18 Months

 What a big boy you are George!  You are 18 months this week! 

You won't say much more than ball, bus, car, and truck but today we had a very nice little conversation. We were playing outside when a plane went by overhead.  You stopped playing, looked at me, and did the sign for airplane.   I told you that I heard it too and did the sign for airplane.  You then pointed to the sleeve of your shirt and I knew you were telling me that you have pajamas that have airplanes on them.  It was so nice to have that little chat with you!

 It turns out that we have a lot of trucks and fire engines that go down our side street.  If I didn't have you, George, I wouldn't know how exciting that is!  You have made me very excited about dump trucks, cement mixers, cranes, jack hammers, city buses, school buses, motorcycles, big trucks, and fire engines.  I always say thank you to the road workers when we are stuck in traffic as they will capture your attention endlessly.

 I love when you run, you hunch your shoulders up high and pump those arms to gain momentum.  You just started to jump this week.  Your feet still haven't gotten off the ground but you keep trying.

 You like to eat just like I do, bread and fruit, never much meat but a fierce sweet tooth.  You are a real monster when you wake up, it takes you a long time to adjust.  We most always take a long walk in the stroller so you can wake up slowly.   Your Aunt Emily knit this gorgeous wool sweater for you.  She had to redo the neckline countless times so we could be sure we could pull it over your incredibly large head.  :)

 You love your rocket car.  You like to pull the front wheels up off the ground and slam them back down.  You don't see me smile, but I do.  Every time.

 You are so much fun.  I just adore you.  I love seeing life through your eyes.

 I can't say you are the most active child I've ever seen.  I won't complain.  You never stray far from me. Here you are taking a rest and let me tell you, you hadn't gone far.  I love how you are resting your foot on the tire.

 We took you apple picking for the first time.  You did great and even helped pick some apples sitting on daddy's shoulders.  Mostly though, you just picked up the apples on the ground and chucked them.  

 You may be growing up fast but I still see those fat dimples on your hands!

You really are something else.  I always knew it would be fun to have a boy but it's SO much more fun than I ever dreamed it would be!  Happy 18 months!

::: Thank you everyone for your kind words on the loss of my dear cousin, Kate.  She is greatly missed.

Kathryn June

On Friday night I got a phone call so late that I knew it was going to be horrible.  It was.  My cousin died that day.  She just celebrated her 16th birthday. We are all so saddened by this unthinkable loss.  My heart is aching for my aunt and uncle.  She was so bright.  She was so sweet.  She was so loved. Rest now Kate,  I will miss you.

I will be back at a later date.

Screened Porch

The screened porch is done and I love it!  We are fading out our neutrals and going bold and bright!  These colors just make me feel so happy.

It all started with the couch.  It was love at first sight at a garage sale on the island and the tag said $15.  It was mine in a heartbeat.  It must be from the fifties or sixties.  It's steel made to look like bamboo.  The original color was green and I knew it had to be green again.  George painted it with his new professional paint sprayer along with the wicker ottoman I found at a garage sale for $2!  I knew I wanted white cushions but knew they wouldn't be practical with kids so I went with marine vinyl.  It is surprisingly soft and easy to work with!  Sewing the piping, however, caused me so much grief.  So glad they are finished! 

I was also greatly inspired by Annie Selke.  She is a designer who recently created a fabric line.  I love all of her designs  and colors.  Being on a tight budget, I ordered a little bit of each and used it to make pillows.     

(This is the couch before)

And here is how the previous owners had the porch.

We gave the floors a fresh new coat of grey porch paint and then we covered as much of it as we could with a natural seagrass carpet.  

This pair of lamps were a steal at Goodwill for $3 each.  I painted them turquoise  (thank you Magnolia for picking the right color!) and George gave them a quick coat of lacquer for shine. 

I was thrilled to find these fleece throws at Ikea for $4 each!  The chairs I've had for years.  Made in Norway, they were a steal at a church rummage sale for $7 each.   My white garden table was also a Goodwill find, for $15!  

This was the first room I had a vision for and it's so nice to have it all come to life.  Too bad fall is coming and it will all be packed up soon.  We're making the most of it with many cups of hot tea out there huddled under the blankets.  :)

1st Day of Preschool

We had one VERY excited little girl in our house this morning.  She has been waiting for this day for a long time.  And boy was she ready to go.  She had no apprehension whatsoever when we arrived.  She spoke up, she contributed, she said her pleases and thank yous and she even let her teacher take her to the bathroom.  I am so proud of her, she did great! 

George and I both went with her today but Wednesday will be her first day by herself.  

Here she is before we went in.  I didn't even ask her to pose, I just caught her in all of her excitement. :)

The After

Okay, it's my first "after" home project.  Too bad there's no "before" photo.  I thought I had one but I didn't.  Funny that this all I can post for what we've accomplished because it seems so small and we've been so busy.  We have started so many projects but this is the only one that is completely done....for the season at least.  We dug up old lilies that were in front of the garage.  We sent away for an heirloom rose called "New Dawn" that produces beautiful creamy pink blossoms and can climb up to 20 feet per season.  It was less than a foot tall when it arrived and we had to put a little gate around it because the rabbits were eating it.  Poor rose, so much pressure.  George hung the trellis, planted the holly bushes, and painted the door black.  He also hung a window box.  (I did plant the mums!)  We had an electrician come and remove the flood light above the door and put in the two sconces instead.  Since the garage is such a part of our backyard we wanted it to have a cozier, more quaint look.  Can't wait to see how it looks next season!

Our family room should have been our first room completed.  The paint was fresh and in a nice color.  We put all of our living room furniture from our old house in here.  All that was left to do was to fill the frames on the walls.  No problem, right?  I take a ton of pictures, should only take me a minute.  If you look in this photo you'll see an empty frame.   What you don't see is that all of the frames are empty and have been for a month now.   I'm happy to say that I just ordered the photos and feel like a million bucks that I will soon have something else accomplished....whew!

In other news, Nani has come to visit.  We have been enjoying cooler temps and many trips to the beach!

Mags went to her first baseball game ever!  She was so excited.  She lasted only ONE inning and came home with a stomach ache because of too much soda, licorice, and ice cream.  She said it was a lot of fun and wants to go again!  Go Cards!

These two do nothing but ride up and down the sidewalk on the side of our house.  They've even assigned an old concrete gutter tray as the parking spot for their bikes and scooters.  

 George and I are going to have dinner ALONE tonight.  For the first time in THREE years!  I don't know where he's taking me but I am so excited!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Four for a Week

We had such a great time last week with George home from work.  We did so many fun things!  One evening we took dinner down to the beach.  (Reminder not to do that again for a few years...George managed to get sand in all of the food).  Magnolia and I jumped in the waves.  We built drip sandcastles and did a whole lot of running around and burying each other's feet in the sand.  Little George, who never strays far from me, rested his head on my legs as I was shooting photos.  I had to snap it because it was just too sweet.

One morning we got up early and headed to the zoo.  

It was our second visit and Magnolia headed right for the Spider Monkey, she knew right where it was.

They love the train ride.  Magnolia also had her first pony ride!

It was a fun filled week together with a day trip to Chicago, lots of new parks discovered, long walks. and even two lunch dates with just the two of us!  We even got a lot done around the house.  It seems for all the work that we've done that it's hardly made a dent.  I honestly can't figure out why it's taking so long.  We are nearing completion on the outside and the screened in porch.  We are the middle of deciding on living room furniture and are waiting for fabric samples to arrive in the mail.  I'm starting to doubt that we'll have a living room by Christmas.  Our dining room started once we found a mid century teak table at an antique store.  Then we found 4 chairs on Craigslist.  They need to be reupholstered and we'll obviously need to find 2 or more chairs.  The chandelier in the there is horrendous as are the mini blinds.  Let's just say, we're a long ways off on that room as well...sigh.   I love this stuff, it keeps me so busy and it's my biggest creative outlet.  I love it even more that we are doing all of the work ourselves and on a pretty tight budget.  Last night I was decorating in my sleep....   :)  Be back soon.

Summer, Summer, Summer!!!

We are having so much fun with seemingly endless things to do and explore here.  Every day is something new.  Lots of picnics and discovering new parks.  Lots of walks and evening excursions.  This past weekend our town had an outdoor concert on our main street.  We had a blast and so did the kids dancing in front of the stage.  The best part was our short walk home afterwards.  We love it here!

Summer is still in full swing as kids don't return to school until Sept. 1 and Magnolia until Sept. 13 so we still have a lot more summer to enjoy.  This week George took off of work and we're treating it like a real vacation with lots of fun stuff planned.  We are, however, adding in home projects during naptime which is nice.  :) It's a good feeling to get some things done around here!

Quick Recap

I guess it's taking me longer to transition than I thought!  I haven't been taking any photographs and what  I do shoot isn't very good.  Here's a quick recap of the happenings around here.  On August 6th we celebrated Family Day.  It has been three years since we first held Magnolia yet the memory is so vivid and so wonderful I know that it will stay like that my whole life.  I love to remember that day and she likes to tell the story of what  happened.  Here she is with the umbrella she received on Family Day.  It's one of many gifts we bought for her in China to be saved and given to her every year on that day.  

Meanwhile George got his first real haircut.  I wasn't really ready but realized that I can't hold on to his baby curls forever.  It was a chronic bird's nest in the back so it was time.  Besides he looks awfully cute with his big boy hair!

Last weekend we were finally able to make headway in the house.  Both kid rooms are done!  I'll post pics soon!  

Busy!

Oh my my.  Where have I been?  My camera has been buried and we've been so busy.  Busy enjoying our new house and summer.   Our house is hardly done.  The only time for the house is nap time and that's been touch and go lately.   The living room and dining room are nearly bare and ready for some new furniture and decorating.  We're trying to live with it until we get the outside work done.   All of these projects seem so easy on paper but then you throw in two little kids and it seems it will take years to complete anything.   The mini face lift on the front of the house is almost done but I'm having a hard time finding a light fixture I like.  I should be able to show the before and afters of that soon.  Our house is yet another corner lot (make that 3 for us now!) so we want to completely privatize our yard with evergreens.  We're hoping to get that project done by summers' end so we have that extra growing season.  In the meantime we're doing a lot of furniture rearranging and talking about how to furnish the inside.   This is the only shot I've taken recently.  Magnolia beautifully shucked the corn for me at dinner time and George, well he had a fit because he wanted to eat it raw.

These two continue to keep me so busy.  We go to the parks a lot.  We explore and find new places to go for lunch.  We take long walks everyday.  We blow bubbles and eat popsicles on our sidewalk.  Magnolia is enrolled in preschool.  We found new doctors.  We're making friends.  We're getting signed up for classes this fall.  We are really enjoying our new surroundings.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

P.S.  You get a glimpse of our seriously outdated kitchen...our biggest project!

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!