Mother's Day

Totally stealing part of this entry's idea from Elizabeth's blog post (thank you for the idea, my friend!). 

So lucky to get some really cool art from the girls for Mother's Day...it's nice that school is still in session for Mother's Day because the girls like to make something at school and keep it a secret (is that a girl thing?  Both are obessed with secrets, they don't keep them but they like saying "it's a secret...").

Tamsin made this cool flower painting in Miss Lisa's class (I still have Poppy's from when she was in Miss Lisa's class - they are neat to juxtapose...which perhaps I will do in another post).

Poppy made this lovely portrait of me

I like my crown...and this is what the card said on the back...

We have only washed the car once, but what an impression it made.  Plus they like going through the car wash because of the crazy colored soap. Okay, so that's a little sad that my kids talk about cleaning as fun...maybe very sad?!

We spent the actual day eating a fancy breakfast and going to Sea World (yes, I cannot sit still).  The best part was watching the girls in the splash zone from the log/flume ride Sea World has - they got soaked and loved it.

And nope, no pictures of me with the girls.  I don't want to become one of those "only behind the camera" mommies so I will try to take pictures with them this week (or have Patrick post the ones from his phone). 

Hope your mother's day was as wonderful and sweet (perhaps drier though) as ours!

Easter fun

Easter this year came so quickly - perhaps it just seemed so soon after the move but we had a lovely time. 

Posing with the Easter Bunny...

Notice that Poppy is next to the bunny and not Tamsin who had to have her big sister in between. 

There was posing for spring photos...

We celebrated at the new house Easter morning with hidden Easter baskets...

the best part of the day was Poppy's smile when she got the movie The Last Unicorn (which she has wanted for a long time).

T was very serious about her eggs

We also had a nice family dinner at Sheila's parents (with lots of extra fun people!).  Of course, no pictures of that but here are the yummy desserts we brought - decorated by P & T!

We also had a lovely housewarming this past weekend but were so busy playing and giving tours, we again took no pictures.  Thank you to everyone who came and played outside with us!  The first of many happy parties we hope to have here.  It is so nice to make new memories with our friends. 

Before & After

Ta Da!  Here are some pictures of the before and after process we've been making on the house. 

(Should I be grading, yes!  But some procrastination is okay...at least that is what students say...)

By the way - sorry if you got us on the day our old site was hacked.  Thanks, Aunt BB for letting me know!  We have now moved to Squarespace - so I get to make lots of fun font changes (eventually).  But onto the pictures!

Original Kitchen

Updated Kitchen

 

Old Office Space (previous owners used as a living room)

New Office Space

Old Living Room (previous owners used as dining room)

New Living Room

Walls are now creamy white.  The sunroom had a huge glare and so the light is blown out.

Old Laundry/Craft Room flooring

New Laundry/Craft Room

This was all Patrick & Chris

The rest you say?  Well, you have to come and visit :-).  See how the girls decorated their room, the awesome playroom and our view and huge backyard.  Also help us vote on a color for the outside ;-)

Yes, we are alive!

So you may have wondered - did they fall off the face of the Earth the past few weeks? Or perhaps you were enjoying the silence (blissful maybe? :) )? Well, February was just insane for us. Closing on our new house, moving, travel, Bikefest (of course, I (Sheila) volunteered), two weeks of prep, and settling into our new house. Thank goodness for leap day huh?



We moved to be much closer to the rest of our lives. We are now only 15 minutes from school and everyday things, rather than 30+ in traffic. Instead of the average of 40 miles per day, I'm down to 12 at most. It's crazy!!! I've gotten to work out of the house (though I still go to my favorite Starbucks) and actually eat lunch at home...it's novel.

But it's not just the closeness - its the fun of the new house. We have a gorgeous view



(except no elephant palms anymore - they were hiding a struck by lightening tree - crazy!). An acre down to the lake. Lots of room to run and play and have a fun time outside. We've explored; gardened



and painted. Not one room in this house is it's original color. I'll have to do some before and after pictures in another post so you get a better idea. Here's a teaser - this room (Sheila's office)



is a pale pale blue. Yup, lots and lots of paint!!!

Patrick also redid a floor - the laundry room had carpet (not sure why...)



and now the floor looks like this -



He did an awesome job!

There is more and I promise I will take pictures of everything to do a before and after and show the flow of the house. We are on our last boxes and have pictures up on most of the walls. There is still a million and one little projects (and a very long "honey do" list) but we are very excited in our new house and hope you can come visit soon!!

here's one last picture of our backyard (if you look closely on the left you will see the debris of the removal of the elephant palms!).

We made slime...

So we are members of Publix's Preschool Pals and they sent this neat idea to make your own stretch putty. P has been on a science kick recently and this activity was a perfect fit. With very few ingredients -


Borax (I didn't know they still made it) & glue & food coloring

you can make this -



How cool is that? It was slimy and squishy. You mix the ingredients separately with water and then combine them and they bubble up nicely.



It made for an interesting experiment (though t was not a fan :-) ).