Surprise trip

On Monday morning, we surprised the children with a special trip to Disneyland. They had no idea. We wrote a note sealed in an envelope for them to find in the morning. It was about 6:00 a.m. when I heard Nate, so I grabbed the camera. Here is the end of that video with the "final reveal":

The full (very long, six-minute, includes-fussy-naked-child) video is here:

http://youtu.be/WKhfUNJmTpU

We had a really great day. We arrived at Disneyland soon after it opened, so we got on a few rides very quickly (the teacups, Small World). The boys and I went on Autopia together while Lucy went on a "scarier" fast ride (Matterhorn) with Jon. The whole day went smoothly, and we all had fun pretty much the whole time. What a great surprise!

Dining chairs

I've been working on updating our dining chairs for the past couple of weeks. We had four original chairs and have always used mismatched chairs for the final two. I painted the original four grey.

I really like how they turned out. I kind of don't want the kids to sit on them--hello! Not the point!

Then I found three of these chairs on craigslist; they are wood with caning and upholstered seats, and they needed some love. (And actually, one needed so much love I ended up not using it--but I needed only two anyway.)

I sanded, painted, sealed, and reupholstered them.

The upholstery isn't perfect--this was my first time doing something like this--but I really love how these turned out. The fabric is going to go very well with the curtains Mama made (they arrived yesterday! Thank you, Mama!).

Next up is painting the dining table. :)

Happy 4th birthday, Levi

Happy birthday to our funny, not-at-all shy, car-loving, all-boy boy!

I love how cute DJ looks in this picture:

Two updated rooms

I painted the walls and ceiling in the master bathroom last week. It looks so fresh now!

I sewed long shower "curtains" in the guest/kids' bathroom and also put some fabric inside that small cabinet. I painted the vanity and added those colorful knobs. We got the round mirror at Ikea. I would like to put a shelf or something on the blank wall between the mirror and the shower, and I'd like to get a new faucet. I love the mint/aqua and coral combination! It's pretty much exactly what I was going for.

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.