Gwyn's Preschool Graduation

Her graduation was in May, but I am finally blogging about it. She was in a class with only 3 other students heading off to Kindergarten in the fall. (Most of the other kids her age were in another class.) The graduation was fun and very cute. Gwyn got a gown (Blue kids move to Kindergarten.) She got to keep her cap, and there were snacks afterward. She was very proud, and had that smile she only uses when she is proud. (Chin out, mouth closed.) It was very fun to watch. (Neither boy had a graduation since they were at UCDC for the entirety of their preschool.) Both of Kevin's parents were able to make it, and of course brothers were there as well!

Her "proud of herself" smile.

Gwyn and one of her best friends, Annagha.

They had these collages made. This was hanging in the graduation area.

One of the videos is of her saying what she wants to be when she gets older. She said "a reading teacher." (You can here me gasp in adorable shock.) The other is of her getting her diploma.

Mexico 2016

I am trying to get all the summer vacations up on the blog. I will start with this one as it was in June, and it should be a short post.

This year we headed to Secrets Playa Mujeres. Again, we traveled with Gail and Shaun. This time they arrived a few days before us, and left a few days before us. We each had time alone as a couple, but a few days together as well. We LOVED this place. I thought I would not like it as much since the resort is split in half. The side by the beach has the pools and the rooms, and a few restaurants. Then to get to the side farther from the beach you take a golf cart (or walk). I thought I would not like the waiting and moving. But we never waited long for a ride. The other side had the other restaurants, the bars, and dance club. Basically, you could stay all day at the side by the beach, eat breakfast and lunch, and swim. Then in the evening you could go to the other side for dinner and drinking or dancing after dinner. We are more low-key, and spent little time on that side. But the resort seemed less crowded and quieter because it was broken up. I also really liked the pool. It was one big pool, bt it was broken up so it never felt crowded. (Until the 250 Yogis showed up and rudely took over the beach. And the other people who seemed to not like that there were no beach chairs left at 1:30 in the afternoon so they would take chairs and umbrellas from anyone not looking. Including when Shaun was sitting there.)

Kevin was glad he got to finish the book he started last summer. It is called Hyperion Cantos, and it is actually two books compiled into one, which explains why it is so long. I have started reading it, but with school starting up soon, I don't know how long it will take for me to finish it. (It is really good, though.)

View from our room this year. We had a swimout pool, but it was so cold that I didn't really care about it after one time using it.

Down on the beach.

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I almost forgot about this until I saw the picture. There was a big storm over Cancun, and we spent time on the beach and in the ocean watching it for a few hours. We could see the rain and everything, but it never really hit us. It rained a bit while we were getting ready for dinner, but that was it.

View from the end of the pool. Under the purple flowers are the suites, with their own pools.

So that mean this end of the pool was over their rooms. And that strip in the pool was a glass-bottom that was over the hallway to their rooms!

Also, I broke my toe.

Colin at the Cardinals Game

This past Wednesday Colin went the the Cardinals game. It was a day game (rain out from the night before) and the first of a double header. He went with Grandma (Louise), and when he got home he didn't stop smiling for hours!

The game was so hot. (We had tickets to go to the original game, and the heat index was over 100.) The first (Cardinal) home run of the game went into the bullpen.  Louise went over to ask for the ball, but he had already promised the ball to another kid. So she asked if Colin could get the next one that went into the bull pen. (What are the odds?) Not long after, Yadier Molina hit a home run into the bull pen! So Colin got the ball! And then afterward he also put up a K for a strike out, which is sometimes on TV. (He kept saying that he was on TV.)

He kept that ball with him all day. He even put it into a plastic ball case. I love that he has this memory. If you see him, make sure you ask him about it. Then you can see his glow!

Father's Day

Father's Day was a great day for our family. The weather was great. We got out of the house. We had fun while staying in. It was blog-worthy.

The day started with the kids making breakfast. They had made me breakfast for Mother's Day, and hubby said that he didn't do anything at all. Well, apparently he lied because the Kevin said "Daddy helped us more than you did." So I started helping out more. But the kids basically made eggs, biscuits, hash browns, toast, and gravy on their own! I had no idea that Gwyn was such a guru on biscuits. All I did was measure the dough and help stir. She rolled the dough with the rolling pin, cut the biscuits with a cup, and then put them on the cookie sheet. Kevin did the eggs, with little help from me, as well as the hash browns and the toast. (I pretty much just reminded to stir or get the bread out. When it got hectic I started to help stir.) Both Colin and Kevin made the gravy. Colin took control of the table, making sure it was set and that jelly and butter were out. He did a great job, and had napkins for everyone.

After breakfast we headed out for a walk, and then stopped to look at houses on the way home. (I love looking at model homes. I have a feeling that was more for me.) Then we returned home and had the best water fight. It took about 40 minutes to get all the balloons ready, and we used our water guns from the Pirate Pontoon from Trout Lodge. The kids were set up in the tree house and we were in the yard. There were a few pauses to refill buckets, but it was non-stop water fights. We would sneak around and get behind the defenses set up in the tree house. Gwyn would switch sides. Colin tried to steal our water balloons. So much fun!

Afterward while we were grilling and getting ready for Kevin's parents to come over, the kids played on their two new slip n slides. I asked Kevin what he wants to to type and he said "It was a great time. We have great kids."

Yup. I had to help with kneading, but she took over after a few seconds.

He was not happy he had to stop setting the table to stir.

Gwyn took the empty basket and turned into a turtle. Clever girl.

New Kitchen - 6 months in

It is about time I posted actual pictures of the new kitchen. So here they are. I tried my best to get the same angle as this post, from before any demo. Hopefully you can pull both blogs up and compare.

Still just as tiny, but it doesn't feel like it anymore.

With the less-dark family room and white washed fireplace.

This hallway is gone! There are now cabinets and a penninsula. The pantry doors are in the place of the wall, and the pantry is pushed into the bathroom, making that room smaller. (Which I love since it was a waste-of-space weird shape anyway.)

Which means looking into the kitchen is different. I am standing in the corner of the dining room, instead of near the middle. We weren't sure about moving the doorway into the corner of the dining room, but it works just fine. We actually both like it more like this. The mudroom is open and there is a great flow from the dining room into the kitchen for parties. You can also see the double oven in the picture. So yes, we have three ovens. (The large one and this double one.) We need the large one for holidays (hubby is already talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas.) but we use the small one at least 4 times a week. Usually more. You can also see a bit of the grey tile we put in here. Nearly everything was replaced with wood, except the mudroom/laundry and the bathroom.

Looking at the garage door is more open! There are not laundry machines on one side and a wall on the other! When we painted I wasn't sure whether to paint this doorway the blue or the grey, so I left it primed. By the end of summer it will be grey. (I have a lot of areas to touch up anyway.)

Dining room.

Dining room with the door moved. Those pictures need to be hanged.

Looking in from the garage door into the laundry room. This is the room that changed the most during construction. At some point, we will have barn doors hanging here. You can't see it well, but there are shelves on the right. This is space we didn't have in the old laundry room! You can see the broom hanging out a bit on the right. All mops and brooms hang on the end of the shelf. Again, in the old laundry room they were just stuck between the wall and the dryer, constantly falling out and jamming the door.

Front door. It looks neater with the bare coat rack. The cabinet for back packs and kid coats has been moved upstairs, where it needs to move. But I doubt it will return to this area. We love the new darker wood. At some point all these walls (hallway, family room, living room, etc.) will be painted the light grey of the mud room.

From the kitchen. I think it will look better with grey walls.

 

The new bathroom. It is smaller. (Again the new pantry pushed the wall on the right into the bathroom.) Kevin picked out this room. This is the only room with this tile and this color. And thankfully the kids have all outgrown the need for stools.

I am so glad there are not three different types of floor here. We moved the carpet back to extend the wood to the basement door. The floor trim is currently being painted in the basement. The dry bar has the dark grey of the kitchen on the outside, and the same light grey from the mud room (and soon-to-be hallway and family room).

We are currently waiting for it to stop raining, so the pool and ladder are waiting in this room. And we are also sorting through books to pass to cousin Kieran (who just moved from Australia!!!) and to donate. Normally this room is pretty empty. But since it is also so dark, our plan is to put in a window on the wall to the left in this picture.

You can't see a toilet! And that strange step-up into the kitchen is gone! The side of the dry bar that you see from here is just primer. We weren't sure if we should paint it the dark grey or light grey, so left it unpainted. I love how bright the kitchen looks from here.

The wood floor goes in all the rooms in the front. There are two breaks in the floor, which are at the entry to the living room and the dining room. You can see that in the floor in this picture.

The wall in the back is the one that will have a new window one day. We haven't even talked about what we are going to do to the stairs yet. We have plenty of projects ahead of those.

I know this picture is much darker, but I have already taken the photos off the camera and started blogging. But you can still see the floor goes all the way through, and we have rearranged a few pictures. Right now we are working on getting curtains and wall decorations up.

Kevin favorite things about the remodel:

• six burner stove
• giant counter top space
• the new hood is awesome and very quiet (we once left it on for a day or two)
• big sink 
• undercabinet lighting
• mini oven (double oven)

My favorite things:

• the counterspace
• there is more room between the cabinets so we can walk around easier
• walking in from the garage to the kitchen is SO EASY
• the new faucet
• undercabinet lighting
• the new wood floor is so much nicer than the old crappy wood, and there is no step up into the kitchen
• six burner stove

We love this sink. And it is deep enough that I can leave the soap bottle in the sink (or dishes) and you can't see them unless you are at the sink.

New Fireplace (Kind Of)

This past week, a friend of mine helped me white wash the fireplace. I am tired of the family room being dark, and Kevin and I are motivated to get things done around the house. (Finally! We always said we would start improving the house when the kids got older.) My friend is an art teacher, and miracle-worker when it comes to any type of project, so we didn't do the white washing the typical way (think Young House Love) which is great since it would have been too white for Kevin. (His response was "It looks better." That is wonderful coming from him!)

A picture from a few weeks ago, with the old, dark fireplace.

I have always disliked this mantle as well. Ugh.

After about 20 minutes of work.

The entire thing is white washed.

Montie added extra white wash to add depth to the bricks, and we painted the mantle. At some point we will add to the mantle, making it wrap around the brick to touch the walls.

Inspired, we moved around the furniture to uncover the windows. The room is so much brighter!

This is what the fireplace looked like for years. (Minus the decorations.) We had a red blanket covering up the brass front since the draft was so bad. #NeverForget.