Heading to NorCal...

This morning we packed up the family for the drive to Stockton. Libs does really well on these trips-- except this time she realized that she could bug her sister. Poor Tobee got poked and prodded and had dolls riding on her back until she would growl at Libi. This series of events had Ron and I uttering things like: "If you girls don't stop that we're going to pull this car over!" "Liiiiiibiiiiiii!" followed shortly by "Toooooobeeeeeeeee!"We made a pit stop for a diaper change at an Arco somewhere along the 99 and Ron emerged from the mini-mart with 2 ice cream sandwiches. Being on Weight Watchers and not willing to waste points on something that I wasn't really excited about we gave it to Libs.Lou didn't mind this at all-- she got a whole ice cream to herself!!!I think this face says it all: "Thanks Daddy for buying this messy treat and thanks Mommy for not wanting it!!"A short 5 hours after we left the good ole SCV we were in Stockton.Libs was so excited.... and I think Jammy and Granpa were too!!!Libs was finally able to give Granpa his Father's Day gift....and Jammy and Granpa had a special gift for her. It is a ribbon on a stick which Libi calls her magical. She ran through the house and twirled it everywhere! Thanks Jammy :)
After a great dinner and a nap for Ron Mom and I headed off to a local scrapbooking store for a class.
While we were gone the boys and Libs hung out.
You can see how tired she was-- only an hour nap at 11 in the morning will make you drowsy later. She finally fell sound asleep around 8 p.m. while sitting with Granpa in the rocking chair. You know she's out when a diaper change doesn't even wake her up!!Meanwhile in a scrapbook store in Lodi..... Mom, Renia and I were having a blast at our Cricut class.For those of you who don't know and havne't seen the informertial that's on at 3 in the morning, a Cricut is a personal die cut machine. You put cartridges in on the bottom right and use the keypad to cut-out letters, shapes, frames, etc.Mom and I have had our machines for quite some time and we get more bang for our buck by sharing cartridges. This particular class was on the Storybook cartridge which Mom decided we could not share-- so we each have our own.The class was fun but some of the newbies slowed us down so we got a little punchy.... get it.... punchy????? Oh well, it was nice to spend some time alone with Mom-- we don't do it nearly enough these days.

Tomorrow we look forward to enjoying their pool and seeing just how well Libs does with her swimming.

A packing day...

Today we spent the entire day getting ready for our trip tomorrow. We did tons of laundry, packing and general cleaning so that we can enjoy our time at Jammy and Granpa's.

I have been spending my free time making tons of cards with my scrapbooking scraps. I even started a new blog to show-off my creations. I am nowhere near as good as many of the designers that I see-- but I'm new to it!
You can check out my crafty blog at: http://dopeyroom.blogspot.com/

This evening we spent some time with Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Andrea and Aunt Violet before our travels.It was such a beautiful night out that we spent lots of time talking in the backyard.Libs went into her own world and began telling stories about, "snapping and clocks." I'm guessing this was due to the fact that we watched Peter Pan earlier in the day.She broke out into a very cute dance-- she loves to shake her hips!We are all ready for a nice little vacation in Stockton!!

A special dinner...

for a special friend. We kept it pretty low key today. After a morning of working at the Ippolito house we all took some good naps.

In the evening we were lucky enough to have Howard over for dinner. Amy and the kids are away for 18 days so we thought he could use some company.To get ready for our BBQ'd dinner Libi helped me shuck some corn.This was her first experience with it and you can see her deep concentration.She really enjoyed it-- although in the time it took her to shuck one I did four ears :)I love my kitchen helper!!

Libs was in rare form performing for Howard. She ran around for him, asked him to read her stories, asked for tickles, and sang a sort of Howard song. The song consisted of saying, "Howard" over and over again puncutated by whispering, "I don't know!" I'm sure that by the time Howard got home he was thankful for a quiet house!!

Family meetings

This morning while Ron, Cris, Andrea, Ron and I had a family meeting Libi went and spent some time with the Lopez's. She was a little tentative at first but once she realized how much fun Lucas is she had a blast!!Poor Lucas-- he told Dolly that he feels sorry for me because Libi is so much work. I felt bad for Dolly--- Libi's play seemed to demolish their home. Huge thanks goes to Emliy who shared her big girl toys with Libs. This was her first time playing with Barbie dolls!!After nap-time we met up with Meme and Pop-Pop at CPK. It was so much fun to reconnect with them over a tasty meal.As you can see these 3 share a special bond!!

Daddy's first music class!

Today Daddy was able to come to his first music class.It was nice for me because I had another set of hands to help-- and to take pictures :)Libs was in rare form today. Even Miss Moira commented on how much Libi loved having her Daddy in class.This was a special summer camp class which was farm themed. We drove to the farm and listened for animals along the way.We did a fun song where parents were supposed to lift their children in the air-- here's Daddy being a show-off!Perhaps Ron's favorite part of the class was dancing around like the wind with the scarves. The kids stayed on the floor and we blew around them. To ensure my husband will consider coming to classes in the future no pictures of the dancing were taken ;)We got to do a craft as well.
This was my favorite part of the class because I got to simply do the craft with Libs. I didn't have to try to juggle crafting and photography at the same time-- thank you Ron!The craft was a hand-print chicken. Libi is finally over the hand print phobia. In fact she wanted to stick her hands in the ink over and over again!Libi really decorated her chicken-- lots and lots of feathers!Here is the masterpiece! I love the legs off to the side and the low beak-- very Picasso-ish.During exploration time Libs really enjoyed the parachute. Such a happy girl to share her love of music with her Daddy!In the evening we went to the park for a Pioneer Club guide picnic. Libs is still trying to climb things.
She is also still into collecting leaves-- not sure what the fascination is but she carries them all over.She was very much in her own world when this picture was taken. She kept saying, "Tinkerbell in Pixie Hollow" and "Where dreams come true!" Not sure what was going on in her mind but it was fun to watch.We are all loving having Ron home so much. I love the bond these two have-- Libs is definitely Daddy's little girl. The picnic was full of food, friends and games. This particular game Libi got roped into playing. You are supposed to take bean bags and place them into another persons bucket-- the person having the most in the end loses. My darling little girl didn't understand that concept so she grabbed every bean bag she could find and kept stuffing them in her bucket. The game came to a screeching hault because nobody knew where all the bean bags were-- Yup, Miss Libs had then ALL!!They had Icee pops at the picnic and Libs had to have one. Of course she selected the blue one which would make the most mess.Note the blue mouth which stayed with her well into the next morning.She was quite sporty tonight-- trying to play with a ball...and a badminton racquet. Ron and I tried out our badminton skills and we had a blast. I think our next backyard investment will be some raquets and shuttlecocks.

A very, very long lunch with the girls.

Today we met up with some MOPS mommies for lunch at Farrell's. It was a kids eat free day so we thought it would be a great opportunity to chat.
We met up with:Laura and Courtney, and Amy, Madison and Paige.The girls had a blast-- until the food took over an hour. Our poor kids held it together really well all things considered, but Libi must've been really hungry because she ate part of a blue crayon-- thank goodness they're non-toxic now.To help ease the pain they comped some ice cream for us...looks like Libs enjoyed it!!