Kitchen, COMPLETE! (almost...)

We got the doors re-hung! Things are looking much more sane (and gorgeous, n'est-ce pas?) at our house. I'd like to say we're completely done, but that's not true... I still have a number of cabinet interiors that need contact paper, we need a coat of protectant on the doors, we're going to install knobs and pulls, and I have to put away all the stuff that actually goes into those cabinets. It's getting a little annoying to go to the garage to hunt for our can opener in a laundry basket. STILL. Niiiiiiice :)

Groovy

My parents got a musical card for Patrick, thinking he might like it. They were right! He stood by the couch, opening and closing it, for a solid half-hour (as much time as it took us to do every activity as his party today!) Later he really got into the dancing part of it, and Eli would dance along with him... but of course not in this video. My kids rarely perform when there's a camera pointed at them. Luckily, Patrick was in a dancing mood :)

Jurassic Birthday

Patrick turned 3 today! I've been excited for this party ever since I bought the supplies back in November! We invited three friends, one for each year (good idea, Katie!), so it was pretty manageable and fun rather than hectic and overwhelming. Also, my friend Rebecca stayed to help and she was diligent in taking photos of everything (thanks, Rebecca!) while I herded kids from activity to activity. First we made dinosaur puppets from lunch bags. I was pretty excited about this and thought the kids would totally be munching each other with their "dinosaurs" after they made them, but they just had fun decorating. They left their creations behind to do the next activity, "Dinosaur Freeze" - we listened to music while we wore dinosaur hats and stomped and roared like dinosaurs, but when the music stopped everyone had to "freeze" or they were out. Well, sometimes the kids played with toys rather than roaring and stomping. Then we did a "dino hunt," where I hid some plush dinosaurs in the basement and the kids had to find them, then got to keep them. After we found the dinosaurs twice we played "pin the horn in the triceratops" which everyone had a great time doing, though they definitely only wanted to do it once! After pinning their horn each kid ran back to the toy they were playing with, maybe thinking the others would steal it while they were busy! I think we'll play it again when daddy gets home tonight, I did an excellent job freehand copying that triceratops head... ALL THAT only took HALF an HOUR. I was really glad I had planned LOTS of activities! Finally we had lunch: brontosaurus PB&J's with dinosaur fruit snacks, plus juice. Instead of a cake I cut out stegosaurus and T-Rex brownies and put candles in them. Lunch took the most time and was a nice quite break while everyone ate their fruit snacks and juice. Everyone almost completely ignored their brontosaurus sanwiches except Nick! He helped himselves to everyone else's leftovers, though, so no dinos went to waste. Then the kids sang Happy Birthday and helped Patrick blow out the candles and we finally got to open presents. The rest of the party was just free play; though I did print coloring sheets, only Patrick was interested in them. I guess not everyone is CRAAAAZY about dinosaurs like Patrick is :)

In spite of his new "big boy" age he spent most of the morning throwing mini-tantrums when I said he couldn't have/do something that we would be having/doing at his party. "No, you can't have 3 packs of dinsaur fruit snacks, they're for lunch." "No, you can't have all the dinosaur skeletons, they're for the gift bags." "No, you can't have any more brownies, it's 8 in the morning!" I know right now he's a year older, but at the moment he's only a day older than yesterday, so of COURSE he's the same as yesterday! But it seems like today we should be getting somewhere - getting less dramatic, getting more mature and not hitting/pushing/stealing toys, getting better at listening to and following directions, all that good stuff. Hopefully we'll get there even more this year, it's nice to have a kid who's growing up! Happy Birthday, big guy!

Getting closer

Things are coming together a bit more in the kitchen - I have most of the shelves re-covered in contact paper, since we weren't going to paint them and have everything stick to the paint. Now all the cabinets are finished and glossed so we can hang the doors (hopefully tonight!) and we've been getting things off the table and put back away (see?).

In addition to painting we also got a completely new pantry cabinet - it's huge! I'm looking forward to stuffing it full of food :) Joe also got a trash/recycle roll-out for the cabinet next to the new pantry so we won't have our garbage sitting out! This is good for two reasons: first, you won't have to see it (the obvious benefit) and second, Eli will have a much more difficult time throwing things away while I'm not looking. It'll be especially hard if we put a child lock on the cabinet...though that will make me less motivated to throw things away and trash sitting on the counter in plain sight kind of defeats the purpose of such a handy contraption. We'll see how long it lasts before the roll-out becomes a "toy" for the boys and needs to be locked up. In the meantime, we had out first meal back in our dining room in over a week and we're looking forward to getting our house back!

Kitchen disasters, continued

The kitchen is still in an uproar, but we're getting MUCH closer! The cabinet doors all have a 2nd coat of paint on them so they are ready for the glossy top coat. The cabinets themselves are a little more behind because we were waiting to see how much paint we had left from the doors before diving in and painting the interiors. Last night we busted out butts, though, and took them from the old wood finish to sanded, primed, and painted (don't mind the funky white edges around the accent background, it's not the design we're going for). Turns out we had just enough paint for both doors and interiors, so we'll be finishing the 2nd coat on the cabinets tonight, probably glossing tomorrow. THEN we can put all the stuff away! We can have a kitchen table! We can move the fridge out of the kitchen entry! We can invite people over to "ooooh" and "ahhhh" and gasp in wonder and the marvelous paint job. Now here's a big THANK YOU to all the girls who watched my kids so I could get this thing done! You'll be the first people I have over and all our kids can dine one macaroni and cheese. Thanks!!

Kitchen Disasters

We unexpectedly started redoing our kitchen this weekend. We were going to visit my sister in Pueblo, but the week turned out to be very long for Joe at work and he was disappointed that his buds were going duck hunting on Saturday and that he would miss it. I felt sorry for the guy so, nice wife that I am, I cancelled our visit and said he could go shooting. I didn't get so much as a "thank you!" which I very much deserved, I thought - any time your wife offers you 6-8 hours of personal recreation time on a Saturday while she stays home with the kids you should grovel. Much to my annoyance, not only did he NOT grovel, he said he thought it was a sketchy idea to go to Pueblo anyway because it's a long drive (2 hours? Not long!) to only stay one day (most of TWO days, thank you) with three kids (whom we will have for the rest of our lives, so you'd better get used to travelling with them) and it might be a rough night (this part is true, but that's why we would only stay for ONE night, hence the short trip). Now I know he just didn't want to travel and be out of his element after a long week at work, he just wanted to relax, but did he SAY that? No, he came up with some (in my opinion) pretty lame excuses, especially since they're coming from a guy (a guy that I love very much, don't get me wrong) who took his two boys to the store to purchase a gun that I did NOT pre-approve of him purchasing... and... during the 2-hours-plus transaction he did not have diapers, toys, or snacks - and it was even dinner time! Who is the one with sketchy ideas here?!?

Well, even though I'm not angry anymore you can tell that I WAS upset, so when he got up early to hunt I got up early to remove the doors off our kitchen cabinets and go to Home Depot to make some un-pre-approved purchases of my own. Now don't get me wrong about myself; we had talked about redoing our kitchen ever since we moved in! So it's been a long time coming and we had even decided on the finish, but it was a big surprise when he got home and found that the kitchen had turned from this: into this: and our kitchen table looked like this: Based on this very limited experience I don't know HOW the crazies who show up on the show "Hoarders" can stand it! It is insanity-inducing to not have a place to set things... like your dinner. We've been eating on the couches. It's been a few days of hard work now, though, so we have the insides of the cabinets and the doors primed. Joe has helped right along even though I thrust this project on him so unexpectedly. Unless he reads this post he doesn't even know I was mad at him! He shot a few ducks and had a good time Saturday morning, but this is the price you pay when you forget to say "thanks," I guess! We'll see what projects get done when he wants to go golfing this summer...

Belly Dancer

Caroline just turned one month old! She's been asleep for 98% of it, so I don't think she even noticed:) Really, I didn't notice, either, until I happened to reference the date for another reason and realized it was the same as her birth. She's been to the doctor twice, both just for general checkups - the first because the hospital told me the doctor would want to see her 2-3 days after delivery for her 2nd newborn screen; the second because the doctor said they don't do the 2nd newborn screen until 2 weeks, so we got to come back. She's gaining weight nicely, if you couldn't tell from the chubby cheeks, and is now about 9 1/2 lbs. I suspected, and the doctor confirmed, that she has a herniated umbilical cord - not painful, just painful to look at! And WEIRD to feel, it's pretty gross to poke it back in because you can feel her abdominal muscles around the hole into her belly. YECH! Fortunately she's dressed most of the time so people want to hold her, not want to give her and her alien belly-button back. It should close up on its own eventually (read: 1-2 years. poor girl!) but until then, no amount of poking it back in will cure it. Saaaaaaad :(

This Sunday we took her to church for the first time! It was actually sooner than I'd planned, but everyone is well at our house and I haven't heard of anything going around (croup, RSV, hand/foot/mouth... you know, anything reminescent of last year) so I thought we'd probably be safe. That is yet to be seen, but what we DID see what the sweetest little girl in the sweetest little dress! She slept in her carseat, covered up, for 2 hours and 45 minutes so I was relieved when she woke up near the end of church so I could actually pull her out and get SOME use out of her dress. I never thought I would admit it, but it IS really fun to dress up a girl! Unnecessary headbands and all.

Snow Cowboy

Both our boys like shoes, especially boots. Patrick has a lot more shoes than Eli, so often the shoes Eli picks are Patrick's size. The results are pretty awesome.

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler, as in I am getting completely SPOILED by my mom visiting this week! Her original plan was to be here a mere 10 days after Caroline was born, but since baby girl came a bit early my mom was concerned that her visit wouldn't be much help to me! Of course she came anyway, and her help has completely spoiled me rotton. I've done laundry and cleaned up toys and run errands just fine for three weeks without her (thankfully I've had lots of good friends bring meals to combat the toughest part of my day, DINNER TIME [dun dun DUH!]), but I don't think I'll be able to do it all when she leaves. Who will hold Caroline while I put Eli down for a nap? Who will watch the boys playing outside while I take a relaxing hot shower? Who will hand me a towel after Caroline's bath?And by golly, who will take of the kids while I sleep in in the mornings? (Answer: ME. Bummer!) But although I have to resharpen my parenting skills when she leaves, which will be tough, it's been a GREAT visit so far. The boys will have to get their fruit snacks themselves again, Caroline will have to find a new place to snooze, and I will miss her like CRAZY. We love you, mom (even though you're still here and won't read this 'til you go home!)