Insta-Friday...

This week has been crazy.  Haven's birthday party, Adam's birthday, more kitchen progress and the beginning of summer break!  Here's the proof from my phone...

This girl and that pillow.  Too adorable.  She doesn't slow down that often, but when she does, she really crashes.  

Meanwhile, upstairs on her bed...

The Olivias are multiplying.  Totally my fault.  I can't not buy one.  Too adorable!

June weather is insane.  So far, we have been fairly lucky with only getting hail.  But they were BIG...

That's Adam's hand, BTW.  These were about ping pong ball sized.  Thank God for garages.

The FedEx man brought me something wonderful...

my new range hood!  I finally decided on one and am SO happy with it!  Pics of it installed are coming soon!

The girls spent the entire week at their Lolly's house.  We met up at a huge outdoor shopping mall that has a dino themed restaurant.  We didn't eat there, but we had to sneak in to get some pics with a wolly mammoth...

Then we went to a New Orleans themed restaurant to eat and Haven ordered a pound of crawfish.  Seriously...

They are her favorite food.  It was gross.  But she was in heaven!

I am linking up to Life Rearranged's Insta-Friday...

Interview with Haven at 7 years old...

Haven at 7 is a super fun kid.  She still loves dinos and science, any animal, books, the library and her friends.  But I should let her tell you that...

What are you good at?

Doing handstands.

What do you like the most about yourself?

That I make new friends every day.

What makes you happy?

That I have an American Girl doll.

What is your favorite book?

Little House on the Prairie

What is your favorite TV show?

Good Luck Charlie

What is your favorite food?

Steak

What is your favorite toy?

My 2 stuffed horses.

What are you most afraid of?

Getting stuck in the chicken coop at Grandma's house.

What is your favorite thing about Daddy?

He takes me to the dinosaur museum.

What is your favorite thing about Momma?

She plays games with me.

What do you like the most about your sister?

She plays with me.

Where is your favorite place to go?

The zoo.

What do you like the most about being a kid?

That I can fit into tight places.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?  And why?

A unipegasus.  (Cross between a unicorn and a Pegasus.)  Because I could fly.

What is a nice thing about you?

I am a good friend.

If you had $100, what would you buy?

I would buy a zoo!

What is one thing you want to do this year?

Join 4-H.

I can't wait to see what 7 brings for Haven!

An interview with Maelie at 4 years old...

My Mae is now 4.  She is funny, energetic, very artistic, tough, loves ballet and contact sports.  I really enjoyed interviewing Haven last year when she turned 6 and have been looking forward to the day when I could interview Mae.  I tried last year, but was terribly unsuccessful.  So I was really excited to actually get answers out of her this year!

What are you good at?

Doing stickers.

What makes you happy?

Pancakes.

What is  your favorite book?

Big Bad Bully Bug and The Big Yawn

What is your favorite TV show?

Spongebob

What is your favorite food?

Pancakes and waffles.

What is your favorite toy?

My pink horse.

What are you most afraid of?

The dark!

What do you like the most about Daddy?

That he takes me to the museum.

What is your favorite thing about Momma?

She takes me to the mall.

What do you like about your sister?

She plays Olivia and horses with me.

Where is your favorite place to go?

The zoo.

What do you like the most about being a kid?

Playing with Olivia.

What is your favorite animal?  Why?

A pink flamingo.  Because I could be a momma.

What is something nice about you?

I share.

If you had $100, what would you buy?

I would buy a flamingo, an ostrich, a penguin and a peacock.

What is one thing you want to do this next year?

Go to the dinosaur museum.

 What a fun kiddo!  

Ballerina Birthday Party!

Maelie turned 4 one week ago.  But due to vacationing family members, we decided to hold off a week on the party.  So yesterday we had 8 little girls over to the house, along with grandparents, a couple of aunts and my friend Amanda, and had a proper ballerina party.  I asked Maelie's pre-ballet teacher come by and give a little lesson to the girls.  It was adorable!  

(Pics by my talented Mother in law - I was too busy to snap much of anything!)

We had strawberry cupcakes, coconut cake, jumbo gumballs, M&Ms, raspberry lemonade and pink milk.  And she blew out 4 pink candles with white polka dots.  It was a momentous day indeed!  The kids all played a rousing game of pin the tutu on the ballerina.  She danced and played with her little friends and cousins and got a pile of presents.  It was a perfect party! 

Turning 4 has definitely been difficult for me.  I guess I have felt like 3 and under are still the baby years.  But 4 is big kid.  And I guess I wasn't ready for my baby to turn into a big girl.  But I'm slowly getting used to it.  (Of course, today when she started talking about her 5th birthday party and I realized that she only has 51 weeks of her being 4, I nearly had another meltdown!)

I had a very insightful interview with her last week on her birthday and I will posting those Q's and A's tomorrow.  She is such an interesting girl!  

Happy birthday Maelie Kate!  We love you VERY much!!

Grout. Grout. Let it all out...

This weekend we finally finished the grouting!!  I didn't think I would be so excited for this phase, but I really am!  And just to share my excitement, here is the original kitchen...

And here is where we are right now...

All the grouting is FINALLY done!  Of course, there is still a hole in the ceiling above the stove where the vent hood is eventually going to go.  When we buy one, that is.  And there is still no light above the sink...we are still working that choice out.  But it definitely looks better than the before pic...right??  I can't believe how different all the white is making the floor look.  Where before it looked more grey, now it looks very brown. I can't wait to get rid of it.  I am still looking at the harlequin grey and white check vinyl floor.  It is just so classy.  (BTW, a co-worker told me a few weeks ago that my kitchen choices were "retro".  Um, no.  Classic.  Never confuse retro with classic!)
Anyway, I am super proud of the progress we have made so far.  The next major steps will be removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room, making a decision on flooring and installing the island!  Can't wait!

My First Time Tiling...

The day I've been waiting for finally arrived.  The day that we would mix up some thinset, clear the kitchen counters and get busy tiling.  I have been looking at bare sheetrock (or, in some spots, the original minty green painted sheetrock) for 4 months now.  And it was time for change!  

A couple of weeks ago, we hit the jackpot at ReStore, picking up almost 2 full boxes of white subway tile for about $15.  It wasn't enough to completely do the kitchen, so we had to pick up 2 more boxes from Menards.  They were on sale for $19 a box, about $3 cheaper than the regular price at Lowes.  Adam bought a score and snap style for $15 from Harbor Freight and we borrowed a tile saw from my awesome friend Bree.  So after gathering all the essentials and standing around while Adam did a ton of math (thank God he does it - I would just jump in and get myself into trouble!), we finally started around 4 in the afternoon.  It was brutal.  Seriously.  WAY too intricate for my hurry-up-and-get-it-done personality.  But Adam was very methodical.  He had laid tile before - the hexagon mosaic tile that was in both bathrooms in our old house.  But this was the first time he had tiled a wall.  We had some issues with getting the spacers to stay in, but finally got in a groove.  We took a brief stop to answer the door for the pizza boy (seriously, he was like 12) and chow down on some pepperoni & bacon and ham & pineapple pizzas.  Then we jumped back in.  We finished somewhere around 12:30.  And here's what it looks like this morning...

 We haven't gotten to the grout stage yet.  We really want the thinset to be completely dry and solid.  Plus, we have a whole other wall to tile as well.  Yep.  We are only 1/2 done.  *sigh*  But it looks SO good!  And looking at it is only inspiring me to get back to work!

Insta-Friday

Happy Spring Break! 

We live in Kansas, so Spring Break means snow.  Seriously.  The high this week was 55.  We are supposed to get 4-8 inches of the white stuff tomorrow.  Ridiculous.  

But the dreary weather didn't keep us from having a fun week.  :)  We spent several days in Kansas City, staying with Adam's parents, going to the girls' doctor appointments and having some fun family time.  Here's what we did...

We began by going home to our old church.  The sanctuary is so incredibly impressive.  It's everything churches these days aren't.  The soaring ceilings, the stained glass, the wood pews.  There is something sacred about spaces like this.  Something you can't replicate in today's megachurchy sanctuary/gyms.  It was good stuff.  I wish I could be there every week.

 After church, we stopped at Waldo Pizza...

There is nothing in the world that compares.  As their motto states, "Corporate Pizza Sucks".  Yes.  Yes it does.  Especially when compared to chicken, spinach & Roma tomato pizza with alfredo sauce.  YUM.

The next morning, after a quick checkup at the girl's doctor, we made our way downtown for a family fun day.  First stop - the Crayola Store!  The girls spent a LONG time coloring at all the fun coloring stations around the store.  Meanwhile, I noticed Adam's doppelganger across the store...

The resemblance was uncanny!

After they were all colored out, we took the Link across the street to Union Station...

It's my most favorite building in the entire city.  It's hard to believe that it was neglected and decaying not that long ago.  

My favorite part of the building is the ceiling...

While there, we grabbed some lunch at Harvey's...

What a happy kiddo!  

Next up - Science City!!  The kids were really excited to go.  We hadn't been before, but found out that our family membership to the KU Natural History Museum gets us into Science City (and 300 other museums nationwide!) for free!  

The exhibits were very cool...and the whole family thought this thing was awesome!  We spent a lot of time in front of this screen dancing our little hearts out.  :) 

Of course, if you ask the girls what the best part of the weekend was, they will most definitely say seeing their Lolly.  They got to spend 3 nights there!  And I caught them whispering to each other and sweetly playing together in the mornings.  Maybe sharing a room wouldn't be the worst thing ever...??  Especially if they wake up this happy every day...

After our fun 4 day weekend, it was back to work for me.  For 2 days at least.  But our Spring Break was good family time.  And good Kansas City time too.

I'm linking up to Insta-Friday, click over to see what other bloggers have been up to this week.