We've Arrived!

I can't believe it's been a week since the movers came and packed up our house.  I can't even begin to tell you all that has happened in the past week.  But trust me when I tell you it has been crazy.  We are finally living in a hotel in Milwaukee and we bought a house last week!   It's a 1936 Colonial complete with beautiful mouldings and old floors (I can't tell you how much I've missed those things in our last house).  I find it so charming even with the dated kitchen and baths.   We're in walking distance to just about anything and just a short drive into the city.  I know we are going to love it.  We arrived on Sunday for the housing inspection.  Everything looks good which is a relief.  Afterwards we headed to the park in town that leads down to Lake Michigan.   Magnolia & George have been such champs through all of this change.

We may close on our new house in just a couple of weeks which would be great.  In the meantime we are going to spend a week over the 4th on the island with some of my family.  Can't wait to get up there and unwind for a while!   I'll be back soon!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to one of the greatest Dads I know!

He spent his day with Magnolia & George.  Here they are helping him fix the broken picnic table.  

Hope all of you Dads out there had a great day and Happy Father's Day to my own Dad!

P.S.  The house wasn't meant to be.  The other buyer dropped their contingency so the house is theirs.  This is two for two on trying to buy a house.  Back to square one.  We check into a hotel on Friday indefinitely and keep on looking...

An Accepted Offer

We found a house, we placed an offer, they accepted.  One problem.  They already have an accepted offer.  We are attempting to "bump" the other buyer.  They have first right to eliminate their contingency.  If they can't, the house is ours.  Three more days and we'll know for sure.   Out of all the houses we saw last weekend, this was the last one.  I couldn't even remember why I chose to see it to begin with.  Our realtor told us the seller won't leave the house during the showing.  We said, no problem.  We didn't have high hopes for this one.  We turned onto the street and were instantly charmed.  Just two blocks from Lake Michigan, the homes were so pretty, the trees so big, and there were sidewalks!!!  Kids started running from houses up and down the street as if it was cued in a movie.  The house needs A LOT of work.  So much work that it wakes me up in the middle of the night with anxiety and excitement.  The house is just 5 blocks from shops and 6 blocks from the school.  I really hope this all works out.  If it does, we will only have temporary housing for three weeks.  If not, we're back to square one with no where to live, yikes!

In the meantime, we have almost one week left here with a frenzy of activity up until closing.  Magnolia says she's excited about moving but also feels sad because she'll miss it here.  That's the perfect way to describe a move; excitement and sadness.  Here's a picture of Magnolia with her friends and neighbors, Charlie & Edward.

Over Memorial Weekend we went up to the island.  Magnolia and I sat on the top deck of the ferry and watched as we made our way across Death's Door.  She LOVES coming to the island and it's so much fun to share in her excitement of the journey.

Nana and Papa came with us this time making the trip even more special.

Here's Nana singing "I Knew a Funny Little Dutch Girl" with Mags.

I LOVE this shot of the kids with Papa.  Magnolia adores her Papa, a match to an imagination as wild as hers.  He never tired of reading The Billy Goats Gruffs to her.

We rented a big truck and brought up new deck furniture and a ton of plants to complete the new landscaping in the front of the house.  George (and George) did all the hard work and it looks great.

That was a particulary great weekend because we sold the house that weekend and weren't even around to stress about all of the showings!  The following weekend was an impromptu girls weekend (with the exception of Georgie).  It was a wild and crazy time with these 5 under the age of 5.  We all had a blast and my sisters and I worked on a new window display for Mary's salon.  Big George had a weekend with his friends.  I was so happy to have the company of my sisters and nieces!

Four wild girls and one super annoyed little boy.

We had a garage sale today.  Feels great to get rid of so much.  Tomorrow is our first serious house hunting trip.  We are seeing SEVEN houses!!! All with a 15 min. time frame.  Kind of manic way to house hunt but the best way we can think of with 2 small kids.  I know the minute I walk in a house and if it's a good feeling we'll arrange for another visit.  So excited to see what's out there!   Have a great weekend!

Three years ago we got the call that we waited our whole lives for.  The woman on the other line said, "George and Lucy, you have the most beautiful baby girl!"  It was one of the best days of our lives and I remember it like it was yesterday.  

Oh Happy Referral Day!

It's a done deal.  I never thought it would happen as fast as it did but it did.  We left our house to spend the weekend up on the island.  We barely left it in showing condition thinking no one would come through on a holiday weekend.  The buyers came through it on Saturday, again on Sunday, drew up an offer on Monday, we countered on Tuesday and they accepted on Wednesday!  Whew!  The kicker of it all?  We close on the 25th.  June 25th that is.  We have 21 days to move out.  AND with no place to go!  Top on my list is finding temporary housing.  Next will be one massive garage sale.  I'll be back soon but I've got so much to do!  So happy we can finally start our new journey!

This is one of the many messes the kids made today as I frantically drew up a To Do List and made numerous phone calls.  

I just love this little guy.  He loves being outside.  He has been so happy recently,  a real peach.   We had a beautiful weekend.  Here he is in his swing before heading out for dinner and here he is pushing his big sister around in her doll stroller.  

We were on our way home from dinner when I turned around to snap this picture of George completely giddy and silly from the mac and cheese and ice cream.  He was cracking me up.

That's when we almost ran over a turtle.  We were on a country road so I asked George to take Magnolia out to show her the turtle and make sure it crossed safely.   It did.  :)

Meanwhile we spent a lot of time in the yard playing in the pool.  

For my not so girly girl, Magnolia sure did love her new swimsuit and wore it all weekend. 

Hope you're enjoying the start of summer where you are!

P.S.  Speaking of summer, I am a "Summer."  I got color draped recently and discovered what colors look best on me.  It was so much fun and such a learning experience.  I never knew black wasn't for me!   It will be interesting to shop now armed with my new color palette!

Nani came to visit us for a week.  She was a HUGE help to me and it was so nice to have her company. We even squeezed in a visit to the island for some beautiful weather.   

Thank you Annela for EVERYTHING!  We loved having you!

XOXO  

In an effort to change things up around here I'm showing a few things I wouldn't otherwise show.  One being a photograph of myself and the other is bad decorating in my house.  I'm sharing this photo of me with George and Magnolia because it was taken on Mother's Day.   I wish I could erase my double chin.  But I can't.  At least not in an instant...sigh.  I had a wonderful day complete with a full morning to myself which included some shopping.  Shopping that allowed me to really take my time and look.  That got me thinking about our screen porch and how I've really let it go.  It's such a tricky space, really almost silly how narrow they made it.  BUT, it's a screen porch and I'll take it over not having one at all. We used to have it decorated kind of cute until the kids came.  I realized it could use some staging for the house showings and so the rest of my Mother's Day was spent redecorating it.  

This is before.

I bought a bistro table to put at one end and brought up some chairs from the basement.  It still looked so blah...

This is the "after".  I didn't have to buy much.  Just some burlap and pillow ticking for the table, a tablecloth that I made pillows out of and some duck cloth for the new cushion cover.  I pulled all of the galvanized pots of the garage.  I also took this old kidney table from storage.  It had a glass pink knob on it and I made a new pull out of knot of rope.  I also exchanged out the chairs for wooden ones.

Considering I spent around $20 for the whole makeover, I think it turned out pretty cute!

Now if we could just get some more people to come through our house!

Spending our days outdoors has been nothing but bliss.  This is what we've been up to.

The water table made its seasonal debut.

Swinging in a tutu.

Playing in the yard until sundown.

Discovering the water hose for the first time and making dinosaur footprints.

Eating ice cream cones upside down.

Life is good!

• Lots of house showings.  Great feedback.  Two different buyers really love it.  Still no offers. This is exhausting.  
• The house I was in love with in Milwaukee sold.  We tried to buy it but had to place a contingency and they couldn't accept it.  I'm still trying to get over it.
• Since George's first round of antibiotics he's had a stomach bug and now a virus with pink eye.  On top of that, his molars are coming in.  Poor thing has been miserable for two weeks now.

• Last December the island had one of the worst wind storms it's had in a long time.   Many of our trees came down including one big tree branch which pierced a hole in our roof.  Inside water damaged our couch.  Outside our deck table was smashed to pieces and the gutters ripped off.  Thank goodness for insurance.  We went up to the island this weekend to pick out roof shingles for a new roof.  We were due for one anyway.
• George took off walking recently.  It's been fun to watch him go!

• Magnolia is learning to button.  She has mastered her tricycle.  She continues to learn to read.   She asks to listen to jazz in the car and has an amazing ability to call out the instruments that are being played.   I'm attempting to grow out her hair for the 100th time.  I just need to get past this awkward stage.   I think she's going to look so cute with braids!

• We are loving this gorgeous Wisconsin spring.  I never knew they existed here!  On this day      Magnolia and George almost ate an entire pineapple.  It was a perfect warm spring afternoon in the yard.
• Today Magnolia turned three and half years old.  We celebrated with a balloon and cake.  Happy Half Birthday Magpie!
• Fourth Open House this weekend.   Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday my dear little one!

We had so much celebrating your day.  You woke from your nap to balloons and presents!

Good thing your big sister was there to help open presents while you kept your eyes on those balloons.

We love you George!  Happy 1st Birthday!