Progress & plans

It has been a week and a half since we moved in, and things are coming along here on Lemon Grove. Here is some room-by-room progress.

Kids' room
I was thrilled to come home on moving day to see our friends had put all the beds together and arranged the furniture! Everything fits nicely. I unpacked this room first and was glad to have all the closet space.

Plans for this room:
curtains - I've been looking for white curtain panels (or fabric) with large navy polka dots but might buy some plain white panels and do the dots myself
closet curtains - white Ikea panels

Master bedroom
Everything fits in here too! Yay! There's obviously still some unpacking to do but not much.

Plans for this room:
finish unpacking
change the curtains and closet curtains some day

Master bathroom
It's still the mint-chocolate-chip green I painted it 10 years ago. :)

Plans for this room:

texture the walls

paint the same grey color as the kids' room (Porpoise by Behr)

Guest/kids' bathroom

This room is now painted the same greenish-blueish color (April Mist) as the master bedroom.

Plans for this room:

Paint the vanity - white

Anthropologie knobs on vanity doors

New sink faucet

Mirror

Turn light fixture around? Or get a new one.

Shower curtain - something coral colored, inspired by these pictures:

  

Put fabric inside the door of the small cabinet

Kitchen

Everything's put away!

Plans for this room:

curtains eventually (the old red/green ones are still there)

Annnnnnd, the living room

I saved the worst for last. :) Furniture is generally in the right place, but not much is unpacked. Oh!--but I did paint the coffee table, which used to be Mama and Daddy's years ago and which I'd been using outside at our old house for the kids' art.

Plans for this room:

couch - maybe a medium-toned grey? either a small sectional or a couch and an additional chair

curtains

new media console - something that covers all the stuff up and can store DVDs and games

rug

lighting - I've been eyeing a cute lampshade at Target to go on that grey lamp...

Dining area

I guess the dining area is also tied for last. :) But I wanted to show this because it shows some of the yard too. We did a whole bunch of work back there, and Jon fixed the sprinkler system (!!!) and seeded with grass. Within a couple of weeks, it should be looking much better back there.

Plans for this room:

curtains (thank you, Mama!)

paint the dining table and chairs - I have grey for the chairs and white for the table. I'm doubting my choice of white for the table because--hello--we have three children. We'll see!

Favorite from 9/22/12

Love this.

Hello, blog

Oh blog, has it really been three weeks? I have a reason (several, really) to have been so absent. First, of course, there was Lucy's wedding and the Virginia trip. Then, tomorrow is Jennifer's (Jon's little sister's) wedding, which we all are also participating in. But most of all, there's the move.

For about a dozen reasons (really--this could be a novel of a blog post), we made the decision earlier this year to try to sell our current house and move back to our house in Irvine. We've really seen God's confirmation of this decision: wise Christian friends and advisors affirmed us; processes that are "supposed" to take four to five months (on a good day) with the bank took two months; everything seems to be falling into place.

With everything happening more quickly than expected, we're also moving sooner than expected. Instead of December, we're moving now--this weekend! I've been busy packing, packing, painting, packing, cleaning, purging, and packing.

The children are generally ambivalent. They do have feelings about it all, but there isn't much "unknown" for them: they already know the house. They are staying at the same school, the same church, with the same friends, etc. The day to day will generally be the same, just from a different house.

Wedding weekend

We just got back last night from a week in Virginia for Lucy's wedding. It was a whirlwind weekend of parties, family, and activity, and I managed to get exactly zero pictures. But the wedding was wonderful--beautiful, perfect, sweet, and lovely. Here are some facebook pictures:

All the pictures I took were post wedding: kids getting to drive Grandpa's tractor; acorn collecting; and a fantastic trip to the safari park courtesy of the best uncle ever.

School: one week in

The transition to school has gone pretty well! Both kids are smiling and talking about the fun they had when I pick them up.

The hardest part so far is the mornings with Lucy--specifically, the 50 feet between the school parking lot and her class, which should take less than a minute but inevitably takes much longer (one day about 25 minutes). She has a rough time with her shoes and socks (required at school), even though she need only wear them between the car and class, since they take them off in class. And yes, you read that right--one day it took 25 minutes, between tantrums in the car, tantrums in the parking lot, and tantrums on the ramp into class (and she still wasn't late--I've been arriving early since I know the meltdowns are coming). I'm pretty sure every parent and every administrator witnessed those. I was pretty close to turning around and taking her home, but then I would be stuck with her! I know that sounds bad, but she has fun in class and does well in class, and then I get a break--from the tantrums and screaming and battles. Last night before bed, we were talking about how much she screamed in the car yesterday on the way to school, and I asked if she has tantrums like that in her class. "No," she said. "I am good for my teachers. I try extra to be good for them." So I asked, "Why don't you try extra to be good for me, too, then?" She answered, "I can't." Hmm... we'll have to talk more about that one.

Nate has had nice things to say about his teacher and the other kids in his class. He loves recess best (they get two) and has been excited about the foods I'm sending in his snack and lunch. He's adjusting well!

Levi is getting used to the quieter house, especially since we still have plenty of out-of-the-house meetings, park dates, and errands to keep us busy.

First day of school

We had a great morning!

Truth be told, I teared up when Nate walked into his class. I was glad he didn't even pause to look back, though!

Lucy had a little bit of a hard time walking from the car to her class because of her shoes (there was a 10-minute delay while she took them off and put them back on a couple of times. I arrived early for this reason), so I actually didn't feel too misty-eyed when she went into her class successfully. :) Here she is with one of her new friends she met at the kindergarten park playdate last week:

And now it's just this guy and me.

We went to the school's opening ceremony together, which was for 1st through 8th graders (so we saw Nate).

Then he asked me to take this picture of him.

Now we're home and it's pretty quiet!

Back to School Party 2012

This year's party (our first) is actually called the Night Before School Party, since we aren't really going "back" to school but starting it for the first time. I wanted to make it special and fun for the kids so we can start a fun tradition that is pretty simple for me to accomplish (dinner? already do that anyway. dessert? not too hard. invitations and decorations? simple to print out and blow up.).

I bought a small gift for each child as a surprise waiting for them at the dinner table. Nate got a mini Simon game. Lucy got three new puzzles--something she has been asking for. Levi got a car.

At dinner, we took time to say what we love about each child, and Nate and Lucy also told us what they're most looking forward to at school. I told Nate I love that he is a leader and that he is a good singer even if he doesn't like to sing. :) I told Lucy I love that she is compassionate and that she loves to color. I told Levi I love that he is affectionate. Nate said he is most looking forward to playing with friends at school. Lucy said she is most looking forward to coloring.

Swimming and school

We've been swimming a ton this summer. At the beginning of the summer, Levi would stay on the top step, having fun but still afraid to put his face/head in the water. After no lessons and no parental pushing, here's what he's doing now:

We are less than one week away from the start of school! Nate and Lucy start on September 5. I'm planning on doing a small "night before first day of school party" for dinner on Tuesday, with their favorite foods, dessert, decorations, etc.--something to make it special but not too involved (so I don't have to live up to anything too huge next year!). Both Nate and Lucy are excited but nervous to start school. Nate has been saying he doesn't want to go, but I know the reason for that is he wants to keep playing video games for hours a day. I know he's going to love school and hope it's a smooth transition.