Our new house

Hello!  Does anyone even check this blog anymore?  I started this post MONTHS ago.  We have officially lived in New York for just over a year now.   We moved into our house nine months ago. Time to get caught up, huh?!

After looking at approximately 40 houses, we finally found one.  Our original plan was to find an old farmhouse on land.  Land would allow us to have room for the kids to explore - and I could finally have the goats and chickens I have always wanted.  We didn't find the right farmhouse on the right land.  So we went back and looked again at the houses that would work.  This house is located on a long, quiet cul-de-sac which is perfect for our kids.  The kids can ride their bikes/scooters or rollerblade with no traffic.  They have neighbors to play with and also two acres to explore.  Our backyard is all woods - perfect for trails and a tree fort!  And, we can still have chickens - someday!

Time to show some pictures.  Here is our house when we bought it!

Chad and I both disliked the outside of this house.  The faded blue shutters looked dull and the matching blue door was just plain ugly.  But, we knew we could change all that.

As soon as Mom and Dad arrived from Texas, we got to work on replacing the faded blue shutters with brand new black shutters.  Already a huge change!  The black shutters are a much better contrast on the yellow house.

Caleb even helped Papa with the hard-to-reach shutters.

As much as I hated the blue shutters, I loathed the front door.  It made me angry.   We priced a new front door and it was over $2,000 - for a basic door.  We decided to try and paint the front door first and see if it would be okay.   Thanks to Mom (and approximately 6 coats of paint) our door looks fabulous!

I chose two red paint swatches and we let Caleb pick the winning color.  He picked Show Stopper red and it is a perfect pop of color!

We didn't stop there.  Our little front porch needed something.  A railing.

I adore this railing.  It makes the porch feel bigger.  The black coordinates with the black shutters. Our teal milk crate even works!

Here is a BEFORE of the house:

And here is the AFTER:



The front door BEFORE:

And the front door AFTER:

We also:
*replaced the old light fixtures with larger ones (must be a Texas thing!)
*removed shrubs

This job is best done by a 12 year old on his 4 wheeler, while wearing pajama pants.

With a supervising dog.

*removed small pebbles that surrounded the front walk and replaced with larger, more practical stones.  Thanks, Dad!!

Okay, that is enough for now.   

Next up, the inside and more projects.  And homeschool.  And birthdays.  And animals.

New york - week 13, our last week

Summer is over and we are back in Texas.  Where, oh where, did summer go?!  Let's take a look at our last week spent in New York.

It rained the beginning of the week.  Rain, rain and more rain.  What to do when it rains?

Go see a movie!

This time we watched Guardians of the Galaxy... the boys liked it.  I was not impressed with the number of bad words and inappropriate jokes.  Also, the people behind us talked the entire time.  The adults.  Not the kids.  What is wrong with people?

After the movie, we went bowling!

We ate some cheesy pizza.

The kids played some games.

Then the kids played in this playscape area.  Like bosses.  They had so much fun in this play area, that we probably could have skipped the bowling part - and the pizza.

They were the only kids in there, so they could let their crazy flags fly!

Caleb is loading up ammo to shoot his sisters with ;-)

Caleb is aiming right at me... don't do it...

He shot me! 

They gathered and filled this tank full of balls and then pushed a button to make them explode and fly everywhere.

Can you see Caleb?

He shot Olivia!

We also went on another hike.  Since it had just rained, it was a bit muggy.

And muddy.

The trails were covered by these crazy roots.

We had to climb our way over and along the trails.

We crossed over water.

The water was as clear as can be.

Chad showed the kids how to carefully cut down small branches.

Caleb knocked down trees.

Olivia found a perfect rock to rest on.

Then, we found the waterfalls.  So pretty!

Poor Olivia has no luck on hikes.  Last time she smashed her finger with a brick.  This time, she bumped her head while climbing.

Caleb was an awesome big brother and helped her.

This picture is blurry, but worth seeing.  Caleb was carefully walking through the water and fell in.  

He was completely soaked from the waist down!  He was such champ, it didn't slow him down one bit.

He had fun just being a boy and throwing rocks into the water.

He carefully whittled away at this stick.  

The girls collected pretty rocks.

Ella climbed.

Apparently I need to work on my hiking skills.  How did I get mud all over my ankles?!

Then this happened and the kids were destroyed.

They closed our pool.  The day after Labor Day.  Boo!

Then this happened.

They closed the kids favorite ice cream place.

One day I took the kids to lunch.  This metal sign was huge!  Fancy, shmancy Applebee's!

Olivia was obsessed with cheese puffs while in New York.  She liked to keep them safe in the car.

Since the pool was closed, we headed to the park each day.  

Boca Bistro is an adorable restaurant in Saratoga Springs.  The decor is rustic farmhouse.  At the beginning of the summer we were walking around and passed Boca and I saw the food.  I had to go there.  We didn't go there - until the last day of our trip.  My BLT was worth the wait.  So good!   I was so excited to eat it, I didn't even think to take a picture.

We also visited the New York State Museum on our last day in New York.  The museum has a full size carousel that was built around 1912.

The kids love to reenact every exhibit we pass by.

This fly was enlarged 100 times and was disgusting.  I will spare you the facts they had listed about how dirty and gross flies truly are - and what they can carry.

We got to visit Sesame Street!

The kids (kind of ) rode the subway.

There was an amazing 9/11 exhibit that was truly moving.  We could have spent hours in this area reading over all the information and stories that were shared.  The kids had a lot of questions.  It is such a hard subject to try to explain to someone who truly doesn't understand evil.

I snapped this as they were announcing it was closing time.  It is the flag that was flying at the World Trade Center when it collapsed.  It was discovered in the debris at the recovery landfill as they sorted for human remains and personal objects.  The NYPD gave the flag to the museum in 2002.

And, before we knew it, the kids and I were back at the airport headed home.  

The kids are true traveling pros now!

I cannot say enough about this summer.  We were so lucky to be able to travel to New York for the entire summer.  Although we did not make it to New York City YET, we experienced so many other things!  And we will get there.  Soon hopefully!