Pretty girl

Savannah's friend gave her this adorable dress for her birthday.  She wore it to Church last week.  She also gave her flower seeds that Savannah planted in these planters in our front yard.

Chalk paint fail?! And stong boys!

Our piano has been sitting in the garage since before we put our new floors in.  I had been wanting to paint it and bring it back in for a long time.  I missed hearing the piano playing in the house.

I saw some chalk paint re-do's a friend of mine did, and I got interested.  She told me all about it and directed me to the blog where she got her homemade recipe.

I figured the piano would be prefect to try it on because it looked bad anyways.  We had started stripping it a few years ago, and never finished.

Well, I bought all the stuff I needed and got started one Saturday.  Griffin even helped me.  I must say it was going very well.  I fell in love with the chalk paint.  I love how it coated the piano so evenly.  It looked great and so smooth after two coats.

 

The next day it was time to wax.  This is where I ran into trouble. I think I used too much wax.  I couldn't get it all off.  Parts looked shiny, other part dull.  I spent a long time trying to fix it. 

No matter what I did I just couldn't get it to look good all over.  It was a bummer.

 

 

 

I left it alone for a week or so then asked the boys one night if they could help me bring it into the house.  They completely took over.  Trevor made a simple lever complete with a fulcrum.  It took some effort (the piano is big & heavy), but they pulled it off.  I was super impressed with their strength. 

 

 

 

Now it's sitting in the kitchen, and everyone loves playing it, but I hate the way it looks.  Spring break looks like I'll be doing another piano project. Patrick loved the way the chalk paint looked too.  We may do it again, but instead of the wax just spray it with a high gloss clear finish instead. 

Awards

Trevor had a Court of Honor recently.  He earned more merit badges.  I finally got him the sash to put them on.  He also earned his 2nd class. He still really enjoys scouts. Oh, and he smiled all on his own I didn't even ask him to :)

Track

Trevor started Track.  He's been really enjoying it so far. Today was his first ever Track meet.

 

He did good!  Glad to see he's finally decided to do some sort of sport after all these years.  Hopefully he stick with it.

Happy 9th Birthday Savannah May

For Savannah's birthday we decided to skip a big friend party.  Her big gift from Mom & Dad was the St. James Tearoom.  We had a pretty relaxing day, then went to Church at 1:00
As soon as we got home from Church we changed and headed out to dinner at Olive Garden (her choice).  We all enjoyed a yummy dinner.

 

Right after we returned from dinner, the doorbell rang.  Savannah's friend Julia was at the door with a birthday gift for Savannah complete with balloons!  Great timing since we were just about to open gifts & cards.  She was super excited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think she had a fantastic Birthday! After cake & ice cream she called each one of her Grandparents to thank them for the cards/gifts.  She enjoyed telling them about her special day.

 

We sure love our Savannah

May

Mazie

Mazearoonie

Sha May May

Roonie

 

 

She's such a sweet special girl.  Happy Birthday, we love you!!

 

St. James Tea room

For Savannah's birthday we wanted to do something special.  We decided to take Savannah to the St. James Tea room.  We've never been there before, but we've heard good things about it.   Savannah, Patrick & I got all dressed up nicely, and headed out for a 4pm tea.

It was a surprise to Savannah, she had no idea where we were going.  When we got there, we finally told her what we were doing.

While we waited a few minutes, we looked around the cute gift shop.  Once we heard the ships bell ring, we headed back, and they seated us.  It was so nice.  We had a really nice private little area to ourselves. She was thrilled with all the little details. They brought us our first teas.  Savannah had a special child's tea called a fairy tea. 

 

This months theme is Alice in Wonderland.  When our server brought our food, everything had a cute name to go with the theme.

 

The food was super yummy.  The tea was actually quite tasty as well.   We're not tea drinkers, but we were impressed.  Patrick even bought some before we left. 

It was very nice (well, besides the annoying lady, and her kids behind us)  We all enjoyed eating, drinking, and chatting.  Savannah said several times "Thank you so much for taking me here, It's the best gift I've ever gotten."

Since it was her birthday, they let Savannah pick her favorite tea of the night, and they packaged it up super cute so she could take it home.

 

It was such a fun special evening celebrating our girls 9th birthday.

We hope she'll always remember this special day!

 

 

 

Black light Run

Tonight Patrick & I ran in the Black light run 5k.  It was a fun date night for us.  It was fun, but cold and windy. I also realized I'm not young anymore.  Long gone are the days I would go to clubs.  While I lived in NY that was almost a given that we'd go to NYC on the weekends to go to a club.  Seeing all these young kids last night made me feel old.

It was fun though, and nice to get out and do something different.
These pictures are pretty funny!  Patrick says my eyes are creepy!

A rare event

If you know me, you know that I don't often let my kids have friends over to play at our house.
I don't know why, I just don't like other people's kids to be in my care, making messes at my house etc.    I don't ever think I'll be comfortable having kids just come over to our house and hang out.

For this reason, I rarely allow them to invite anyone over.  It's just not my thing.

Well, yesterday was a very rare occasion.  Trevor was at a birthday party for several hours in the afternoon, so I set up play dates for Griffin & Savannah.  

Griffin had his friend Brandon over, and Savannah had her friend Tarra over. They all had a great time.  Towards the end, they all made their own pizza roll for dinner.

We had a simple easy dinner of Pizza rolls, Jello with fruit inside, and carrots w/ranch.
It was a fun afternoon/evening.

This week

 

On Wednesday for Activity Days, they met at one of the leaders homes.  They prepped a dinner for the missionaries.  They also got to decorate a recipe binder, and took home the recipes for the food that they had prepared.  Savannah is so excited to have her own recipe binder, she's asking me for recipes to fill it up.  It was a really fun activity.

 

For a long time I've been wanting to go more natural with my cleaning products.  A friend of mine has been selling doterra oils for a couple of years, and has sent me samples in the past.  I finally ordered some oils for us to try out.  Lemon, Lavender, and Rosemary. For cleaning I'm mixing water, vinegar, and several drops of the oils.  So far so good.  Best part they don't make me cough, or give me a headache. I'll be adding more soon.

 

A new phase in our life.  For years each night when I would tuck Savannah in as I would be leaving, she would Always say "Don't forget to leave it a crack." Just last month I was slightly annoyed, because after all these years you'd think she'd know that I've got it by now.  Well, in the last week or so all that changed.  She asked me to shut her door all the way.  She says we're too loud downstairs when she's trying to sleep.  Maybe its because she's turning 9 next week.    Ms. Big Stuff!  Now she says "Don't forget to shut my door!"

 

Last week at school Savannah had a big fall as she calls it.  When I picked her up, she had a rip in her jeans, and a rip in her shirt.  After her shower I bandaged her up (which hurt a ton).  She hobbled around the rest of the night.

 

 

While I was taking care of Savannah, Trevor walked in and his feet smelled so bad I almost threw up.  I immediately made him soak his nasty feet.  Pre- teen grossness!

 

 

Each of my kids has brought home a cabbage plant their 3rd grade school year.  Now it's Savannah's turn.  We haven't had time to replant it yet, so it's just sitting in the kitchen.  Savannah was over watering it.  It was looking bad, so I wrote a little note near it that says Do Not Water Plant

Yesterday morning I found Patrick had added some funny lines.  Always the playful Dad.

 

 

Trevor started Track.  He's loving it so far.  They run so much!!  On Wednesday he went to bed around 7:45pm when I checked on him at 8:00pm he was already asleep.  I love that he's exhausted at the end of the day.  Finally, something to wear my boy out!

 

Griffin & I both had eye appointments this week.

 

 

 

Last night Trevor and I hung out together.  It was just the two of us.  First, we went to Target so he could spend a gift card he's had since Christmas.  Next, we went o Krispy Cream so he could use a coupon he's had for a free donut of choice.  Lastly, I surprised him by taking him to the movies.  He had been asking me all week if we could go see the new movie Non-Stop.  We both really enjoyed it.  It was a great time chillin with my boy!