Blackmail Material

I'm one of those moms that doesn't have a problem if my son wants to get all up in the dress up box... even if fairy and princess costumes comprise the majority of the contents.

In other news, Liam painted, Will left out the safety goggles after removing some tree branches, which Liam helped with, and Reese found them while we were making rice crispie treats.

Every time he grabbed a branch to put in the pile he would grunt and say "Hebby! Hebby!" (Say it out loud if you're having trouble figuring out what that means.)

Best Friends

My bestie came and stayed with me a week ago, for a whole week! She doesn't live close so I don't see her very often.  She brought her two cute kids, a girl and a boy, respectively about a year younger than Reese and Liam.  But they became fast friends anyway.

I don't know where my camera is, and even if I did, I don't think I took many pics, so I'm stealing some From Britt to post here.  It was just good to have her around.

Picnic in the park, watching the kids play in the sandbox

Feeding the ducks on the way to the park.  Notice the boys and girls are dressed similarly for fun! Matching shirts for the girls and blue stripes for Cy and Liam.

Britt found these cute Tinkerbell tees and had to get one for both Olivia and Reese.  They LOVED it.  They generally loved doing things with and like each other.  Britt needs to move in next door so they can be BFF's always.

Liam and Cy in the playset in the back yard.

All the kids at breakfast

making "salad" from toys in my actual salad spinner.

Preschool for Reese!

On Thursday, September 6, 2012, Reese started preschool.  She had been asking every day for a week if "today is the day I go to preschool" and when we told her no, she would ask "Is tomorrow the day I go to preschool?"  Finally we were able to answer yes!

She picked out her flower backpack and brought her husky dog stuffed animal that she got from Alaska this summer for show and tell. We took pictures in front of the house before school, and in front of the "back to school" flag outside the school when class was over.

I must not be a fabulous mom, because crying never even occurred to me.  Not when I signed her up, paid tuition, took the pictures, signed her in or left her on her first day.  I had zero symptoms of the "My baby is getting so big!" syndrome.  I thought moms were supposed to get all sentimental and clingy have separation anxiety. As far as I can tell Liam was the only one to get even a little upset, and that's only because he wanted to stay.

The kids are supposed to have a parent come and to a spotlight on them for their birthday.  Since Reese had a birthday the week before school started, I got to come in on the second day of school.  I made some srapbooky-pages and tied them together into a poster for Reese's spotlight:

(In the empty white square I had Reese color with crayon all her favorite colors.  She colored dots of red, orange, brown, blue, green, yellow, pink and purple.  Though in her everyday life I would say that her most fav is purple.)

Door After

Hey, remember these pictures from a few posts ago?  

Well, we chose a bluish turquoise and here's what it looks like now: 

We tried to add some character with glazing

Door before glazing

detail after glazing with a little white to make it look weathered.

Here's the side-by-side:

Do I love it? Frankly, I wasn't thrilled when I stepped back to look.  I love the color if all you see is the door, but I wasn't sold on the entire look of the house.  We were debating between a bluish and a redish and I wished a little that we would have gone with the red look.  But it's growing on me.  (I think what tipped the scales was that red doors is super popular right now and we didn't just want to copycat everyone else.)  I like it more and more over time.

Looking at these pictures I noticed that a new light fixture would update the look, too.  And I'm going stick planters on either side.  I'll try to update as we go!

Door Number One

Okay, front door is pending.  I decided to start our painting on the side door just to get the hang of things before tackling the front door that everyone who even drives by will be able to see.  Boy am I glad I did.

This was the original door.  It's on our shed now, which didn't have a door before.  Yes, it it a hollow-core interior door with paint splashes on it (it came that way), but we needed a door to keep our sandbox toys safe.

The side door was supposed to be white.  And it was.  For a minute.  Before I put oil-based varnish on it.  Then it looked pee-colored.  This is one of those times where a picture does not do it justice.  The door was gross.  The varnish did not go on evenly or smoothly. I wanted to throw up every time I looked at it.  Or smelled it.  Varnish stinks.

So we stripped the varnish, a time-consuming, multi-step process involving acids for which we should have had one of those science lab chemical showers. Yeah.  So long story short, (too late, I know) it took us one three-hour day and then another 8-hour day of work and our entire 50-dollar Lowe's gift card to get.... drumroll.... a white door!

At least it locks.

We had to fix both sides of the door plus the door frame. Yes, I painted the ENTIRE thing.  I was hoping it would dry clear, cut me some slack.  Will has made it clear to me that if I don't like what I'm seeing on the front door as we paint it then STOP.  I thought that was good advice that I would pass on to you. I don't know how to phrase it universally, so here's a proverb you can take to heart:

When you see the color is pee, stop painting.