Painted projects

Thought I would show you a few pieces of furniture we have redone and are ready to sell.  Take a look:

I love buffets!  This one we painted "pencil point" and chose dark, contrasting knobs.

This buffet has a silverware drawer hidden inside... very nice!

This is a dresser I had in my room growing up.  We chose a very light pink called "lotus petal."   I love the curves on the front and the "dirty" glass knobs are the perfect, delicate compliment.

This piece belonged to Mom and Dad... and took Chad a lot of work to restore.  This is painted in a pale mint color.

This is just a basic dresser.  We painted it white and reused pulls from our bedroom set.  It sold right away.

 

 

And this is our next project.  An entire set of furniture - king size headboard, two dressers AND night stand.  Guess what I paid for all of it?  $75!

It is dark and ugly now. 

But, trust me... I see white again.

 

Wanna buy any furniture?  :)

Homework

Take a look at Caleb's science homework.  This is the first science homework sent home - for 3rd grade:

Create a model of liquid molecules or particles... say what?!

It is going to be a long year.

I am tired



No fun blog posts lately.  Here is why:

 

Everyone in our house has been sick.  Everyone.  Fevers, coughing, sore throats, pink eyes, ear infections.  I am tired of everyone being sick.  It has been weeks of this.  I am tired of running to the pediatrician, buying prescriptions, kids missing school, nothing getting done in the house.  I am tired of being tired.

In all fairness, the two medications on the far right are Jacks :)  We are dogsitting for a couple weeks.  She is not sick, but she needs pills crushed into her food twice a day.  And she gets up at 3am every night to pee...  it's a good thing I love her.

Wish us luck that everyone will be better soon and that I can get caught up on things in the house and post some fun projects!

Afternoon at the Museum

Since I posted something cute and funny about Ella (and Uncle Christopher), I thought I would post one about Caleb and Olivia.  I wrote this months ago and have waited so that I could add pictures from my phone, but remember I don't know how to do that?  So, here is a picture of them playing "stinky garbage."  They like to wrap themselves up in blankets and then Chad will "smell" the garbage and throw them away... or onto the couch.  I am not quite sure who started this game, but the kids think it is so fun!

Here was my post:

My cousin, Justin, came to Texas for a work conference.  Justin is now 25!  How did that happen?  We took him the Bob Bullock Museum located in downtown Austin. 
This museum is full of Texas history and facts.  Three floors full of such history.

Here is what my kids thought of the museum, while we were still IN the museum:
Caleb - This is boring.  All you do is READ.
Olivia - Everything is so OLD! 


I guess we will just stick to children's museums :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

This brother

Remember this post, the one of my silly kids sitting in laundry baskets?  Go ahead and click that link right now.  I will wait...


Take a look at who else likes to sit in laundry baskets while watching tv :)

Silly Uncle Christopher!  We sure do miss you!!

This girl

Yesterday, Ella's lunchbox came back untouched.  It was full of her favorite foods, cut into cute shapes.  Her juice box was not even opened.  Panic and worry set in and I didn't know what to do.  I pictured Ella sitting in the cafeteria scared, helpless with no friends.  It is only a week since school started and clearly Ella was not adjusting... or so I worried.

I asked her why her lunch was not eaten.  She was quiet and didn't say anything.  I explained that she has to eat so her body has energy to learn and grow.  I explained that if she has trouble opening things, she can raise her hand and ask for help.

I emailed her teacher to see if Ella was adjusting to Kindergarten...

To make a long story short, Ella bought a school lunch yesterday!  What?!  She has no money in her lunch account.  Caleb would NEVER think of eating a school lunch.  Olivia wants to, but is too nervous about it.  So I never thought to talk about it with Ella.

I asked her how she knew how to go through the lunch line, how she paid for it and why did she do this?  She said that school lunches are so good!  And that little kids don't have to pay.

Oh boy.  I explained to her that we DO have to pay and that she was lucky they let her have a lunch.

What did she order?

A chef's salad, banana and chocolate milk :)

This girl loves salads and can't wait to order her next school lunch.  I am off to add money to her lunch account.

This girl is going to make me work hard to keep up with her and keep my sanity!  But, I sure do love her!

Legofest

We surprised the kids this past weekend with tickets to Legofest!  We were so excited to take them.  Caleb loves Legos and the girls are building up their own Lego collections.

The excitement soon wore off.  Legofest was packed.  There were so many people there that every building station was crammed full, with very little to no room to play and explore.  Lines of people filled the aisles.  You had to wait in lines to take pictures with the large Lego characters and even then people would sneak in front of you.

We lucked out in one building station that was collecting donations for the children's hospital.  With each donation, you could create something to add to the Lego garden.

Caleb's favorite part were the cases filled with perfectly constructed Lego sets.  Some of them had questions posted on them that had you look at every little detail to find the answer.  Caleb loved it!

The busier it got, the more frustrated the kids became.  (And me too.)  Can't really blame them.  It is hard to enjoy something so fun, when it is so packed and sadly, people these days aren't very friendly.

We decided next year, we will save our money and take the kids to Target to buy their own Lego set.  And get us a Starbucks coffee.  We all win.

 

 

Here are the pictures from our day!  Look at Olivia's face... she was overwhelmed before we even started.

I was lucky enough to get a picture of Chad with the kids.  This is what he looks like if he waits too long to eat :) 

This is the garden area.  We should have stayed here longer!

 

Caleb built a building... for the garden.

 

Olivia built a pretty flower.

 

 

Ella built a tree thingy.

 



 

We saw this picture while walking back to our car.  It made me laugh.   Couldn't they have added an "R" between we and open?  Just sayin!

Here is another picture for Ericka.  I took this while crossing the road.  I didn't want to get run over so it is a little blurry.  Better blurry than nothing, right?

 

Houston - Day 3

For our final day, we planned to head to the Kemah Boardwalk.  We haven't been there yet and it is full of rides, restaurants and games for kids to play - but, it was still raining... 

The kids wanted to buy an accessory for their Build a Bear friends, so we headed to another mall.  This mall had a huge arcade area with mini golf, games, rides and laser tag.  Turns out this mall did NOT have a Build a Bear.  Why does it always work like that?

Anyhoo, enjoy the pictures from our last day!

Even though this was in the middle of an arcade, it was glow in the dark mini golf.  So my pictures are a little - dark.  This is the first time the kids have played mini golf!  How fun!  Chad gave Ella a quick lesson.

Clearly the lessons didn't work as she is holding her club backwards :)

She's got it now!

Caleb was showing off with his trick...

Wonder where Caleb gets that from?  (Look to the right.)

Nice shot, Olivia!

Chad got a hole-in-one!

So did Caleb!

Even Olivia was happy for them!

Ella became quite the serious golfer.  She would get down low and line up her ball just so.

After mini golf, the girls rode this crazy ride!

It actually went really fast and they loved it!

And finally, a friendly game of laser tag.  The family that shoots together, stays together.  Or something like that.

After playing, we ate one last time at Rainforest Cafe and headed home. Ella fell asleep and slept the entire way home. When I woke her up in our driveway, she looked around and started to cry. She asked to go back so she could live in the hotel for a few more days...

I hate that the kids are growing up. I really do. I wish I could rewind and slow things down. But, trips like this are now easy, almost (I said almost) stress free because the kids are more independent and are able to truly enjoy things.

Wish I could say the same for homework time.