Delaney's birthday

Delaney asked to go to the zoo for her birthday, so that is what we did. We had a ton of fun going at our own pace and seeing exactly what the princess wanted to see. We stopped at one of those machines where you insert 2 quarters and a penny and it "presses" it into an animal picture...she thought she was hot stuff.

For dinner, she wanted quesadillas, so we headed to Don Pablo's. The meal and birthday dessert was so good there that we didn't break into her cake until Thursday evening.







Matt and I bought her a Leapster (wonderful educational game system). She was SO excited to open it! Her and Matt have had lots of fun playing with it.

Recital

I can't think of a clever name for this post....so it is pretty obvious! Enjoy these pictures from the big recital. She did an AWESOME job!! I, unfortunately, had to be backstage with her, so I didn't get to see any of it, but there are pictures of her dancing...YEAH!!! I was so proud of her (but we still haven't signed her up for next year).

Monkey Delaney

After the show, my mom bought her a rose. She thought she was something special...well, she is, isn't she?!?

My BIG kids!

This past weekend was a big weekend for both Delaney and Carson. We'll start with Car b/c he so often gets to be second! He has been working very hard on potty training and his chart was a SLOW success....seriously, you can look back through this blog and see that we started a (what we thought would be) 30 day chart in February and he just finished it last week!!! WOW!!! But, I can now say that he is my big "unders" wearing boy! He wore them to church yesterday, which is a big deal b/c we haven't been going to this church very long, so I don't know how much they pay attention to requests/instructions, but he came out in the same pants we dropped him off in, so they must have asked him a few times or he must have gone on his own. All of that to say ~ the last reward on his chart was a big boy bed (the same bed Matt slept in when he was 3). It was delivered last week and Matt put it up Friday. We left the crib in the room so he could go back to it if he wanted to, but Matt took it down yesterday b/c Carson claims he is a big boy and doesn't need that baby bed anymore.

On to Delaney....this weekend was her rehearsal for her recital (which is Saturday at Franklin Central HS at 1pm). She did a good job, but 2 hours is a LONG time for an almost 4 year old that really isn't that interested in dancing! She was a mess by 2:40 (I so badly wanted to leave, but knew I needed to prove to her that we had to stick it out till the end). I think she will just stand there and look cute on Saturday, but I don't care. It's been a good experience for all of us....I learned I am just not one of those dance moms and she learned she doesn't so much care for ballet...she needs a little more activity....maybe we'll try gymnastics!

Projects

I decided that this weekend we were going to tackle some of those projects on the "to do" list. So far we haven't done too shabby.Friday we stayed in our pajamas until almost lunchtime. It was the first day since I took the after school care job that we didn't have anywhere to be all day, so we took advantage of it. We made banana chocolate chip muffins when the kids first woke up. Then we watched a movie from the library in our pajamas while we ate our muffins (in the chair!!). Then, we got dressed, went to Walmart to buy the supplies for another project and went out for lunch....we deserved it!

Our next project (okay, the first one that involved any kind of productivity) was to organize the kid's computer table. It had a random collection of papers, markers, crayons, scissors, and glue all over it. It was really starting to bother me that nothing had it's own home. So, we made homes for all of it. Delaney and I worked very hard Saturday afternoon cutting, taping, labeling, and organizing everything. It looks so much better and is so kid friendly now.

Our project today was to finally plant the garden. I went to a wonderful nursery yesterday to pick our plants (zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, green and red bell peppers, banana peppers). So, today we got them all in the ground. We think it looks pretty good for first timers! We'll see what happens....

Good friends.....good times!

My friend Gretchen does promotions for Backyardigans and she hooked us up with 5th row tickets to the Backyardigans Live show at the Murat. We decided to make a day of it and took the kids to Qdoba (beat out Taco Bell by my vote!!) for lunch. Then we went downtown. At lunch Delaney had told Carson that Backyardigans were coming, just like Sesame Street did (they had NO idea where they were headed at this point). When we got downtown we parked in Matt's lot and then we walked to the Murat. As we got closer Matt was trying to convince Delaney to read the sign on the building, but she wouldn't, so I sang the song to Carson and he guessed what we were doing. The show was wonderful ~ we even bought a CD afterwards so we could sing the songs the whole way home!! Then, we (I think that should be Matt) had this great idea to take the kids to South Bend on the circle to get ice cream. That walk was a little too long for Carson as he spent a lot of it whining!! However, ice cream totally rejuvenated them and we had a great walk back to the lot.

I invited some friends from the church we used to go to over for a play date on Monday. There were 12 kids between the 5 of us! Our kids had so much fun together and were all so well behaved. They only made one HUGE mess, but it is history now and all that remains are the memories of playing together and digging in the dirt. All of our kids have known each other from birth, so we are trying very hard to keep their friendships together...it helps that all of the moms have been friends since before the birth of our children, so we love to get together just as much as they do!!

So I'm a slacker....

I've been busy, but that is no excuse for not at least slapping a picture or 2 up here for all to see. You know, like what happens when you ask your almost 3 and 4 year olds to help you by getting all of their underwear and socks out of the clean laundry.

Grandpa Dick and Anna Marie came to IN a few weeks ago for Shannon's graduation. We were able to spend a lot of time with them. Matt took the week off work and I took the week off of job #2. We were able to take a trip to the zoo with Teri, James, and Alex. We went to the mall for a while, got new shoes, and played at the play area and ate out LOTS.

I am almost done with job #2. I think I am counting down more than the students are....5 more days!!! YEAH!!! I can hardly wait to regain some sanity and control at home. I have truly and honestly missed cooking more than anything else. Matt has done an excellent job, but it is really a hobby to me and I have missed it in the last 6 weeks. I am also looking forward to working out again. Unfortunately that was one of the things that I had to sacrifice to take this job, but Matt did too, so we've become "unhealthy" together at least :-)
Maybe now that I have a new camera (Happy Mother's Day to me....unfortunately I'd lived without one for 2 weeks b/c mine broke), I'll be better about posting these updates.

Who is that girl and when did she turn 5?!?

** I guess humor and sarcasm cannot be heard in one's voice in a blog...she isn't really 5, she just looks like it! She will be 4 in June. **

Sleepy boy...he is seriously sleeping in there....isn't that adorable?!?

blog

Okay, Matt is trying to "teach me" about blogging ~ not that it's that hard, I'm just not used to updating you all that way! So, I will send this update out and then I'll try to adapt to the blog next time I update :-)

I mentioned Carson's potty training chart a few weeks ago, well, it only has 11 stickers on it - not as much of a success as I had hoped!! He does great about peeing (loves to pee in public, those bathrooms are sooo cool)! One of his rewards, after 10 stickers, was ice cream. The ice cream you can see in the picture is mine, but remember that the camera angle makes it look way bigger than it was :-) I'm kidding - it was huge and wonderful!!!

Our kids really enjoyed Easter this year. We did the Resurrection Eggs (plastic eggs with a part of the story in each one - we opened one each day leading up to Good Friday) with them so they both could tell the entire Easter story by Good Friday! We were thrilled that they knew what we were celebrating. We attended the Good Friday service at a church we've been visiting and Delaney was able to go into the service with us. It was a drama about the events leading up to the crucifixion and it brought about some questions. It was so neat to see her process all of that information and really grow in her understanding of God and His love for us. We also colored Easter eggs and the Easter bunny visited! The kids got dressed up in adorable matching outfits too!!


My dad has had the month off of work, so we have been filling his time with fun events. One of which was going to the museum to meet Monkey George. We chose to do that on a Saturday so Grammy and Daddy could go too!! Delaney was none too thrilled with him (she does not care for big people dressed up). Carson went right up to him and wanted to get his picture taken! We also got to play in the Monkey George exhibit ~ what fun!

My dad has been watching Carson every Thursday so I can take Delaney to ballet alone. That has been very fun for both of them! They have been going to my sister's house and playing with Seth during that time too. Those boys can be wild together though, so watch out!!!

Delaney has grown leaps and bounds academically the past few weeks. I guess we just had to tell her she was going to school and she was ready to go!! She can read Step 1 books (with some help) and she LOVES to color. I mean for hours on end!!! I just took a job doing After School Care at GCA (the school I taught at that she will be attending next year) and I am anxious for that to start on April 7th. I will be working 37 1/2 hours a week between the two jobs with no childcare - pray for me!!!! Matt is going to come down to school when he gets home and get the kids from me. But I am figuring on nice days when I've taken my "students" outside to play, he is going to have NO chance of getting those kids to leave with him! I am very worried about the chaos that occurs at the beginning of after school care, so I am going to have to lay down some big ground rules starting on day one! I'm a mom, I can handle it, right?!?

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!
Gretchen, etc....

Easter

Easter was a fun celebration for us! We colored eggs, the Easter Bunny visited, we went to church and had lunch at my parents.

Day with Grandpa Bub

Once again I have hijacked this list to let everyone know how much fun I had spending the day with Delaney and Carson.

Even though it was rainy outside, the day flew by! We decided the best way to enjoy the rain was to have a breakfast picnic and watch the rain. Someone, , suggested that the best way to eat the cereal would be with our tongues. (I was eating some too. You just don't get to see it, because I had the camera.) It went over so well that we ate all of Matt's Lucky Charms.

We did finally decide to get dressed. I was able to get Carson into the planned outfit. Delaney had other ideas. She had dressed herself by the time I had dressed Carson. She was also adding a few finishing touches to her hairdo. At one point I think she had about 20 hair clips on the right side of her head. I think she needs to work on using her left hand to balance up the layout!

After lunch we watched "A Bug's Life". The grasshoppers were a little more violent than I remembered. Carson didn't seem to let it phase him though. He told Matt later that, "Grandpa Bub protected him".

The day went so quickly that Carson was still asleep when Matt got home. Delaney and I were laying on the couch talking.

Grandpa Bub

brief update

Hello! I wanted to give a brief update of the happenings in our home lately. It seems most fitting to do it with pictures...enjoy!

My mom and I took the kids to meet Bob and Larry at a new Christian book store grand opening. Laney was NOT going to go up to get her picture taken with them, but Car watched a few other kids do it, noticed they came away unharmed, and decided to try it himself. He still doesn't look too sure about it though! We came away with a free CD of three Bible stories and a sing a long DVD that goes with the movie we took them to see in the theatre - we watched it and Carson just kept asking when the movie was going to start.

"No more pictures, please." Can't you just hear it?!? I think this is an adorable way to capture that we are in the middle of potty training Carson - wow, what a task that is with a lazy little guy!! All of the candy and sticker rewards in the world make NO difference in his life! We started a new chart and he is excited about the possibilities on it - new unders, a new book, and the finale (after 30 successes)....a BIG BOY bed!!! YEAH!!!!

This update doesn't have to be all about the kids ~ it can also be about my absolutely wonderful husband!! I have wanted an ipod since before Christmas (I get VERY tired of listening to the women around me talk about their drama while I'm trying to walk/run at the gym). On Valentine's day I got this box of chocolates...lo and behold, there really was an ipod shuffle inside of it...thank you sweetie!!! All I could say in return was, "We made you a big heart shaped brownie - and we even iced it!!!"

Our nephew Seth has spent the week with us as his parents are in the hospital welcoming their new baby boy, Luke, into their lives. He has done a GREAT job adjusting to our routine and he fits right in. The boys have actually slept in the same room. It's been fun to see them all enjoy life together and to see each of their reactions to Luke. Seth is young enough it only phases him that we get to see Mommy and Daddy. Carson is worried he's being replaced. Delaney is in awe of this little creature and wants to look at him and love him lots.

Matt has promised to show me how to put all this on the blog so that you all can start checking it at your leisure instead of getting emails so full of pictures it takes 45 minutes to open :-)

Have a great rest of the week!
Gretchen

A Long Overdue Update

Hello friends and family! I hope that 2008 is off to a great start in all of your lives and homes. We are having a blast and keeping too busy to sit still and do these updates as often as I'd like to!

We went to the Children's Museum 3 times in 10 days! I took them with some friends from church, then we went with our friends from MOPS and then.....I feel like there should be a drum roll here.....the Monkey George (that would be Curious George to those of you who don't spend enough time with Car) exhibit opened!! Matt took a half day from work and we went to check it out on the member preview day....that was the only exhibit we visited and we had a lot of fun! We had gone to the exhibit when we were in Chicago with Matt's grandparents, so the kids were excited to see some of the things they had played with there in our museum (especially the payer - Delaney's term for cash register and the person running it).

Matt and I had a crazy idea and decided to take the kids to see the new Veggie Tales movie in the theatre. The movie was excellent and the kids were wonderful! We went all out and bought popcorn to consume during the movie - it was gone by the time the previews were over! There were a few "scary" parts, according to Carson and Delaney, but it all worked out okay, so they were happy. They have requested that they get to see more movies like that - we'll have to see about that one :-) If you haven't seen it (which I'm guessing most of you haven't), there are talking cheese curls in the movie, so now every time we have cheesy poufs (is that how you spell it, Matt?) Carson bites a mouth into his and then they converse with each other for the rest of the meal - it's pretty cute!!

The past week or so we've been battling some kind of flu bug. Car came down with it last Wednesday and Delaney came down with it yesterday (sorry to everyone we've been around during the last week). Delaney had a dentist appt and a dermatologist appt last Wednesday, so Matt stayed home with Car and Laney and I had a girls morning - it was so much fun! We had about 45 minutes to kill between the appts, so we went to the mall and had a snack. She got the giggles b/c I dropped the lid to our icing on the floor and we laughed about it for a while - we very rarely spend time together without Car, so it was a nice change of pace - she didn't have to compete for the attention for once.

Tomorrow Delaney and I are going to visit GCA (the school I used to teach at) to see about enrolling her in K4 next year. I am going to see what they are doing at this point in the school year and see if it might be worth it to send her. I think she'd love the social aspect, but I worry that it won't be challenging enough, I mean, come one, she's my firstborn and she's a girl - she is a genius!!!

Have a great rest of January - stay warm (unless you live in California - then I hope, by some freak of nature, it snows horribly on you)!!

Gretchen

Happy New Year

	Christmas Morning
Matt and Carson at Zoo Year's Eve. We bought tickets to this event in November, having NO idea that the evening would be WET and COLD! We spent a lot of time inside that evening - dolphin show, oceans building, even the gift shop, just to try to keep warm and dry!! The night ended with a fireworks display at 9pm. It was really neat, hopefully next year it will be much nicer weather!

Hello all! We've been off to a busy start this year. Today we went to the Children's Museum for a fun playdate with some other moms from church and yesterday we had MOPS. Monday was a lazy catch up kind of day - lots of laundry to do. Sunday was church in the morning and then Delaney and I went shopping in the afternoon, she has become quite the shopper....we tried on clothes together. Before I could stop her, she had removed the tags from the pants she was trying on b/c it was uncomfortable - cute!! We wound up buying them, so it didn't really matter. Sunday evening we had dinner at my parents house. Saturday evening we spent a gift card we got for Christmas to eat at the mall and let the kids play for a while in the playland. All in all, we've kept pretty busy.

Tomorrow is Delaney's first day back at dance since before Christmas, they were closed for 2 weeks for their winter break and she is READY to go!! She has been dancing around the house for the past week!!

In an effort to be a better communicator in 2008, I am asking each of you to help me.....could you please send me your birthday, the birthday of anyone else living in your house, your preferred phone number (cell/home), and current address (unless you just got a Christmas card from us, then we know your address and you don't have to waste your time typing it!)?

Thanks!!
Gretchen

Merry Christmas to All...

Wow, what a weekend.....and it's not over yet! For those of you who have been involved in this weekend, you will agree that it has been quite the whirlwind. Let me recap for you all.

Thursday started our weekend (Matt was off work on Friday - yeah!!). We went to dinner with Matt's co-workers for their Christmas party at 5pm. We hustled out of there a few minutes before 6pm to take the kids to Christmas at the Zoo.They had NO idea this was what we were doing and even upon arriving, they had no idea that Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Cara, Uncle Dave, and Sethers were inside waiting for us. They had SO much fun! Carson acted like a scaredy cat all night long, but we are attributing that to the fact that it was dark outside. The lights were beautiful and they got to ride the carousel and train (thanks Dave and Grammy!!!).

Friday was a day of anticipation. The kids were looking forward to spending the night with Grammy and Grampy (and drinking chocolate milk) and Matt and I were stressing over our plans for the evening. If you've ever seen While You Were Out on TLC, that is what we were doing. The kids were going to Grammy and Grampy's house, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Shannon were coming over and there was going to be a TOTAL overhaul on their bedrooms while they were away. This whole process started a few weeks ago when Matt went to stay at his dad's for the weekend and the two of them built Delaney a big girl bed (twin size). The bed was left in his father's care for painting and Eunice did some decorating on the footboard for princess Delaney. Aaron and Matt left when we put the kids down for a nap to go get the bed from Hanover. My mom and dad picked up the kids around 5:30 and Shannon and I worked like mad women to get the rooms cleared out. We had the wall paper stripped before dinner and had primed Laney's room and put a coat of paint on each room by midnight. We stopped for a Starbucks run and then put another coat of paint on each. So far - it was going MUCH better than the kitchen fiasco!!!!! Shannon and Aaron left for home around 3am and we cleaned up the painting messes and fell into bed exhausted.

Matt and I woke up a little after 7 and started again....the rooms looked GREAT and we were ready to reload them with all the new stuff - Merry Christmas Laney and Carson!! See the attached photos to view each room. Carson's favorite thing was his new pillow. He's never slept with a pillow before, so he was in awe of it!!! Laney loves her big girl bed. She refused to nap this afternoon (yes, the kids came home around 2pm.....whirlwind weekend) because she had to go through all of her stuff to be sure it was still there. She only requested 2 of the items I'd tried to get rid of....not too bad!!

They are both sleeping like little angels in their new rooms right now......so, to all a good night!!

Love,
Gretchen and Matt

PS Santa came to visit our house Tuesday night. He put a little fear in Laney and some awe and wonder in Carson.....they are very excited for him to leave more presents while they are sleeping - so excited they ask every morning if he came during the night :-)

Merry Christmastime

Christmastime is a word used a lot in this house! The kids are starting to get the concept that just b/c the tree is up doesn't mean that Santa is coming tonight (or last night or the night before that!!). I am thoroughly enjoying this season with them - they are really "getting it" and that is FUN!!

I know I mentioned we kicked off the season by going to the Christmas tree lighting downtown. I hope you all know me well enough to know that I won't let the entire season be about Christmas lights and Santa - those are great and the kids get excited about them, but we're doing all of this for a reason and I want the kids to know that too! Thanks to my parents the kids have this great Little People nativity set which has led to lots of great discussion! Delaney is obsessed with setting it up EXACTLY how it looks on the box - it's like a puzzle to her. But she is really getting the concept that we are celebrating Baby Jesus' birthday and how special that is to us. She loves to sing "Away in a Manger" and gets most of the words right :-)

Delaney has also learned to write - really write - during the past month or so. She can write Delaney, Carson, Mom, Dad, Lin (Lion - but she sounded it out), and Twix (she still has to ask what makes the tw sound every time). She will try to write just about anything and is getting pretty good at it. I am sooo proud of her!! She is very interested in sounding things out and figuring out what letter makes that sound. As a teacher, I am thrilled and am really encouraging this skill.

Carson has really learned to talk and has some great conversations with us. Yesterday when we picked him up from his class at church he had a scratch on his face. As we started to question him we learned that he had been pinched by a little girl. Matt inquired more and got out of him that he had pinched her first. Later we learned that he had been in a shoving match with a little boy in his class - too much time with his big sister, maybe?!?

This past Saturday we took the kids to Jolly Days at the Children's Museum. It was soooo much fun! We all got to go down the "snow" slide. We rode the carousel (Delaney and I rode 2 times). I am guessing we will be back there before the end of December when it all goes away.

Matt put the Christmas tree up Thursday night so when the kids got up Friday it was there to greet them. Actually, I was "fluffing" the limbs when Delaney woke up and she came out in awe of the lights. Then when we got Carson up he seemed to be more confused, like how'd that tree get in my house while I was sleeping and is it okay to be there? We decorated it Friday evening - the kids helped, so it is a little heavy on the ornaments in the front/bottom section :-)

On Friday we went downtown to have lunch with my mom. My mom's cousin Nancy went with us. The kids had a lot of fun "showing off" for her! I let them both walk since Nancy was with me to help hold hands, but Carson spent more time on his knees than walking - lesson learned - stroller for Carson is a good idea!!

On Thursday Delaney got measured for her outfit for her recital (tentative date is Saturday, June 7 - we will know for sure by the end of December). Delaney will be a butterfly - they are doing Bambi. It should be adorable - I mean, come on, it is a bunch of little girls Delaney's age - what could be more cute?!?

Wednesday was story time at the library. Carson was the ONLY BOY in a room of 16 children! He didn't realize it, but if this is any forecast of his class in school, the pickings will be good little man!!!

Tuesday I worked and they spent the day with Grandpa Bub! I am sure lots of wildness was enjoyed, but since I put Grandpa Bub and Daddy to work as soon as I got home, I didn't hear about lots of it. I just heard about them getting us a new microwave. I promise pictures of the kitchen will come soon - I want it to be totally finished before you all see it, so there are still two more things that need to be done.

Delaney with the circle she drew (dot-to-dot, of course!!). Notice that she wrote "circle" above it :-)	Carson "cooking" at the museum.

Have a great week!
Gretchen

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving a few days late! We've had a busy week and I'd like to recap it with some pictures! I apologize to those of you that have a slow connection, b/c these pictures will take decades to load - sorry!!!

The kitchen is almost finished, so pictures of that will be coming at the end of the week (if Matt and Kevin are as productive tomorrow afternoon as I hope they are - I love you boys!!!!)

We took the kids to the Christmas tree lighting Friday evening. It was Delaney's second time to go and she remembered EVERYTHING about last year!! Carson was in awe of the crowd and the noise! They had a ton of fun - even though Delaney had to sit on my shoulders and I am sooo much shorter than Daddy that she couldn't see anything - whine - Santa didn't look at her - whine - the fireworks were behind buildings b/c we were on the WRONG side of the street - whine!!! I am sure you can hear the dramatic whine coming from her :-) We ended the evening with the kids first trip to Starbucks - how fun is that?!? They had a blast and so did we! I think that whole evening will definitely be a kicking off the Christmas season tradition in this house.

We were able to spend time with lots of family during the past week or so. We had Thanksgiving pizza and breadsticks at Shannon and Aaron's house last Sunday with Matt's dad's side of the family. Thursday we went to Cara and Dave's for the traditional fare (see pictures of cousins playing), and Saturday we went to Teri and Jeff's for dinner and - well, you'll have to look at the picture to see what the kids (Shannon, Delaney, and Carson) created!!


We are thankful for each of you!!
Gretchen

it's fall

It is definitely fall out there! I just returned from voting and it was a chilly little trip!!

We went to the pumpkin patch last Tuesday with MOPS - it didn't rain, but it was still very muddy. We got to take a hayride to the patch, pick our own pumpkins, and see a pumpkin eating dinosaur - which Delaney was NOT a fan of. Actually we left about 2 minutes into his "performance" and she said she didn't think we needed to go back next year. ADORABLE!!! The pumpkins they got for their $3 admission price were tiny, so when Matt got home we went to a little pumpkin stand we've gone to the past 3 years and got a bigger pumpkin to carve. We carved it Tuesday night. The kids used the webpage I sent out last week to design their face, I drew it on the pumpkin, and Matt carved it up for us. Delaney was not a fan of "pumpkin guts" and Carson just wasn't a fan of the activity - he actually went inside after about 10 minutes of pumpkin fun.....he's been like that about a lot of things lately - we've decided that when he got sick a few weeks ago, he all of a sudden transformed into a terrible two year old!!!

Wednesday I went to work and Grandma Teri watched the kids. They went for a walk to scope out all of the houses with Halloween decorations so we'd know where to trick or treat. When we both got home from work we decided to get some dinner in them before we went out even though trick or treating hours in Indianapolis were from 5 to 7 - what happened to being out after dark?? So, after dinner we got them all dressed up and went out for the evening. We let them trick or treat in our neighborhood for the first time. They had lots of fun. Then we went to Shannon and Aaron's and my parent's houses. Cara, Dave, and Seth were at my parent's house too - so the pumpkin and puppy got to play together.

Thursday was dance and Friday was "getting ready for the weekend project" day. My parents kept the kids Friday night (both of them ALL night). So, Matt and I decided to tackle the kitchen. It turns out the kitchen is a really good football player and it tackled us pretty hard! I had all of the little stuff cleared out by the time Matt got home. He helped me clear out the big things and then he took Delaney to the store for paint tape. We taped it all off before we went to my parent's house for dinner. We left the kids there and went home to get started. We got the primer on - PINK - and then decided to go to the grocery store while it dried. We got home at midnight and decided to put on the first coat. We finally went to bed at 3am. I got up at 8:45 to start with coat number 2 - then we did coat 3 and 4 throughout the day. Finally, after a trip to Home Depot to get more paint, we learned that we needed to let it sit for a few DAYS to dry before we tried again. So, the necessities for me to be able to cook are in there and hopefully it will get finished up tomorrow - I will not send pictures yet - they are UGLY!!!

Today is MOPS, so I should get going. Have a great Tuesday!

Gretchen

pictures

Enjoy the little Scarecrow and Pumpkin. Yes, Carson was the same thing last year, but he asked to be it again, not like we could say NO! However, I don't think it will fit again next year, so he's going to have to come up with something new.

Happy November!
Gretchen