Grandma's Birthday!

Grandma Pat came down from Santa Barbara on Saturday for her birthday!

She made homemade chocolate ice cream with Paprika:





And we all went to the Wilderness Park!





Paprika fed the ducks.  There was this one duck who would not leave Paprika alone. The duck followed her everywhere she went:




Hi friendly duck!




Ginger was feeling grumpy, so I carried her on my back the whole time.  I got quite the workout!  Baby Violet rode in the Ergo for awhile, but wanted out asap, of course!  So, shortly after this photo was taken, she was running through the park at full-speed:





That night, Mr. M and I had a short date after dinner.  We went for a walk on the beach - we walked the Pier and saw a sea lion!  It was fantastic.  On the way home, we picked up two slices of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory - and we brought them home and split them 6 ways.  It was more than enough!





So, this is a funny-ish story.  I told Paprika and she wanted me to write it down!

Usually, we have guests sleep in the office/guest room.  But in the past month or so, Baby Violet has claimed that as her own room!  It's the only place she wants to fall asleep at night.

So, we decided Grandma Pat would sleep in Ginger's bed (bottom bunk of the big girls' room) - and Paprika would sleep on the top bunk, as usual.  Ginger would sleep with me and Mr. M in our room, and Violet would sleep in the office.

The best laid plans!

Violet did fall asleep in the office, and Ginger did fall asleep in my bed.  But at 2 am, Violet came downstairs to sleep and that meant Mr. M had to move upstairs to the office, since there was no room in the bed since Ginger was occupying a spot.  When he got out of bed, that woke up Ginger.  When Ginger woke up, she wanted the lights on and started crying.  So, I turned on the lights - which meant Violet would not go back to sleep.  So, after an hour and a half of trying to get the girls to sleep, I went up and switched places with Mr. M in the office.  He came back downstairs to sleep, and by that time Ginger had fallen back asleep.  But then Violet woke up shortly afterwards, and came back up to the office to sleep, which woke me up!  Then I got her back to sleep for an hour before she woke back up and went back downstairs and woke up Mr. M and Ginger!  Then we were all awake for the day!

And we were all just a little exhausted!  ;-)

I think next time we have guests I will sleep in the office with Violet - and possibly lock the door with us inside!  ;-)  Guests can sleep in the girls' room, and the big girls can have a slumber party downstairs.

I'll figure it out eventually - probably about the time everyone goes off to college!  Ha!

Anyhoo- here is a sweet photo of Paprika reading to Grandma Pat before bedtime.  It was one of Paprika's favorite new books - Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel.  (An oldie but goodie!)




The End!