Kitchen Re-do

Recently I decided I wanted to put a new floor in the kitchen. It seems like several of our house projects have started with this idea. Can you tell I don't like the floor in my kitchen? Last summer, I asked for a new floor for my birthday. We ended up buying new flooring for the kitchen, hallway, main floor bathroom, and family room. We decided to start in the family room (wood laminate), and pulled up all the carpet, leveled the floor, and installed the floor, by ourselves with help from my dad, while my mom wrangled the kids. So once the new floor was in, we decided we actually didn't care for it that much (it made the room feel really dark), and opted to not do the rest of the planned rooms, and returned the materials. That re-do deserves its own post, so I'll do that later.

So this summer I decided the kitchen needed a new floor, again. We went to the Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM to us Nebraskans) and looked at flooring. The stuff I liked was pretty cheap, but installation was going to be almost twice as much, if not more. For some reason, I have problems paying someone to do something that I could do, and laying vinyl flooring didn't seem too tough. Yes, I am a big thinker/talker. :) I kept going back and forth, but ultimately lost my desire for the renovation. Then I decided I could just remove the wallpaper border and repaint the walls. For some reason, the woman who lived here before us loved green (hey, I do too) and decided to put it in every possible scenario (not good). So the walls were a custom paint job to make them look like wallpaper (why?), with a weird border at the top of the wall, and she also refinished the cabinets to be lighter, and put in a green countertop. Now, this really bothers me because we have dark trim and woodwork throughout the house, so the kitchen cabinetry really stands out. I actually prefer the darker wood, but when we were looking at the house, the kitchen was cute enough and we loved the bones of the house, so we went with it.

Anyway, while my mom and I were checking out wallpaper (I had to have something to tie the green countertops in with my non-green choice of paint color) borders, she suggested vinyl stick-on tiles. Eureka! That sounded like an awesome idea and I quickly formulated a design with the border, paint, and flooring, and it all played out in my mind like a beautiful symphony. Oly was not quite on board, as he has trouble visualizing things before they're finished, and I almost always have the finished product in my mind way before the project has even begun. So, all he could see was dollar signs. Begrudgingly, he went along with my enthusiasm, mostly because he loves me, and partially because he's good at humoring me.

Had the wallpaper in hand, the paint purchased, and decided that redoing the floor was way more work, even with the super easy vinyl tiles, than I am willing to do at this point. So with the help of the aunt of one of my best friends (Karen is the aunt, Carrie is the friend), I got the kitchen painted on Wednesday (Karen actually did most of it, I did touch-ups and above the cabinets that night), the border put up on Thursday, and Oly picked up the table (and the flowers on top of it! :) ) I found that I loved on Thursday night. Here are some before and after photos. The 'before' are from when we looked at the house before we bought it (thanks to Matt for taking those, or I wouldn't have any!) 3 years ago.

Kitchen (with laundry room off to the left). Sure wish I had the previous owner's copper collection!



I really liked the previous owner's table, too... I tried to find something like it but kept striking out, which is good because I love the one we just got!

AFTER: This is with the flash, which makes the walls look really white. They're off-off white, actually. On the deck is the old table set we had before the renovation (and Grissom).

Laundry room door off to the left:

You can't tell in the photos, but there is some green in the border that matches the countertops, and the color of the walls is a nice neutral for that. The best I could do with those countertops! I would love to have cherry or even the darker wood cabinets back, or even paint them... but then we'd be looking at new countertops too, since that green wouldn't go with much (except white, I guess... no thanks) and I am not willing to pay to have it done, and even less willing to do it myself, so there it is. :)

A few things...

UPDATE on Oly's condition:

This is the bruise on Oly's thigh that started out light blue and swollen. A few days ago the outer areas turned a really nasty shade of neon green. You can kind of tell in the middle of the bruise where his leg hit what we assume was the handlebar. His chest is still pretty sore, and he's finally agreeing with me that he probably cracked a rib. The scrapes on his right arm are scabbed over, and the deep one on his left arm is finally starting to scab. It was painful unless he kept it bandaged with antibiotic ointment on it, due to the air. Today was the first day he went to work without it bandaged. It's pretty deep still - I think he'll have a nice scar there.


Emma made a sign this morning and asked if she could put it in the yard. I just noticed what it said when I went out to get the mail, so I had to take a picture. That Emma, always being neighborly!

Smiley Sam

All I was saying was, "you are a stinky head! Yes you are!" and he was laughing his head off. I never knew I was so amusing!

I love how his arms look like a pork tenderloin.

Grissom's New Toy

This is Grissom (named after Gil Grissom, from 'CSI'). Yesterday (July 17th) was his 2nd birthday, and he got some fun new toys, including his very own pool!


I thought this was funny - a photo of the family enjoying our backyard pool. Note the hot tub in the background. Grissom is not allowed to use that.

This photo is the precursor to what is about to happen in the next photo. I was just snapping away, laughing at Grissom drinking the pool water, not paying attention to Max. Check out the look on his face.

What a stinker!

Simon headed off, Emma was getting out, Max and Grissom are still enjoying the pool...

Until Grissom starts to shake the water off of himself... then Max decides he's had enough.

The Banta Five

I took about 75 photos and ended up with 2 that turned out. Such is life with 5 kids, eh? It will be fun when they're older to look back on those that didn't turn out. Please note that Gus would NOT keep his other shoe on. Nor did he want me to remove the one he did have on. Oh, and Emma had to do a costume change halfway through. Unfortunately Gymboree did not have a girly outfit for Emma to match these for the boys. I know, I'm lame. I think matching outfits are so cute (except on twins, for some reason)!



During this photo shoot, there were lots of kisses being handed out... pretty cute. :) Not sure what Max was doing, but he looks happy about it, so we let it go.

"Alright, enough!"

The boys were getting bored, and Gus for some reason had to be touching Sam, but Emma smiles on...

Max was also doing his part to harass... he was touching Simon's hair, putting his finger in Simon's ear, etc. Lots of fun, apparently.

Max *loves* Sam, and with Gus long gone, he turned his affections on the smallest member of the family. Emma and Simon were true professionals in this photo. Smile on, nomatter what! It even looks like Sam is trying to look around Max's face to make sure he gets in the photo too.

Oly's Accident

Oliver became close friends with the concrete trail on Saturday. He was 80 miles into what ended up being a 104 mile bike ride, when he was standing up, pedaling with all his might up a hill, going about 18mph. His rear wheel somehow came detached, as I understand it, and locked up, and he hit the pavement, bike and all. He wears shoes that 'clip' into his pedals, so he was attached to his bike, as they both skidded along the pavement for 15 feet. Thankfully both Oly and his bike lived to tell the tale, but the scrapes they each received were deep.

The first photo below is one taken by one of his riding buddies. It shows how skewed the handlebar was. As you can see, it's pretty much parallel to the front wheel, and it should be perpendicular. What you can't see is a screw on the front that is sheared down to being unadjustable, several deep gashes in the handlebar itself, and some nice scratches on our brand new (never been out of the box before Saturday's ride) GPS unit. What some of you may not know about Oly is that he is very much a perfectionist and *hates* having his things damaged. While everything is still functional, it's no longer 'perfect', and he's not enjoying that too much. :)

This photo is of the scrapes on his right arm. Not too terrible, but still pretty painful.

This is his left arm, which looks a lot worse in person. He lost several layers of skin, down to a layer of something white (fat, I'd assume - I told him those are drastic measures to be taken in the weight-loss competition we're having... literally scraping the fat off instead of losing it the right way!). It is still very painful to touch, but I keep making him let me put antibiotic ointment and bandages on it a few times a day.

He also has a softball-sized bruise on his thigh (from his handlebar, I assume), which is swollen and hot to the touch, and a nice scrape across his chest, as well as some chest tenderness. I thought he should get an x-ray to check for cracked ribs, but he refused, and his doctor (our friend Tony) also said it wouldn't change anything at this point, so no need.

He was pretty bloody when he got home. I can't believe he rode another 25 miles after that happened! Thank goodness for adrenaline, I guess.

A few photos

I was sitting at my desk and turned around just in time to see Gus attempting to jump off the couch. Simon and Max make a habit of having fun doing this, and apparently Gus was not to be outdone. However, since he finally just got the hang of walking and running, obviously that makes me a bit nervous. :) I don't know what it is about boys and being crazy...


Just another cute one of Gus... not sure what he's contemplating, but I just nixed the couch-jumping (Tom Cruise-style or other) and he wasn't very happy with that.

Gus and Grissom were both very taken with the neighbor's cat. Well, we all are... but those two stood in that window and watched her for like 5 minutes, which anyone who has a toddler and/or a golden retriever knows is pretty much impossible.

Emma went to the Democratic caucus with some good friends of ours (Lisa is one of my best friends, and her husband Tony is pretty cool too (and also the kids' doctor), and their daughter Emily is one of Emma's best friends) and since then has been a fan of current events. She has decided she'll be endorsing Obama.

This is one of the signs she made to put on the lamp posts on our street. She also made extras to sell, but didn't get any takers. :)

Saturday Funsies

The Myers group came to visit for the day. It's always fun to get the cousins together, and Saturday was no exception!



Orion was practicing some tom foolery in this photo. Simon had just told him he is a little stinker.




We like to get photos of the cousins all together whenever we see each other, obviously. We tend to have babies around the same time as each other, so it's cool to get those two together and take lots of photos. It's fun to look back on, and the last time (which was the first time we met Athena) we completely forgot to do the obligatory photos, so here are the first photos of Sam and Athena together.

Sam (4-22-08) and Athena (4-29-08):

Max, checking out Sam and Athena:



We didn't tell the kids about our plan to get a trampoline. Oly and I kind of decided Saturday morning, and Matt was kind enough to go get it with Oly, and help us set it up (until we took a break for dinner, and they had to leave). It was a complete surprise to them (except that Emma guessed that was where Oly and Matt were going, that little stinker... so I had to do some fibbing) - we always have said we'd never get one.

The realization of what's in store:






Like Santa with a sleigh full of goodies:

(The funny looking thing on the back of Oly's truck is his bike rack.)

Getting things unpacked and ready to assemble:

Matt and Oly discuss logistics:

Emma (somewhat patiently) awaits the completion:




The finished product: It was about 9:00pm!

Max was very excited but also a little nervous:

So far, I think it was a great purchase. It's bigger than I thought it would be, so it didn't fit in the spot I originally had hoped to have it, but it's great where we have it. Emma and Simon (and Max, off and on) have been jumping on it pretty much all day, with short breaks. Gus even got a shot at it this afternoon!

4th of July

We had a great day on the 4th. We puttered around most of the day, and at about 4:00 I cut Oliver's hair. He decided it would be fun to have a mohawk for the weekend, so I left that part:



After styling it with a *lot* of product (who knew mohawks required so much work?), the rest of us got ready and headed to the home of our friends, Cory and Nikky, who have a big 4th of July BBQ every year. They have 3 boys; the eldest two are slightly older and slightly younger than Emma and Simon, and their youngest just turned 1. Cory and Nikky are super-duper, and we always have an awesome time with them, so we were looking forward to it. I decided to be adventurous and actually prepare a dish instead of copping out and buying something pre-made. I made a mango and strawberry fruit salad, using mint from our yard (at least I hope it was mint, hehe!) and a freshly squeezed lime. It didn't last long at the BBQ so I hope that means people liked it.



At the BBQ, the big attraction was their new trampoline. Matt bought one when we were in our late teens/early twenties and we got a ton of enjoyment (and exercise!) out of it, but someone was always falling/flying off and landing painfully so I have always said 'we are not getting a trampoline!' Even when they starting coming with the screen/net enclosures, I didn't think they looked very sturdy, so I was a meanie and told the kids no, which also included jumping on other peoples' trampolines. However, I changed my mind after seeing the one at the BBQ in action. The kids were constantly bouncing against the net and it just seemed really well put together. Plus the kids (obviously) weren't nearly as crazy as Matt and I and our friends used to be. I guess I shouldn't compare the jumping habits of adults to those of children. :)


Oly jumping with Emma and Simon (Simon's feet):




Simon and Emma having fun:



Max, after being told he had to get off and give someone else a turn:



Gus, trying out the playset:





A couple of cool guys:



Oly and Sam:



Sam enjoying the print on Nikky's bouncy chair:



Gus, about to embark on a grand adventure:



Charming, as usual:



Max, 'fishing' the bowl out of the pool. He worked at that for several minutes, and he got it!





There were mass quantities of awesome food and a vast array of desserts, and the kids played games that Nikky had organized, and a great time was had by all.

Oly and Max, doing the water balloon toss:

Oly and Gus, doing the baby race while Emma cheers them on (Cory and Dante to the left):





*Photo credits and thanks to Nikky for the top photo of Oly and the bottom four of the games.

I left at about 7:30 with Max, Gus, and Sam, because they were about to start the loud fireworks, and Gus was starting to get owly (his bedtime is usually between 7 and 7:30). Oly stayed with Emma and Simon until about 9 or so. Got Sam and Gus to sleep by 8:30, and the others were passed out on the couch at 11:00.

On the 5th of July, we got our own trampoline. More about that to come!