Weeds on Wednesday...

Nana and Pop had doctors appointments today so we went to have lunch with Daddy at his school.

Libi's favorite part of lunch was the cookie that Daddy gave her at the end!

Ron was conducting a meeting for his east coast trip and Libi noticed that she could do hand puppets on his screen. She is finding all sorts of fun stuff to do with herself these days and almost anything can be a toy.

On the way out Libi found some dandelions in the grass.

I had never told her what to do with them so I was super surprised when she knew EXACTLY what to do.

I'm so happy that I always have my camera near-by because I would have missed this moment if I hadn't. I am surprised by how few of my friends have cameras with them regularly. I know that we all want to remember what our kids do: their milestones, school productions, and holiday festivities, but what about the day to day? I choose to focus on all of it and I wish I could convert more Moms to my way of thinking.

OK, now I'm off my soap box.....

back to the dandelions!

I'm sure the custodians loved her picking all of the weeds....

Not sure that they were excited about her blowing the seeds everywhere, but we should just focus on the positive :)

On the way home you could just see that little Lou was ready for a nap!!!

It's Wednesday night so that means Skipper Club!

Tonight Elyz, Libi and Madison were super chummy. It is so funny to see how the kids play each week-- they always gravitate towards a different kid. Many play alone, but they are beginning to interact much more.

There were lots of instructions tonight for our craft activity-- see the focus!

We only had 8 kiddos, but it was a fun group! It has taken two years, but I finally think we found the perfect format for the Skipper kids. I can't wait to pass on my wisdom to whomever is taking over next year :)

Libs was ambidextrous for a bit, but she seems to have settled on her right hand. We are still watching it though as sometimes she still switches.

Snack tonight was happy ice cream cones (cones with vanilla ice cream and icing happy faces piped on the ice cream.) As you can see it was a HUGE hit with the kids-- especially Libs! It's not every day that she gets dessert before dinner!

Warm and fuzzy...

Today we were all up bright and early to get to school and MOPS. I so rarely take pictures of her first thing in the morning, but she always looks so fresh, clean, and un-stained! I think I should do it more often!

Today at MOPS our Mentor Moms talked about marriage and S-E-X-- so it was a fun meeting!!!

When I went to grab Libs she looked like Nanook of the North!!! It was a gorgeous day today, but the temperature never warmed.

Today Libi was intrigued by the Pooh toys...

and she got to play with Miss Cindy. I think that Libi is born to be teacher's pet because both her father and I were :) I will have to tell you the story some time of the one and only time we took a class together-- we were both in competition to be the professors favorite: it wasn't pretty!!!!

At school today they talked about being warm and fuzzy and their crafts were a mitten and a hot chocolate mug. It dawned on me that Libi has never had this amazing beverage, so after school we shared some.

Hers was more like luke-warm chocolate, but mine was pipping hot!!!

She had marshmallows in hers and I had Cool Whip!

This is my idea of a great afternoon! Putting my feet up after a few busy days and relaxing with my favorite beverage in my favorite mug. If anything ever happens to my Figment mug, I'm going to cry!! It simply makes me happy!

In the evening I got a Mommy break when Ron's folks came for a visit. Libi was totally fascinated with all of Grampy's stuff tonight. She even took every card and piece of paper out of his wallet. Whoops!!! Good thing he loves her :)

I don't think it's the best look for a princess.

When they left there was more dressing up and then a lot of cleaning up!!!

I think we've been watching Mulan too much! Libi took a scarf tonight and tried to climb the wall. ?Luckily? Daddy was there to help her??? Now I have little smudges from dirty feet all up the wall.

Daddy even sang the correct song to make the effect complete. What a guy!

Before bed-time I let Libs listen to some Disney music on Pandora radio on my phone. Every song that came on she told us whether or not we had the movie-- we had most of them!!!

Princess everything....

Today was a very busy day at the homestead. I spent they day cleaning, doing laundry, and of course playing with the princess. Sadly when this picture was taken I was deep in MOPS stuff so I don't look like I was having fun, but trust me I was :)

Everything is about Ariel today-- here is Libi dressed up as Ariel.

We were both super happy that Daddy got home-- especially since he was later than normal.

Since it was a light photo day here are more Libi-isms to enjoy:

"That's a wall. That's a wall!" Over and over on the freeway on the way to Disneyland

Upon spying some cookies on the table at Nana's house, "Delicious!"

"I don't like skeletons, I just like princesses!"

"L-I-B-I spells Libi!" Yes we have a girl who wants to read like a big girl.

Along those lines she is trying to figure out the first letter sound of every word we say. We often hear, "T-t-t is for [insert object here]" or "F-f-f is for..." etc.

"What that says??" when she sees any printed word.

"That does not look good!" This was in response to a Gymboree outfit I dressed her in-- guess she doesn't like my fashion sense.

"We're squished!" When we were having a tender family hug at home

Yesterday while I was doing laundry Libi took some markers and did a little play with it. I overhead, "Hello Lilo, I'm Jimbo. Want to fly with me?"

"Fezzel fun drink game" = Professor Von Drake game= a Disney Monopoly game that Libi was trying to tell us about on the way home. It took Ron and I many miles of driving to decipher what she was saying and then it wasn't until we got home and she pointed to the box did we fully understand what she meant.

Exploring our own backyard.

This morning Libi went straight to her books...

she even selected some for Granpa to read.

Jammy and Granpa left to drive home today and this was one of the last things they saw-- a fairly regular sight here at our home. I love that Libs is so interested in the Disney princesses but I do with she would put all of her princess gear away in her princess trunks so I don't step on it.

I broke out the Mickey pancake/brownie/waffle maker that Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas. We all enjoyed the pancakes and I loved how easy it was to make them.

After breakfast Libi convinced Daddy to dress up with her. Please note that Ron has one dress up outfit on each leg, a skirt on his head, and he was trying to figure out how to get more stuff on himself. I think he secretly enjoys looking pretty :)

For a bit of spontaneity we hopped on the train and headed to downtown L.A. Ariel of course accompanied us!

The train ride had moments that were a bit scary to Libs (sudden stops, lots of folks getting off and on, folks asking for money) but holding her Daddy's hand nothing bad could happen to her.

Our first order of business was to hook up with Grammy and Aunt Andrea so Daddy hopped on the phone.

Libi used her time to converse with the pigeons.

Our train let us off at Pershing Square. Ron and I haven't been here since the teachers union did a protest here-- it was much quieter on this Sunday morning.

Our meeting place was the Nickel Diner which was a few blocks away so we loaded Libi and Ariel in the stroller and headed off.

There was quite a long wait so Grammy and Libi went to their car to play with Gizmo.

This cool place was featured in the Westways Magazine and on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

The food was great...

despite Libi's face! She was just a very tired girl in need of a nap.

The absolute best part of the meal was dessert. They make home-made ding dongs and a peanut salt cake that is to die for!!! Libi seems to agree.

The clouds began to come in on our walk to the L.A. City Library so Libs bundled up.

We saw lots of ironic things on our walk: a pigeon eating a drumstick and this Muslim lady totally covered up and dragging with her a nearly naked Betty Boop :) LA is fun!

Libi was really excited to get here!

It is a gorgeous building!

Libi was amazed with this chandelier...

it was a globe surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac. Uber cool!

We went straight to the children's section and Libi was enthralled with the sheer amount of books. She grabbed a big book and said, "I'm being a teacher."

Then she moved some animals over to get cozy and read some more. If we didn't have a very tired girl we would have stayed longer. We will have to get back soon to see more of what LA has to offer.