Poppa and Libby

I'm pretty sure this was Easter, but I could be wrong. Libby, who is usually a little shy, went right up to Poppa in his chair and handed him a purse full of toys, then demanded to be held. She played with him for quite a while. What a Kodak moment! Thought you all might enjoy it.

Our Special Trip

Monday finally came! Eve and Sadie have been waiting such a long time for it, because yesterday we got to go on a trip to the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco with Nonna, Stephy, Bernie, Jackie, Angie, and my Aunts Carol and Lynne.
First we went to the Marina for a picnic - don't ask where or what that is, I don't know. I can tell you that it was so windy we had to sit on the baby so she wouldn't fly away. It turned out the wind was entertaining for the kids. I was putting the picnic away when the aunts taught Eve and Sadie how to make their blankets into kites. I didn't get any pictures of Sadie
playing blow blankie, but I have a few of Eve. This was their favorite part of the trip.

Here we are waiting for Aunt Carol Anne at Safeway in Benicia, where we picked her up.

And at the Marina...

Preparing that lunch was an olympic sport.

Bernie and Mae

Nonna and Eve

Aunt Lynne and Aunt Carol Anne

Jackie and Sarah

Bernie and Sadie and Libby chasing the seagulls away

And here is Eve playing "blow blankie" as she calls it,

Next we went to the Japanese tea garden which is right near the botanical gardens. We followed a pretty path over bridges and step stones past pagodas, zen gardens, dwarf trees and bushes and beautiful flowering shrubs.
Here are Jackie and Sarah in a tree near the entrance,


Sadie was very proud to be the keeper of the stroller. She was also thrilled that we have the exact same stroller that Aunt Stephy has.


Here's Aunt Carol Anne pointing out the fish in the pond below to Sadie,


Bernie took this picture, so unfortunately she and for some reason, Aunt Lynne aren't in it.


Angie and Eve enjoying Jasmine tea and crackers.

We got out of there just in time to avoid traffic on the way home. What a fun day!

Enjoying the Spring Weather

Well, I know I promised pictures of our garden, but the problem is that when I go down there to work it's usually just me and the girls and I want to work, not take pictures. Here's my hero working down there with us after a 12 hour day of pest control and finance work. I set 16 t-posts for our electric fence on Monday and when Ben got home he did a little tree-trimming and brush removal so I can have a bigger better garden with more sun. So I need to move a couple posts, but I'm almost ready to put up the wire. Sorry for so few pics and bad quality, it was almost 8:00 when I took these.



Finally we got rid of this nasty eye sore. I don't know what it's called, but it's tenacious. It took years of spraying it with round up every spring to really kill it dead. I guess cutting it down just strengthens the roots so we had to leave it up, but now it's gone!


Here's Libby on my back waving hello (or trying to get the camera, you decide.)




The Girls wanted to play in the sprinkler today since it's a lovely 84 degrees out, and I couldn't resist getting out the camera. They had a blast as you can see. Liberty really surprised me. I didn't expect her to want to get wet, but when I first turned on the water I turned it up way too high and Libby got sprayed at the far end of the lawn. I turned it down right away and waited for the screams, but instead she went right over to the water and played there until she was completely soaked! Anyway, here a few of all the girls getting wet. I love the weather here!

Who's winning?

Sadie getting a drink.

Big sister Eve is always ready to lend Libby a hand.

Oops, Sadie's suit is on backwards!

Easter Joys

As you can see, the girls were just thrilled to have their picture taken after church on Easter Sunday. You really need to click on the picture to get the full effect.


It was a crazy day. After church, Ben had to speak at the Young Single Adult Branch (insert grumbling here), so I took the girls to my parents' while he told the 20-somethings to save up for a down payment on a house. My paternal grandma, who lived with my parents for many years passed away a couple weeks before Easter, so my parents had been pretty busy laying her to rest and reuniting with my Dad's huge family. It was really our first family reunion since the early 90's I think. Anyway, Easter at my folks' was low-key compared to most years, and I enjoyed spending time with one of my brothers and almost all of my sisters.

Here's Liberty with Aunt Angie who, along with Aunt Bernie, Aunt Jackie and cousins Sarah and Mae is doing her best to make spoiled monsters of my children.


And this is my brother Kevin with his 5th, yes 5th son, Dominic. You have no idea what I had to do to get Kevin to smile. Actually, he was probably contemplating what I'll be going through in a few short years with 3 girls in high school.


After lunch at my parents, we went to the Big Mavys' for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. The kids, as usual had a blast playing with all their cousins and found tons of eggs. Carolyn, the queen of too many, dyes about 13 million eggs every Easter and usually there are so many hidden the kids need wheel barrows to pick them all up. This year her grandkids have caught up to her and there were just enough for the kids to have a satisfyingly heavy basket in about 10 minutes or so.


Liberty had a great time even though she never did catch on to the concept of putting the eggs in the basket. I tried to get her to pick up the egg in the picture, but she was way more interested in the bucket of ashes.


Over all, a great Easter, hope your's was too!