Berkeley Day

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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 :) 

 

Tessa 7 weeks

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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 :)

Baby Shower for Beth

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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!

Halloween Extravaganza 2012

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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!!

ENTER IF YOU DARE...

telling the ghost-guy "I wasn't even that scared!"

all of the staff hard at work at Bumble - it's so fun to set these parties up!

Spider girl

Wonder girl

Whole room photo booth - this was soo fun!

Checking to make sure everything is getting cooked in the kitchen

Ready for a party!

Me and Heff...

or Frankenstein and didn't-have-time-to-change into anything cool so I'll be a blue-haired cowgirl?

Showing off what she learned about dry ice

Spooky train conductor

and mean mom testing JJ's reaction with a creepy alien head on - she was skeptical!

Just Fooling Around

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Sunday afternoon we were still moving the last 2% of the stuff from the old house over (WHY is it the hardest part?!) and I wasn't much help to Heff since I was managing these four rascals who weren't napping. Cousin Kate and Ryan came over for late lunch too - so what did we do?

Pick flowers from the garden and stick them as eyeballs in the scary skeleton...

and then of course stick the 6 week old baby in it

andddd... take awky posed photos around her (ABA is gonna hate this. and Maisie looks 6)

I know. You can get me back for this one day Tess.

Let's look closely - ragamuffin kids, no one matching, 1 in the dress she wore yesterday, 1 in non-matching and neither in her size clothes, 1 with a black eye and a PJ top but real clothes bottoms (went so far as to get her dressed then put the Tinkerbell "coat" BACK ON after she insisted, and 1 poor little newborn who should not be put in these compromising positions = bad parenting!)

Then the over-tired-crazy girls were running around on the lawn teasing cousin Ryan and being silly
- nice face Maise

tug-o-war ... good luck girls!

what a good cousin :)

Tessa 4 & 5 weeks

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Tessa is doing great! She is 5 weeks old now and fits right in to the family. She does like to scream for a good hour or two, sometimes three every night between 9pm-1am but then sleeps pretty well during the night and naps all morning. She still has goopy eyes from her blocked tear duct but hopefully it will clear up soon. She loves the moby wrap or Ergo and doesn't mind the car either. Not sure what she weighs, we have her 6 week check up next week but we just switched to size 1 diapers and she's getting a little chunk!

and last week since it was "moving week" we tried Tessa on a moving box...

and of course JJ wanted in on the action!

the progression of Tessa - week by week. It's fun to see she already looks bigger! Now let's just see if I can keep this up all year ;)

We're Moving!

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Sooo happy to be getting settled in a new house! We've been moving all weekend and this week, it's not exactly a "we've moved" process :) I think moving next door might be more work than a pack-up-and-move move. But we are SO thrilled and feel so lucky to be in this new house full of character and that just feels perfect for our little family. It will be awhile before we are totally settled and our old house is spiffed up to put on the market but we are getting there...

Friday morning - Heff, JJ, Tess and I went over with the first box after he dropped the girls off at preschool! Friday was "all the big stuff day" but we got the big stuff and most of the closets done - a lot of hauling stuff over one load at a time!

Saturday was unpack the kitchen day! Jannie was a huge help of course - I have always wanted open shelving like this!!

The house is a 100+ year old Craftsman - it has so many cool details, I'll post more pictures soon!

Our new home!! (before the Heffer-Klampets moved in - we now have pumpkins all over the porch, toys in the front yard, a loose wagon on the grass and boots on the front porch :) We're here!

 

Trip to the SF Zoo

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Saturday morning Heff packed up the three big girls to go to the SF Zoo so I could work at Area 151 and see how things were going on day 2! Once I got there, everything was running smoothly (SO much easier than the restaurant business, like 1000x easier!) I was sad to miss their fun so I caught Heff at the gas station and Tess and I piled in the truck with them. It was a surprisingly warm sunny day at the Zoo and we powered through to all the animals with a short stop for tri-tip sandwiches and beers!

parked and ready to roll

first stop - gorillas

Hippo

yes we brought a child to the Zoo without shoes. oops :)

the fountain - half way point through the zoo calls for relaxing

super excited to let me take their picture (even Heff might have been complaining :)

duck pond

watch out for the black bear

This kid gets crazier everyday - love the faces she makes

and her perch on the "pack-pack"

funny Maisie wearing the peacock like a headdress (Francie was not amused - this was the WRONG way!)

"THIS is how you do it Maisie."

They made Dad check his wingspan

no one was having my picture taking so I had to take a self portrait of me and Tess on her first trip to the zoo

and without the double chin :)

water break

Kids Farm (my favorite part)

Bee exhibit (JJ was freaking out "SHOO bee! No bee!!" since she's been stung twice!

power walking to the treat shop at the end

JJ has to do everything "SELF!"

come on - just take a picture with Mom!?

treat shop yielded pink binoculars. Can you spy Francie?

Izzy and Tess!

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My good friend Dawn was due with her first baby the day before I was due with Tess - and the girls were born almost exactly 24 hours apart to the minute! Izzy and Tess will be little buddies for sure :) Dawn came down to hang out the other day and we took some pictures of the girls - we were sorry we didn't take a picture of our matching bellies when we had lunch a few days before they were born!

AREA 151 is OPEN!

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We opened Area 151 arcade next to Bumble on Friday at 4pm!

There was a line of kids waiting at the door counting down the seconds. It was such a great feeling to open those doors :) We've been working on this place for over six months - it seemed like it would be a good compliment to Bumble giving the older kids something to do! Area 151 is a "redemption arcade" with old school style games like pop-a-shot, air hockey, coin pushers, crane machines and lots of ticket winning games. We have an awesome prize counter with good prizes (no candy and stuff kids can save up for like a Wii and iTouch!) It was an awesome opening weekend with tons of local families. Last night there were more dads in there playing each other than there were kids!

5...4...3...2...1... !

I had my favorite custom woodworker Keith Spitzer make this awesome prize cabinet with vintage tokens from arcades all over the country inlaid on the top - it turned out so pretty!!

Thursday night we had a pre-launch party with some friends - the kids tested the games for us :)

happy ticket winners

Jumpin Jackpot JJ

Tessa was the lucky lady of course

Life size Connect Four is a HUGE hit

Francie thinks this is how you play Air Hockey

Dad's on Pop-a-Shot... who has the high score?!

my crazy family! :)

PRIZES

FRIDAY opening Heff took the 3 big girls all afternoon so I could get ready - they stayed at home for the opening since we knew it would be a little crazy. Tess was my sidekick though!

and with my girls Rashelle and Nora - couldn't have done anything without them!!

4:00pm 10-12-12... ready, set, go!

This guy was here an hour early, he rode his bike down with his allowance saved up and said he'd been "waiting for this day for months!" and the little guy peaking in the window - we've seen lots of these faces the past few weeks!

here they come!

Red Bluff Baptism

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We were in Red Bluff last weekend for a double baptism/double birthday for the cousins! Lauren and Molly were baptized and it was Oliver's 2nd and Patrick's 4th birthday. Kat and Donald just moved into a beautiful new house in Red Bluff and we had the party there Saturday after mass (we missed mass after the the truck breakdown!) Then we all convened at Oma and Opa's house for the rest of the weekend for lots of hanging out with the whole gang. Always fun and crazy to get everyone together!

Big guy Oliver - happy 2 years! He got dirty to celebrate ;)

Izzy and Francie - the 5 year old buddies

Daddy and Tessa

Oliver showing JJ the dirt so she could join in

Ducky and OD

sleepy girl

stretch

Heff and his little mini-me

time for presents

love Kat's new house!

Maisie holding baby sis

couch of cousins

think they're tired?

the last litter of babies - all girs in 5 months!

Molly, Lauren, Ilona and Tessa

future BFF's

invasion of big sisters

speaking of big sisters

photo of all 15? yeah right

crazy JJ

Isabel getting some good ear rubs on Ilona (she loves ears, cold ones preferably she says!)

10 of 12 girls

back to Oma's for pizza and playing

Andrea brought her newborn baby props so we set up a photo shoot for Tess - lots of good helpers too although Tess was a squirmy thing

how not to look like a sweet, innocent newborn...

that's better :)

this too

Indian summer swimming fun

Andrea and Ilona

naptime on Oma's couch

love this picture of mom and her crazy girls!

my biggest and littlest

Tess and Ilona

locking arms!

New White Truck!

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Saturday morning at 7:15am we had the truck all loaded up with these four stinkers ready for a road trip to Red Bluff with a night of camping thrown in there! We got on the freeway pretty proud of ourselves for an early start with four kids and right when I Instagrammed this photo - the truck broke down on the side of 280!!

Yup - stranded on the freeway with a full load of stuff and four kids. Not great! We called AAA and a friend to pick us up (although Francie was excited to ride in the tow truck) The driver looked in our car and goes "what do you want me to do with all these kids?" uhh we got that part buddy - just tow our car :)

After a few trips to move stuff around (tow truck guy insisted we leave the coolers and camping stuff that wouldn't fit in suburban on the side of the road!?) we re-loaded kids and stuff in Suburban, left truck at the auto body place and were back on the road. 2.5 hours later :)

half way into the drive - trying to keep JJ occupied by telling her to kiss her elbow. She got pretty frustrated and said "HELLLLP me! peeease!!" 

Lunch stop at Rubio's at the Nut Tree - always a good lunch and Janie LOVES her "beans rice!" Dad plays the "Hey who took a bite of my burrito when I wasn't looking!?" game - never gets old

So Sunday Heff went down to the Corning Ford dealership to check out the trucks - the green truck served us well but it was 6 years old and had been having some problems. Not worth being stranded like that again! He called me to tell me he liked a white truck with upholstery and no nav he liked - I was skeptical but considered it (limited selection on the lot since we need a bench seat in front for the extra kid) he picked me up to look and it didn't take me long to talk him into the "sparkly" white (not just plain white :) truck with all the etxras - I like to drive it too and we put enough miles in the car as a family it seemed worth it!  

Tessa sleeping through the car buying process....

and JJ posing as a car salesman. She tore up the dealership and kept asking Heff "Daddy? Papers - All Done?"

the dealership came and picked up the old truck on Monday - bye green truck, we will miss you!