Thursday, June 13, 2013

Memorial Day

On Memorial day we headed up to the Potters for an afternoon in sun.  We enjoyed their beautiful pool and a great feast!  The kids jumped in and swam around like no time had passed.





Abby had a blast with the big girls and they were so good with her.  It was great way to spend a beautiful sunny day in San Diego.




Happy Birthday, Grandma Lori

Zack was so excited to have a party at our house to celebrate Grandma Lori's birthday!

Matt BBQ'd some burgers and they were delicious!
 
Uncle Mike and Uncle Damon came over and my cousin Patrick was in town and Andy made it over after work.  It was really nice to be able to have, and host, a party for my mom.  It has likely been 10 years since I have been with her on her birthday.

Happy birthday to my very special and amazing mom.  

The whole crew

After dinner we brought out the bounce house and all the neighbor hood kids started coming to investigate.  At one point we had 12  kids in it and all the adults came over to see the new kitchen.  I certainly took the party up a few notches.



Our neighbor across the street had another movie night so we moved the party out front!  I am so thankful to be in such a great neighborhood.  There is always fun stuff being organized for the kiddos.

The next morning my mom and I took the kids for a hike a few miles from the house.  It actually ended up being more of a carry, however.  After a night of being up late partying neither of the kids were really too into walking, which made the "hiking" part of our adventure a bit more work than expected:).




Scripps Ranch Community Fair

A few weeks ago our community had its annula fair.  We headed to the park less than a mile form our house and the kids got to enjoy some rides, hang out with friends from preschool and we got to listen to some music and eat dinner.  



 I am pretty sure this was not allowed but the teenage boy running the slide could have cared less.




Bella and Zack:)


Before & After

In the last few months we have done more with the house than we ever expected.  I liked it ( for the most part) when we moved in but now I love it and it really feels like our home.  The kids even consider rit their house finally after being in so may paces in the last year.  Zack said, "Our home is beautiful.  It's not flooded anymore."

It is so hard to believe that 4 months ago this is what our kitchen looked like.  I never loved it but also knew there was not much that I could do about it until... the flood!  Just to recap, in early February a pipe burst under the sink and flooded the entire downstairs.  After a month in the hotel, and a lot of uncertainty, we found out that the insurance had deemed that our cabinets, floors, and baseboards needed to be replaced.  YAY!



As soon as we moved back home from tour month in the hotel we realized we needed to demo the kitchen.

So, we lived like this for 2 months.  Although it was not ideal I think we handled it pretty well and made the best of it.

First we got the tile in.


Then, the cabinets.

And appliances...

And finally granite and after 2 months...a SINK!!!  Oh how I missed the sink. I think I was more excited about that than the new cabinets and granite.

The backsplash was the final touch and we are so happy how it turned out.  I LOVE the big island and I feel like the kitchen is the way it should have been from the beginning.

We have already christened the new kitchen with a few gatherings and are hosting Matt's staff tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

  Since we were already in complete chaos without a kitchen and the backyard was basically unusable because of the thick clay that made it hard for grass to grow and created lots of mud, we opted to put in a turf grass.  I was a little skeptical but I could not be happier with the results.

They dug out the grass and put down gravel... I think.


When I came home from work we had grass (and cabinets).  It was a big day!

The backyard is so much nicer now and we can roll around with the kids (in my white jeans) and not worry about getting muddy or grass stains.

The floors and baseboards were actually the first thing that got done.  Matt and Josh did the floors and baseboards and I am really happy how they tuned out.  






And, on a whim, we redid the bathroom last weekend.  It needed some touch up paint and we decide to change the color so I suggested that while Matt was picking up paint maybe he could check out new lights and mirrors:).  Once he got those he decided a new sink and other bathroom accessories were also needed.  So, it turned into a complete bathroom makeover.  Luckily, it is a small half bath.


When your dad is a science teacher...

You start science experiments young.

Over spring break, Matt showed the kids how ice freezes and melts and evaporates.  They loved it.


Boiling water in our pseudo kitchen...don't miss this at all.

He also made bottle rockets launchers with his class and brought some home for the kids to play with.  Endless fun!

Even more fun when it turns into LIMBO!

Abby has also really started to become interested in reading and writing.  She was busy working this and came to show me that she had spelled CAT & HAT.  She is pretty good at sounding out basic words and has a memory that continues to amaze us.