This is where we'll be for the next week.

Kadima, sunburns, cold drinks, barbeque, sand castles, jumping waves, jellyfish, and lots of laughs.  27 of us including 12 cousins for Magnolia and George to play with.  Can't wait!

Four years ago we got the best call anyone could ever dream of.  "George and Lucy, you have the most beautiful little girl."  I will never forget those words and the feeling of pure joy.  We loved you, Magnolia, before we even knew you.  You are an amazing girl!  We love and cherish you more than you could ever imagine.

2008

2009

2010

 2011

Whirlwind

 The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind!  Magnolia had her last day of school.  I loved her school, I loved her little friends, her teachers, and all of the other moms there.  It was Magnolia's final "Special Person Day" which meant I got to be the helper for the final day.  Here's Magnolia being the Wizard...

and making bubbles which we took along to our End of Year Picnic in the Park...

 and putting the weather on the calendar.  

 We walked the kids to a park nearby right on Lake Michigan, it's beautiful!  At the edge of the park all of the parents were instructed to wait for their kids to cheer them on.  It was such a cute sight!

 As their final art project, the kids colored sun hats to wear to the park.

Here's Magnolia with her classmates!

 I didn't even stay for the picnic part, I handed off the kids to George and I raced home to pack up the car for our trip to St. Louis.  While we were in town we decided to take the kids to a Cardinal game.  It was HOT HOT HOT but so much fun!

 Afterwards we took them to Ted Drewe's for a frozen custard.

 The day after we arrived back home we drove south again to Chicago to pick out our countertop.

The day after that we packed up the car once more and headed up to the island.  It was our first time back on the island since the fall and it was wonderful to be back.  Nani came back with us from St. Louis to join us on this trip.  Here she is with George waiting for the ferry.

 Meanwhile Magnolia watched for the ferry from inside the Visitor Center.

 I love how he looks at her.  

  A lot of work was waiting for us when we got there.  George took care of the yard.

 Funny how there are certain photographs that I just love.  Love so much I look at them for a long time trying to figure out why I love them so much.  This is one of them.  George was playing "Bear" with the kids, chasing and scaring them before we piled into the car for a drive.  I just love all of the shades of green, the motion, George's expression, and the sudden bit of yellow in Georgie's boots.  It just makes me smile.

 Magnolia shows me her fairy garden she built with Nani.  What you don't see is the other fairy garden on the other side of those trees which Magnolia explains is perfect because the fairies can just fly through the two trees for play dates.  :)

It was so nice to be back!!!

Demolition

Day 2 of Demolition is over!  This is our very lovely kitchen before demolition.  I've never minded this kitchen.  It was tastefully out of date.  The wallpaper was charming and the light fixture was on the brink of being stylish again.  The layout was terrible.  Especially the location of the dishwasher.  My favorite part about this kitchen was that I knew we would redo it so there was never any stress about the messes we made in there.  I think I could have given this kitchen a quick makeover on a shoestring but what fun would that be?  This is our first full out remodel.  It's fun, exciting, and a little nerve wracking!  

There were hanging cabinets over the peninsula that we took down almost as soon as we moved in.  Then I took off all of the cabinet doors on the upper cabinets to see how I would like open shelving.  I loved it.  Everything was so easy to reach.  This was a great help when I had to decide if I would actually do open shelving in the new kitchen and we did!

 The light has always been great in this room, the whole house actually.  I think that's why I fell in love with this house to begin with.  I remember walking through the kitchen and being completely charmed with it.  I said, "I can live with this!"  This view is looking from the dining room swinging door.  While the dining room is flooded with light in the afternoons, the kitchen becomes a little dark.  We are centering this door (and sadly removing the swinging door, I've always loved those).  The door will be much bigger allowing for the afternoon sun to flood the kitchen.

 Those floors were a laminate.  I was fooled when we bought the house, thinking they were pickled oak, only until I saw the floor curling in the corners.  When they pulled it up there was linoleum underneath, it was really cute linoleum too!  We are putting in hardwood to match the rest of the house.   I love wood floors in a kitchen.

Our kitchen is now completely shelled.  We've created a makeshift kitchen in the dining room.  So far, it has been fine.  We've been lucky enough to have my parents in town.  With a pool in their backyard, long naps taken by the kiddos, and handed a hot meal to take home, this seems a little too easy.  :)

As a side note, it is Magnolia's last week of school (which has made me sadder than I would have ever imagined) and we are leaving for St. Louis immediately after her last day.  It's a bit chaotic but we are looking forward to a little break and some warm weather!

We are about to start our first major remodel!  It's so exciting and daunting at the same time.  We're doing the kitchen, the powder room, and the mudroom.  The cabinets will be here by the end of the month so the big demolition will take place soon before that!  I wish I could give credit to all of these photographs I'm posting but I can't remember the source since I tagged them almost a year ago.  (I think most of them are from House Beautiful.)  Our new kitchen certainly won't be like these but I like to look at them for inspiration.  Most of these I tagged because of the marble countertops which I've been heavily persuaded  by many to rethink.  I'm not sure I'm giving up completely because I really love the look.

We are thinking the countertops will be soapstone but maybe using marble on one section and as a backsplash to the range.  We're looking to make the kitchen really fit into our 1930s colonial so the cabinets will be white.  I had no idea what it was that I liked so much about these cabinets in the photographs until we met with a kitchen designer who told us they were inset cabinets and very expensive.  After much consideration, we gave up on inset cabinets and instead, beefed up our budget on appliances.

This kitchen is amazing as you can hardly tell that's the kitchen sink. 

And a mirror above the stove, the light fixtures and the island that's a circle... I really love how unconventional this is.

This kitchen is one of my favorites because of it's simplicity.  It's a small galley kitchen but so well done.

I tagged this kitchen because of the green floors.  It's not going to happen in our kitchen but I would love to do it!  I also loved the farmhouse sink but have recently changed my mind on that.  We're opting for a single basin undermount.  I wanted a stainless steel sink because I'm too hard on a sink and don't want to have to worry about chipping it.  The farmhouse sink looks beautiful here.

We are so lucky that my brother-in-law is our general contractor and doing this project for us much quicker than if we'd gone with anyone else.  I'll be posting updates as we go along.  It's going to be fun to watch the transformation.  Walls are coming down, doors and windows are getting moved, new floors, paint, wallpaper, and lighting... it's a big job, can't wait to get started!!!

We had a lovely Easter morning finding baskets, eating a lot of candy, playing with new toys, and having a small fire.  I made cinnamon rolls and then we headed over to Nana and Papa's house.

The sun came out just in time for an Easter Egg Hunt.  There were a lot of eggs to be found and these eggs were filled with money!  

George and Magnolia with cousins,  Margaret, Lilah, and Sophia.

Sadly, the day after Easter, George's grandmother, Bobby, died.  Luckily we just had a very nice visit with her on our recent trip to St. Louis, where we got to celebrate her 91st birthday with her.  George went to visit her almost every morning and took Magnolia with him.  Magnolia connected with Bobby as soon as she first met her.  She always loved seeing her and chatting away with her.  Here they are last Easter at the family farm and Bobby's 90th Birthday.  She will be dearly missed.