So yeah, September might be the month were school starts and Labor day happens. But it isn’t like Christmas when most kids are counting down the days until they can open gifts or even on Easter when they can stuff their faces full of candy! With that said, I, with the help of Doc, have something very important to tell you.

Doc is really annoyed that I didn’t post about him last time so I made sure to get plenty of videos of him that are to his satisfaction. Lately he has been thinking about Halloween and boy is he excited! The costumes at the top of the list are:

1. Sea Witch (From Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

2) A Ghost

3) The classic Pumpkin

Did I mention that Doc is terrified of ghosts? I have 1,000,000,000 videos with Doc asking me to say boo and when I do he screams and scrambles to crawl away.

In other news, a little over 6 years ago, I officially became obsessed with American Girl Dolls. I took an old box that my mom had and made it into a laptop that I edited to conveniently be on the American Girl Doll website.

The options for the dolls were slim but it entertained me for hours so no complaining here!

Now who is ready for the one, the only, Actor Of The Week!

Drumroll pleeeease!!!!!!!!

Nick Offerman!

He has been in everything from The Lego Movie, to Devs, with a LOT in between.

If you are wondering about some of the things in between, here are a few:

my personal favorite, Parks and Recreation, Making it, The Founder, Hearts Beat Loud, Sing, and ten cabillion more. If you were wondering, click here for the others!

He is a hysterical, awesome, great actor. My favorite show that he he was in is Parks and Recreation where he plays the role of Ron Swanson, the meat-loving, woodworking, riddle-solving boss to the lead character, Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler. Now please enjoy the Ron Swanson inspired, Nick Offerman Bacon Slam Poem!

I hope you enjoyed this post!

-Grace

P.S. Look at this awesome video that my Grandpa sent! It is a machine that paints murals. It is insane!

Hey again! Long time no write! A while ago, Poppy shared the photos that he took at Manzanita and I FINALLY remembered to write about them. My grandpa is an amazing photographer and after you see these photos, you will agree. I asked him about his time in Africa, where he traveled part of every year from 1965 to 1976.

When I told him I was writing about him he was flattered and is now concerned that the paparazzi are going to show up at his door.

This is exactly what he said when I told him about this post: “Can’t imagine what you are going to say about me… hmmm… don’t mention the Good Looks or Athletic Body… otherwise all sorts of women will stalk me…mistaking me for George Clooney.”

Now that I write this, I might need to warn him about the fact that I mentioned the Good Looks and Athletic Body….

I’m Back! Now that I warned him I can show you his amazing pictures that he took in Africa and the ones from Manzanita. I have a bunch of photos so I will go to my trusty assistant, The Random Number Generator! Get ready….

67! I don’t have that many photos. Let’s try again….

-7! I should really check the settings on this thing….

9! Great! Here are 9 photos that he took!

And my personal favorite….

Are you ready to feast your eyes on 3 of the best pictures ever taken in Manzanita? Here we go!

Aren’t they gorgeous!?

He also has been sending some amazing videos!!! I think they are a riot and I watch them over and over again! Be warned. The following may occur: dying of amazement and hiccups.

Now for the one of the funniest movies ever!! A GREAT movie called Spy. Melissa McCarthy stars in this funny, action, slightly inappropriate (I hope you don’t mind the F-word) family movie. For all of the geniuses who are now furiously tapping away on their devices, let me make life just a little bit easier. Get ready for the trailer:

I hope you like it!

In other news, 206 years and 1 day ago (in 1814), Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner”! Did you know that the “Star Spangled Banner” was originally titled “The Defence of Fort M’Henry”? Can you imagine someone announcing: And now, *Insert Famous SInger Here* with the “The Defence of Fort M’Henry“!

Also I want to do this thing called Actor Of The Week where I name an actor that was in a show, movie, or even musical. It is my way of recognizing great films and obsessing over one of the actors that was in it. So for the first ever Actor Of The Week… Drumroll Please!!!!!

Kristen Bell! She starred in Deadwood as Flora Anderson, Elle Bishop in Heroes, Gossip Girl in Gossip Girl, Anna in Frozen, and my personal favorite role and one of my favorite TV shows, Veronica Mars in Veronica Mars!

She even voices the sloth Priscilla Tripletoe in Zootopia!

Can’t you see the resemblance!? Just Kidding! But Kristen Bell is known to have a love of sloths!

I hope you like Actor Of The Week!

Drop the Mike!

-Grace

Forget the influence of Peppa pig! (If you don’t remember that particular post very well, feel free quickly catch up here: https://blahblahblog.topliff.com/page/2/. Due to the way I publish the posts, you have to scroll down a bit to get to the Influence of Peppa Pig.

Anyway, Doc got a Jake and The Neverland Pirates treasure box filled with a sword, treasure geh-shure map, compass, bandana, and spyglass. He loves them so much and takes them everywhere he goes. When he gets tired of playing with his spyglass, he usually attempts to have a sword fight with you. You can usually tell that he wants to have a sword fight when he screams “En Garde” at the top of his lungs. (But it usually comes out as “AW-gard.” He says it super fast and in one word. I want to show you the pictures of Captain Doc in all his Pirate Glory!

Also, 10 years and 1 day ago I started my first day at Bright Beginnings Montessori. It was one of those Instagram things were it tells you how many years ago on that day, but my Mom showed the photos to me late last night right before the power went out so I didn’t get to blog about them until today. (More on the power outage later.)

Now for the power outage subject. Last night at about 7:00 or so the wind (which was already super crazy and knocking pine cones into our backyard) got even windier and a bunch of tree branches fell near our house. The power was out until about 8:45 this morning. You can tell we are a very responsible family because at 9:30 pm, when we got out generator up and running, we used its precious time and power to watch an episode of TV and charge our phones. Yep, super responsible. Also we found out a really cool way to make a lantern. All you need is a milk jug, water, duct tape, and a working flashlight.

What you do is fill the milk jug with water and place the flashlight over the opening. Then you duct tape the flashlight to the jug so that the light part shines into the water. And there you have it, a heavy but pretty good DIY lantern! (Just make sure you have replacement batteries near by just in case…)

Lastly, school starts for me tomorrow and I just want to say that if there is a lack of posts I am really sorry. I will do my best to keep up, but chances are that I will fall a bit behind. You will most likely get a post once a week. Happy start of school! (Though for most of you it already started.)

-Grace

P.S. Make sure to check out this link! It is 30 of the worlds most funniest tombstones! World’s Best Tombstones! Enjoy!

First up is a recent story about Doc. When Doc goes to the bathroom, he gets three jelly beans or “GEH-wy-beeeens”. Last night he got his usual three. I think coconut jelly beans are disgusting but Doc loves them because Cubby, a character in his favorite show, likes is obsessed with coconuts. He also likes lemon and cherry.

So anyway, Mom puts Doc to bed and the next day, she goes into Doc’s room and sees that his hand is kind of red. So Mom asks him to open his hand and when he does, she sees a squashed red jelly bean in his hand. Correction-she sees all of the jellybeans from the night before in his hand. And guess what!? They squashed together into a red mess. Doc usually saves his jelly beans until the last minute to eat but now we know to pay a little more attention so that we don’t have to wash his sheets twice to get the red jelly bean stain out!

Now for a story that is a little less than recent…

Dad had a camera that he hasn’t used in a long time and he let Hazel borrow it for a while. Hazel was looking through all of the photos she found a bunch of me from when I was little! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

I hope you liked the stories and photos!

See ya Write to ya next time!

-Grace

Hey again! After realizing that there was so much that I didn’t put into the first vacation post, I thought it would be a good idea to write multiple parts to one adventure because we did so much stuff! I will try not to go overboard and make too many parts. Enjoy!

Weeks later…

VACATION Pt. 62

Haha, just kidding!

While we were on vacation Millie had the time of her life back in Portland with her BFF, Bindi. These are some photos:

The beach was so fun and it was really great to get away from all of the chaos and buzz in Portland. Now we are back and although Millie isn’t having as much fun here, because as you can see in the pictures above, Millie and Bindi played, napped, and peed together. Talk about best friends!

Now something about me must look a bit different, I got braces! If it were possible for my mouth to grow a hand and slap my teeth, it would feel pretty similar to what it feels like right now…

Though my grandparents went back home to Napa, my uncle is still here and we have had great fun with our outdoor movie night! Last night we had pizza and the whole family got the impression that Doc really enjoyed it. Well, more or less…

See ya next time!

-Grace

Hi! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. I swear I tried but between me locking myself out of my laptop (I blame the computer) and having to endure a two-hour drive to Manzanita with Doc, (who screamed for 99.99999% of the drive), there hasn’t been much time for peace and quiet. Wait, you went on a two-hour drive?, you ask. And what was that about Manzanita? That’s right. I went on vacation!

My grandparents, uncle, parents, siblings, and I went to Manzanita. Doc had having a blast! From picking up shells, to running away from freezing water, to yelling at 5:00 AM in the morning because he was just too excited to start the day, please excuse me if you see a typo. I am still half asleep. In our rented beach house there was an arcade room with a basketball game, foosball, and a few video games.

Every day we went to the beach. At first sand was on Doc’s number one enemy list, but now he loves building sand castles, making wet sand, and flinging it at people while digging for treasure.

It was also my Uncle’s birthday a few days ago! He is a pizza-making, game-building, prank-pulling master. Doc has loved celebrating birthdays in the past, but nothing compares to the fun he had on this birthday, helping Uncle Jakey unwrap gifts, playing with balloons, being a big help at finishing the desserts, and playing with balloons. OH! And playing with balloons. Doc has a few things to say to Uncle Jakey…

And this is him playing with balloons:

Here are a few more pictures of Doc:

Before this post gets too long I have one more thing to share with you. Doc recently showed how skilled he is a reading!

I would just like to note that the book that Doc was holding was a parenting novel owned by my parents

-Grace

P.S. As a challenge, my Aunt and Uncle gave my family the challenge of creating a video of our vacation and turn it into a mini-movie. The only twist… We got to pretend that we were in Hawaii…

Doc has been playing the cutest baby card all day, and you can’t say no to this face!

Or this one!

When you ask him to smile that is his response. While I was sitting on the couch with the family iPad, Doc came and cuddled up next to me which automatically turned on “take pictures and videos of everything mode” and when I hit the “start video” button he said this:

He also proved today that he isn’t planning to pounce on Millie and I think Millie decided to stand down on Doc because this picture definitely shouts: I WUV YOOO MIWIE MOOZLES! and I think it also shouts HAVING A PUPPY AND A TODDLER HUDDLED UNDER ONE ROOF ISN’T SUCH A BAD IDEA WHILE UNDER QUARANTINE! Don’t listen to the overly talkative picture! It is a bad idea!!!!!!! But this is the proof that Doc and Millie will tolerate each other:

Even though pictures are super talkative these days, I think this picture is worth seeing and listening too. Even Mom and Doc had some quality time to cook together!

Also, a week ago, Doc, Hazel, and I went on a treasure hunt which he really enjoyed! There are 3 parts! I hope you like it!

To end this post on a high note I am going to stop here. I hope you had fun reading this post!

-Grace

About six years ago, my family and I went to Disneyland. To me it was heaven. But for Hazel…not so much.

I remember riding the tower of terror, and splash mountain.

This is me on the tower of terror in all of my terrified glory:

And on splash mountain:

Like I said, I loved Disneyland. I would live there if I could and to this day I remember the headboard on the bed at the Disneyland hotel. Hazel and I thought it was the most fascinating thing in the world: A light-up picture of Disneyland!

As much as I loved the characters, Hazel hated them. I would go up to each and every character and hug all of them, whereas this was Hazel’s reaction to not just the characters but almost everything else:

These are the photos of my infinite amount of love for the characters that, now, when I look back at them, might just haunt my nightmares.

Eventually, Hazel found out that the Merry-go-round (or Carousel if any of you are picky) was barely slow enough but bearable, so she and my mom went round and round. She also had a passion for Autopia and Hazel and my mom, who made a pretty good team, bumped around on the tracks for hours on end

That about sums up my trip to Disneyland. I hope you had as much fun reading this post as I had writing it!

-Grace

I have so much to tell about Doc and Millie. First of all, Millie has found some pretty odd rooms to sleep in…

And…

She also was being super weird and going crazy on the couch last night!

There are two videos of Doc that are super funny and you HAVE to see them!

I hope you like this post and like all other posts, this one must come to an end. If you want to see any embarrassing baby stories about me and/or Hazel, feel free to request one. My dad’s blog has more baby stories than I can count.

-Grace

P.S. I just heard about a kid that saved his sister from a dog attack! Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in the Marvel Universe, zoomed with him to tell him how brave he was! This is the link to the video of Chris Evans talking to him: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/entertainment/little-boy-saves-sister-dog-attack-anne-hathaway-trnd/index.html

P.P.S. I was reading my Dad’s blog and found this hysterical video of me and Hazel explaining Christmas and thought you would enjoy! As a four year old (this was taken in 2012) I was very knowledgeable about Christmas.

P.A.D.A.B.U.C.C.T.H. is the shorter version of: Pineapples and Dogs: A Better Understanding of the Constant Craziness in The Topliff Household. My Mom recently reminded me of one of Hazel’s moments of fame during our time in California a few years ago.

It involves… Dogs and a Pineapple.

My Mom was about to take Hazel out of her crib when she heard an odd barking noise. Confused, she opened the door to Hazel’s room and found Hazel contently sitting in her bed making dog noises. A bark here, a woof there. She went up to the crib and asked Hazel these exact words: Hazel, what are you doing?

Hazel: I’m a doggy.

Mom: If you are a doggy what does that make me?

Hazel: A Mommy Doggy.

Mom: If I’m a Mommy Doggy then what does that make your Daddy?

Hazel: A Daddy Doggy.

Mom: What does that make Gracie?

Hazel: A god A Sister Doggy.

Mom: If you are a Doggy, I am a Mommy Doggy, Dad is a Daddy Doggy, and Grace is a Sister Doggy, then what does that make Lincoln? (Lincoln was my Mom’s dog, who she adopted well before she met my dad. Lincoln lived to the ripe age of 14. Unfortunately he passed away but his memory lives on.)

Hazel: Um…a Pineapple.

Grace: (Present time) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And like my Biking Grammar story in the post called An Old Bike Ride, a New Movie, an Addictive Game, and Some Serious Topic Changes, P.A.D.A.B.U.C.C.T.H lives on to embarrass Hazel when friends are over. Which is the sole purpose of embarrassing baby stories.

Anyway, 3 days ago, Doc, his nanny Kim, and I had some fun with the Snapchat filters on Kim’s phone…

Last but not least, tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the day my Grandma passed away. She would be 80 years old. She was the kind of Grandma that let you watch whatever you wanted while eating a McDonald’s Happy Meal so she was very much loved by me and Hazel. She was my Dad’s mom. Suzanne, Grammie we called her, really liked steak, lobster, whale (not to eat), and Super Mario Bros (definitely not to eat). I guess I just wanted to say that I miss her and hope she is… Well, undisturbed? I don’t know where I was going with that sentence. And with that I must go but I hope you have a fabulous weekend.

If you want to learn a bit more about Grammie, be sure to check out this website: http://www.lastingmemories.com/memorial/suzanne-smullin-topliff?lifestory

-Grace