Time for an update!

Max at the Lincoln Children's Zoo, a few weeks ago.





Wow, three weeks since the last entry? I'm slacking! It's been a busy month - wrapping up summer fun and getting ready for school. This year, Emma is in 2nd grade (and has the teacher that I had my practicum (basically pre-student teaching) with when I was at UNL, so that's fun), Simon is in 1st grade (LOVES his teacher - she's very, very nice) and Max is in his first year of preschool. He loves going to school like Emma and Simon, and is bummed on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he doesn't get to go. It's so strange to run errands with just Gus and Sam. I sure get a lot more done! :)


First day of school:




The weekend before school started, Oly and I took Emma, Simon, and Max to Fun Plex (amusement park in Omaha) for the afternoon. We started a bit of a tradition last year, with taking the school-aged kids to a water park for the day, before school starts every year. They love it, and it's great for Oly and I to have some time with the older kids.




Oliver got a fun new bike. It's got a platform on the back for extra riders - kind of like a tandem, but the extra rider just sits there. He took the older kids for a spin last night and I even got a turn. There are add-ons available, like handlebars for the extra rider, and one person even constructed enclosed seats for his two kids and took them everywhere. I think Oly is hoping to have a similar set-up and be responsible for getting Emma and Simon to school sometimes, via bicycle. All three of them are overly excited about that prospect. It's pretty cool, I must admit. Very 'green' of us, eh? The school they go to is a little over 3 miles away, so not too bad of a trek. Drop-off at the school is crazy in the mornings though, so I won't be sad to miss out on that. :)


Just a quick spin down the street with Max:

The safe way to ride (you can tell he went quite a bit faster with Simon):

And here are a few cute photos, no real story to accompany them.

Gus, having a little too much fun with his lunch:

Some new shots of Sam, he's 4 months old now!

Gus is so photogenic. Here he is being cute on our front porch:

Simon, practicing some sweet moves:

Sunday was a fun day!

I was going to take a photo or two of Sam and Grissom, but a few other boys wanted to be in the photo... :) Max is holding a pillow, because, as usual, he was naked.

Max *loves* to climb the tree in our front yard.

We went to a park and the Lincoln Children's Museum before taking Emma to a birthday party downtown.

Oly and Simon playing Frisbee (even though Oly looks like he's just got some sweet dance moves), Gus and Max in the middle.

Emma is a pro at tying knots in blades of grass:

She is also a pro at posing like a beauty queen. :)

Oly's attempt at getting me in the photo sometimes:

Getting the kids settled.

At the LCM:

Emma's graceful dismount from the 'underground tunnels':

Emma, Max, and Oliver:

Emma was walking across the bridge and Gus decided a faster route would be to go under her:

Max in the space shuttle:

Simon watching Max on the space shuttle survelliance:

Thomas the Train, always a favorite:

Simon and Max in the space shuttle:

Oly and Simon having giggles over their Han Solo impersonations:

A Few From July

Simon and the building he constructed in Architecture Camp.


Emma and Kate on their date! We went to see Kit Kittridge, the American Girl movie.

Movies are just better with snacks! Emma and her American Girl, Elizabeth.

Grissom, enjoying (as much as one can while on a leash) the park.

Gus the climber.

Max, about to embark on a grand adventure!

Gus, always ready for a cute photo op.

Simon, one of the best big brothers of all time, and Gus.

Max, too busy to give Mom a real smile.

Emma and Simon, enjoying summer break. It's better than any amusement park... and free!

Cuteness

Max and Grissom are good buddies, but the past few days have found Max really interested in Grissom and he's been spending a lot of time harassing him. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with Max playing with my aunt's dog (which is a cockapoo, much smaller than ours) this past weekend. Anyway, here are a few cute photos I had to share.

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.