First Day of School in Santa Barbara

Can you believe how big these girls are?  Neither can we.  They are so grown up!  Here they are on the first day of school. 

 It wasn't Gabriela's first day of school, but that didn't stop her from partaking in the celebratory after school root beer floats.

 Yay for fun cousin time!

The Beach

What is a trip to Santa Barbara without the beach?! Uncle Ian told Gabriela if she came to visit him he would take her to the beach, where he'd dig her a big hole with THREE steps.  Let me tell you, she did not forget. And neither did Uncle Ian. He got right to work a soon as we arrived.

 Natalie and Gabriela played together all day long - in the sand, at the water. It was pretty darn sweet.

 See what I mean? I just can't get over their cutesie piggie tails.

 Uncle Ian, finally relaxing after digging a hole so giant that 5 girls were playing inside it. So giant that their moms temporarily freaked because they couldn't find their kids at the beach.  It was that deep!

 Ruffle Butt

We had such a great time. The weather was perfect. 

Boxsledding

Uncle Ian packed up the car with snacks and drinks and cardboard boxes (box tape and a box cutter) so the girls could have loads of fun sledding down hills of old pine needles.  They had a blast.

 Gabriela held onto this tiny toy camera the whole time, trying to catch pictures of the afternoon fun. I swear, she didn't let it out of her hands for a second.

 Gabriela and Natalie insisted on bringing the double baby stroller along to the park. Such good mommies.

 When they were done sledding, we spent a little time at the playground. It was so fun to watch these cousins playing and pretending together.

 Of course when we got home, it was time to jump in the pool. Gabriela helped the girls and Uncle Ian with the pool cover.

 Cousins, ready to swim!

Santa Barbara Fun

Auntie Adie and Uncle Ian were so sweet to let Gabriela and me hitch a ride back from the shower with them to Santa Barbara. We spent the whole week there. Lane came down on Thursday for a long weekend all together, and then we drove back up to Alameda on Sunday.

There was box sledding, tons of swimming in their perfectly warm pool, beach trips, bike rides, visits to the girls' schools, and we even got to attend a couple parties for Natalie's birthday.

It was an awesome week and with more than 350 pics to choose from, it's too much to summarize all in one photo post.

Annie's Baby Shower

Remember how my sis-in-law, Annie, is 7 weeks ahead of me in the pregnancy department? Well, her baby shower was a couple weeks ago. It was the sweetest, prettiest baby shower, thanks to party planner extraordinaire, Meliss Grover (aka Auntie 'Liss).

 Meliss chose a Birds & the Bees theme for the shower.  Here are the little birdie houses she painted, stamped, and decorated to hand out as favors.

 I made crazy cake cupcakes with chocolate whipped cream frosting and toasted coconut nests. We put some jordan almonds in the middle for little eggs.  Check out Auntie Liss's attention to detail. We had bird egg shaped candies, little birdies everywhere, and even candles with honeycomb shapes. 

 It took Meliss and I an entire afternoon to fashion this fancy diaper cake.  Who knew it would be so involved?!??  But, we are happy with the results. It turned out pretty dang cute, if I must say so myself.  I was completely a little intimidated by the project assignment, but we had a good online tutorial. phew.

 Seriously, Meliss doesn't miss any details. She got mason jars for drinking glasses, and even some darling paper straws that matched with the decor. 

 She also sewed at least 5 different pennant banners with darling scrapbook paper for decorations, and you know, found a panel of bird and flower fabric that would go well with the decor and sewed a border of a pretty ribbon around the edge of it so it would be extra perfect.

 What a cute idea.  Meliss got this plain white board book and used matching scrapbook paper to line the cover and each page inside.  She had people draw little pictures on small pieces of paper to be used for an ABC book for Baby Gilbert. I can't wait to see the finished product. How special!

 More favors.  Itty bitty honey bears with birdseed packets too, because it IS the birds and the bees, you know. The honey was fun and fancy flavors like sage and blackberry and orange.

 There was also a wishing tree for the Annie. Meliss made all these cutsie birds out of more of that scrapbook paper. Each person wrote a wish for Annie and her baby on it and hung the birdie on the wishing tree. Such a sweet idea, and what a wonderful keepsake for Annie.

 Auntie Adie and Auntie Liss.  She brought the party, yo. Meliss came with decorations, plates, napkins, tablecloths, glasses, game prizes, more decorations, fresh cut flowers, drink dispensers. Seriously this chick knows what she's doing!!!

Here's Gabriela playing the Price is Right game.  I picked up a bunch of baby items from Target and the guests had to guess how much they thought each item cost.  See how hard Gabriela is thinking here?  Kind of funny, since she was at the store with me, and remembers just about everything she ever hears or sees.  When asked if everyone was ready to move onto the next item, Gabriela said she wasn't ready yet.

 She also worked very hard on her entries for Auntie Ann's Baby Book. Each time she finished one, she ran up to Auntie Ann, announcing she had finished drawing another picture for the baby.  In the end, I had to confiscate the papers so there were some left for the other guests to contribute to the book.

 Gabriela gave Auntie Ann some of her favorite books: The Way I Feel, The Monster at the End of This Book, The I Love You Book, and From Head to Toe

Auntie Liss's good ideas never stop. She had all the Grover cousins write with fabric pens on a giant piece of white fabric to create a playmat for Baby Gilbert.  Chaney drew a giant picture of Yoda, Beau made the sweetest heart, Claire made a welcome home Baby Gilbert scene, and Natalie wrote all sorts of sweet baby words.  Gabriela drew a picture that she said included mouthwash. What baby doesn't want to look at mouthwash while improving their neck strength?  She also spontaneously dictated a letter to the baby that I had to write down. "Dear Baby, I love you so much. I hope you go to Grandpa's Farm." How sweet is that?  All the kids worked so hard on their contributions. Meliss put cute taggies on the edges and quilted it all together.

Oh, Auntie Liss.  Where do you find the time?  She also quilted this special blankie for Baby Gilbert. Isn't it darling?!

Obviously, Baby needed some Super Grover apparel.  This cousin will be matchies with Gabriela AND Baby Brother because I couldn't not buy some for them as well. Grover is so under represented in the Sesame Street crew.

There were FIVE pregnant ladies at Annie's baby shower. Can you believe it?!? Here we all are.

And here are us Grover Girls, including Elizabeth, Noal's super sweet and wonderful girlfriend.

We are all so happy for Annie and anxiously await the arrival of little Baby Gilbert.  Only two weeks or so to go.

Gabriela's lastest pastime

Around the time of her birthday, Gabriela constantly played with her baby dolls. She has some infant diapers that she'd use over and over and over again. When she'd change the diaper, she'd fold up the "dirty" one, and place it carefully in our Diaper Genie. She would wrap the babies in their swaddling blankies, and even borrowed some of baby brother's onesies to change her dollies in and out of.

But lately, she's shifted gears. Blocks, baby! For a while, Gabriela was happy to play blocks, but this involved giving instructions to her mom and dad on what to build. But all of a sudden she started constructing her own buildings.  Her favorite things to build are cribs and bunk beds for her littlest dollies.  She is very particular - her houses must have doors and the cribs must have roofs.

The other day she wanted to build a house and the street, and the school and the farmer's market and the park for her people.  We are going to need some more blocks!!

It's so fun to see Gabriela using her imagination, building little towns for her dolls, and then having lots of fun and detailed conversations with them. 

Gabriela Says...

Last night Gabriela decided to put a beer in the fridge for Daddy so it would be ready for him when he got him from work. What a good daughter.

Then when dinner was ready she said (in the same breath), "Daddy, dinner is ready! Don't forget your beer - can I have a taste?"

At Toothbrushing Time

"Mommy? Can you leave the bathroom so I can lick your toothpaste from your toothbrush?"

At Bedtime

G: Daddy? You want to play a game with me before I go to bed?

Daddy: Sure honey, what do you want to play? 

G: How about Tickle Monster?

Daddy: Well, that's not really the best game to play before bedtime.

G: Okay, how about Tickle Machine????