Francie Goes to Preschool

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Tuesday Sept 6 was Francie's first official day of preschool! She has been counting down this day for like 2 years- no joke :) Heff made her a calendar to see "how many days til preschool" and she had been saying "...and then the next day I wake up and it's only TWO more days!" We went at 8:30am for a half day ease-in where I stayed with her to check it out. She was a little miffed I had to stay but then had fun showing me everything. I am excited for her to start going on her own!

Her dress she picked from the "hand-me-downs-that-don't-fit-yet" closet (but she saw it and decided she had to wear it since it matched her lunch box)

Getting to school (15 minutes early even!) for her first ever day of school

Mom taking too many pictures

In front of her classroom and the picture of all the teachers. She met them all and remembered most of their names - when we were driving home we were listing them all and she said "I have Teacher Peggy, Teacher Laura, Teacher Karen and Teacher Large!" (one of the guy teachers is named Lars ;)

"Hummmmm what should I do first?" (they fixed the last name spelling on the nametag;)

Painting with q-tips

She was wishing and hoping for monkey bars- she got her wish on the play yard for her classroom!

Only problem is when you have monkey-long arms and legs like your parents you might be too tall for preschool monkey bars!

Crossing the bridge (I remember when Jen Skidmore was in preschool coming to the Fair and "fishing" off the same bridge!

Water table exploration

they asked her what her favorite animal in the grass was and she picked a snake (to be friends with Pascal her pet lizard she took to Jannie's house so Jannie could build a terrarium for him. Ask Jannie how Pascal is doing ;)

she even got in a few shots on the basketball hoop- seemed to have more skill than her mother!

wrapping up the 1.5 hour day to sing songs inside - shaking the sand out of those LelliKellys!

BUMBLE IS OPEN!

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As of 8am tomorrow- Saturday September 3, 2011 - Bumble is open for business!!! We had a great soft launch week and are ready for the public to flood in tomorrow morning (positive thinking right? ;) Thanks to all our friends and family for being so supportive and helping out with trying wines, beers, champagnes, good food and the super fun playroom and sandbox. COME BY! A few photos...

Our awesome chefs Corey and Danny rocking the kitchen - we have "farm to table fare" for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and light dinner. All very organic, healthy and delicious! Also serving Four Barrel Coffee starting at 7am

A view of an empty kitchen (not for long!) looking at the front door

The bar area and fireside seating

The Family Room- lounge seating in front of the fish tank with repurposed couches recovered in Crypton fabric to repel red wine and sticky fingers

The Communal Table for meeting new friends and group gatherings (perfect for baby showers too ;)

The front yard and the very popular sandbox (do you like how I kinda had to make it look like a jail sandbox chaining toys to the center so kids wouldn't dump all the pretty white silica-free play sand out?!)

and lots of front yard seating

The Playroom - drop kids off for a per half hour fee while parents relax/eat/drink

The Playroom kids table, kids bathroom and wash sink. Lots of space for art projects!

Outdoor kids deck 5-cycle trike and hollow blocks

and the main attraction.... our coral reef salt water fish tank!!! With bubbles for kids to stick their heads in for a 360 degree view of the underwater world

and if you check your kids into the playroom - you can relax in peace in the adults only outdoor patio (even a TV for games Dads)

Welcome to Bumble! :) SEE YOU SOON!

and one more surprise waiting for you when you come visit~ our "Night Bright" installation in the playroom is pretty cool!! I will blog it tomorrow after the big unveiling...

Goin' to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

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How about you, you, you!? Heff took the girls to the San Francisco Zoo on Sunday for a full day of animal fun. We had them semi-bundled for the foggy SF weather in the morning which meant they got to break out some newly purchased but oversized fall clothes in triplicate :) The girls love dressing like Janie! Guess the matching outfits aren't going anywhere yet (yesssss). Francie insisted on taking a first aid kit in case anyone got hurt. Heff was very brave to take all three on a weekend day but he had a Bjorn and stroller with skateboards and they LOVED the special day with Dad while Mom was busy at Bumble.

The "official" zoo shots (or screenshots of them :)

JJ wondering what's going to happen next - your first trip to the ZOO MaryJane!

"Ok sounds like fun" :)

Happy girls

on the zoo playground - Francie is a machine on the monkey bars and shimmies up the pole herself

helping brush a goat- Maisie isn't that interested

thanks for the fun day Dad! Dinosaur shaped fruit drinks, hippos that open their mouth HUGE, petting zoo, carousel rides and a lollipop for the ride home were the reported highlights :)

these girls love their daddy (he was standing above me when I tried to snap a few pictures and all eyes are on him ;)

I love the kiss for JJ…

aaaaaand the binky goes right back in

Bad Blogging

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I haven't been very good at posting anything for FIVE days! We've been working our little buns off at Bumble- yes even Heff and the girls :) They have been troopers hanging out "helping" or entertaining themselves while Heff and I fix stuff, hang stuff, set stuff up- all the last minute details that take forever... and Jannie took them for two days last week for some fun, Grampa came over to play this afternoon and Uncle Jerry came to set up all my speakers and AV stuff tonight so thanks for all the family help too! I will post pictures of Bumble soon but in the meantime here are my favorites from this past month of the little stinkers :)

Photobooth Fun

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I never posted these funny pictures from the photobooth at James and Em's wedding - they crack me up! I love how the girls were up after a late night "nap" in the hotel room and make random appearances in these pics in their PJs :)












this might be my favorite- check out Francie trying to make a face like the big cousins :)

no wait maybe this is my favorite - Maisie is like "for the love let me go back to bed!"

and besides the fact at least 6 different people are holding JJ in the pics, she is in various stages of napping and it's like midnight- I love her "REALLY? this is the family I got? guess I'm stuck with them" expression!