We're In!

Yay, we're in!  We closed one week ago today.   Here's George looking up at his new house.

And Magnolia dancing a happy dance to finally be home!

Lunch on the staircase?  How fun!

This is what I've been doing for the past week.  And almost done!  Garage and basement left  to do.

Magnolia and George are getting used to their new house and we love hanging out on the front yard watching all of the walkers, joggers, dogs, strollers, kids, and bikers pass us by.  Most of our neighbors have come out to welcome us.  There are a lot of kids on our block and another little girl born in China lives down the street.  When Magnolia saw her she exclaimed "she has black hair just like me!"  The best part of moving here so far was when I could push the kids in the stroller to the grocery store (and a really nice one at that) just a few blocks away.   I love that we'll be able to do a lot of walking here.  We're in a suburb near the city so it definitely feels far more urban than where we came from.  We are hearing a lot of fire trucks and police sirens.  We're seeing a lot of squirrels and not so shy bunnies.  We have lots of uneven sidewalks that have caused a sufficient amount of scraped knees around here.  We have a much smaller yard and our garage is on an alley!  These may be little things to some but they aren't going unnoticed here!  I'm so happy to be back in the city again and in an old house!  The funny thing is that this house feels like it's in better condition than our last which we bought brand new.  We have a lot of updating to do but love doing it.  First will be the outside.  I'll be back with the before and afters...we're getting started this weekend!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Island Time

Looking back at these pictures of our week on the island, I can hardly remember those rainy days.  The end of our trip was filled with gorgeous weather and we made the most of it.  Here we are exploring the water on our shore.  We attempted to take George on the boat twice and both times he wouldn't have it.  Magnolia, on the other hand, loved it.  She said it was relaxing and even fell asleep in it!

We went to the Art and Nature Center like we do every year to see the bee hive.  This year this huge piece of tree was new.

We spent 2 mornings on School House Beach.  As always, the water was cold but so refreshing.  We all dove in.  There are only four beaches like this in the world with these smooth flat rocks.  It's so much fun to play with them.  People build things out of them.  We bring paintbrushes and paint water on them.  I even put them on Magnolia's back and legs.  They are so smooth and warm...who needs a spa when you can do that?

We did our usual Thursday night trip to the Red Barn just down the road for story time and snacks.

We saw plenty of sandhill cranes like this one on our shoreline.  

I decided to park my favorite $3 find on the front yard for some summertime interest.  I'm glad I can admire now that it's been unearthed from the garage.  As I was admiring it so much I started to wonder if I should let it get weathered since I seem to admire it so much.  I started to wonder if I couldn't somehow incorporate it into the decor inside.  I suppose it's the color green (my favorite) and the white vinyl seat (also love white) and the shiny fenders....I just love this bike...I even rode it around the yard a few times to show it my appreciation.

Ahhh....when the sun shines on this place, it's really something.  That canoe called my name a few times but had thoughts of baby George jumping ship if we took him out.  Next year.

We attended the island's Ice Cream Social.  We blew bubbles, did some painting, stamping, hot dog eating, and of course ice cream.  Living life through the eyes of a kid sure is fun! 

Magnolia stood with all of these big kids and built one amazing boat now on display in our house.

George strutting his stuff on the shore and endlessly putting rocks in his mouth.  One look from us and he'd open his mouth and let them all roll out.

Magnolia loving her lemonade popsicles.

Fingerpainting suddenly went wild.  Guess who was the first to discover that is was more fun to paint on something other than paper.  Hint:  look behind Magnolia.

Happy Summer Everyone!

The Fourth

We just got back from being on the island for a week.  We spent the first part of the week celebrating the 4th of July with my parents and sister.  We went to the Fire Department's Annual Pancake Breakfast.  George, being all the boy that he is, loved the firetrucks. 

Then we went to Magnolia's current favorite place on earth, Sand Dune Park.  We played in the sand, ran down the dunes, and put lots of sand in our mouth.

Later that evening we went to the island parade.  It is a wonderful parade and all of 5 minutes long.   A couple of firetrucks, a whole lot of kids on decorated bikes, and a handful of candy.  Who needs anything more than that?  The kids loved it.  We went home and saw some distant fireworks from the deck.  It was a great day!

The following 4 days were filled with nonstop rain.  Our company left and we were starting to feel incredibly restless.   There isn't a darn thing to do or go when it rains on the island. I thought I would go crazy!  Good news came to us though.  We get to close earlier than we thought on our new house.  Five days and counting!