Add a little color to your life
We had a perfect day/night for our annual pumpkin party.
The great thing about the kids getting older means that I don’t get my hands messy- I can just take pictures.
Even Cole did his own (with a little help from his dad)
Austin somehow talked Devon into working on his pumpkin
MaryBeth Likes the guts
The end results
notice the hatchet on the wall behind the first one? Very clever!
Last night kicked off the first of our Halloween activities. Today as Blake was getting ready for one of his parties- he’s going as a hippie, Cole decided that he wanted to put Blake’s costume on. He looked so cute!!
Cole is actually going as Yoda. Which is also pretty funny.
Love Halloween.
The perspective of this picture looks a little off, not to mention the beadboard walls in the screened porch really stand out- these will be painted white. See that little face to the left of the ladder? Always showing up in my pictures somewhere.
We’re getting there….
Up on the site are a few Jordyn bags
There are only a handful of these so grab them quick!
Despite a sick and grumpy 4 year old we took a trip out to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins.
We have gone here almost every year since the boys were little.
The giant dirt “slide” was a huge hit
Did a little apple picking
Love this goofy kid
a tantrum break
a hotdog break
The corn maze
The rules
Going in
Giving up
My pick
the little guy
the big guy
a chat about pumpkins
The way home
OUT!
A few minutes ago someone knocked on my front door- he asked my address and said that he had a birthday party invitation to deliver to Austin, “does he live here?? This house looks abandoned.”
Yikes. I knew it was looking kinda bad lately on the outside but I didn’t expect that. It has to be the biggest downfall of construction, the mess.
I have been getting a little worried about kids, especially ones that aren’t mine- playing in the backyard. Workers are messy, they rarely clean up after themselves. Their lunch, drinks, whatever, never seem to make it to the trash can. But they also they don’t clean up their work messes.
It’s getting pretty hard to get around the backyard.
The front yard is starting to look kinda bad too and I am just waiting for someone to complain. So far my neighbors have been very nice about it, but the comment today left me a little down. I am getting a little tired of living in construction central.
Just have to keep thinking about the end result. Which will be here soon.
Even though we have added a bathroom to our house (from 3 to 4) we still only have one potty right now. For a family of five this can be challenging. It can also be challenging when there are always workers hanging out in or near the only bathroom, or the water is turned off again. The other day a friend called me on my cell phone and said, “where are you?” At the rec center. “are you peeing??” Of course I am, try using the bathroom at my house- almost impossible these days. So now I pee everywhere I go.
My downstairs bathroom which used to have a potty and sink.
Now has a ladder instead. Everything was pulled out so the hardwood floors could be installed.
The boys bathroom used to have a potty but it was pulled out to be replaced after the new floor goes in.
Yesterday they set the tile in the shower
this will only be the bathroom for two boys now. One lucky boy will get his own bathroom.
Notice the old wallpaper on the right side of the picture, pretty huh? The tub and potty and sinks in this bathroom were mauve.
I am going to spare you a picture of the only bathroom in service at the moment, I am not sure I can even get in it.
Here is the my new tub, yippee!
and our new shower, and the travertine tile that will go in it.
And a few other pics, master bedroom now has walls
kitchen
Family Room
And everyones favorite
The Dog Shower
The slate has not been grouted yet but I still love it.
The board is to keep the dogs out while the slate tile dries. We have always wanted a dog shower and I could have used it yesterday when the dogs and boys and boys friends came in covered in mud from the backyard. I think I should rename it dog and boy shower. It will have a hand-held sprayer- can’t wait. It was a tight spot but I measured the big girl and put her in there a couple times, all 90 wonderful golden pounds of her, and she fits. She loves baths. Shiloh will have room to run in circles. Which she will, screaming as she does it. She gets so dramatic when she gets a bath, total torture for her.
There really isn’t a part of the house that isn’t getting touched but it is all good. I am getting tired of construction but I love the idea that our house will be exactly the way we want it when it is done. No, it won’t have everything my “dream house” would have but it will be very very close. And the best part is that we are keeping it as green as we can. Lot’s of natural products like slate, wood, cork. Blake and I both have horrible allergies and we were lucky that the whole house already had hardwood floors, except the kitchen. Now the kitchen as well as all new spaces will be wood. It is my favorite flooring by far. With cork a close second. We have cork in the basement. Our new spaces are not big, in fact most would consider them small and we are adding almost as much porch space as we are interior space to promote indoor/outdoor living.
It seems like it was just a few days ago when I crept out of the house (the boys were sleeping) to meet my contractor in the back yard, rubbing my eyes to wake up and watching the big digger arrive to dig out the basement. Time flies.
That’s all I got, have a great weekend.
Yesterday my oldest baby got braces.
I have been enjoying these (2 so far) ortho appointments. I pull Austin out of school and we always have to squeeze lunch out of the deal- even if it is only 10:30am. My mom used to be in such a rush to get me back to school when I had ortho appointments but I am bad with Austin, I cherish these little stolen moments and I hang on to him as long as I can.
After the braces were put on we went to Whole Foods for lunch. I got a nice fresh salad and Austin and Cole got yummy pizza. A nice change from the standard Wendy’s that they usually request. All good until he realized that eating with braces isn’t as easy as eating without. It’s getting better though.
Love this (big) kid. And a funny tidbit. When he was baby he refused to let us listen to music. He would yell “no song! no song!” every time we turned on the radio or put on a cd. The one exception? Beastie Boys. If we put Beastie Boys on he would actually shake his little groove thang.
even Star Wars guys need a little rest
Especially when they aren’t feeling too great
And sometimes
the trusty side-kick decides to take a break too
Over the last year Blake started having a lot of nightmares (mostly about monsters and such) and coming into our room multiple times a night complaining about them. But recently he stopped so I asked him if his nightmares had stopped.
He said, “no, I still get bad dreams sometimes but I figured out what to do about them. When I wake up and I am scared I think about the typewriter that is writing the story of the scary dream and I tell it to stop and write something that isn’t scary and it works.”
Guess what? I tried it and it even works when you are awake!
