Fun day at the splash park

Today Ethan, Aiden and I met Jennifer, Zane and Emma at J.R. Newman Park in Frisco. They have a great splash park for the kids, a playground and even a covered pavilion with picnic tables, fun!

We were supposed to meet them up there on Tuesday, but it got rained out. Today it was bright and sunny with just a slight breeze, PERFECT weather! By the time we got over to the park, the slight breeze turned into a full blown wind, but it didn't stop the kids from stripping down and going into the water. Next time we go, Jennifer and I decided that we needed to bring a picnic lunch. The two older boys saw everyone else having a picnic lunch and asked us where ours was, oops!

Here are a few of our pictures from this morning:

Jennifer and Emma, poor thing was cold

Aiden did NOT like it when the water sprayed up his shorts, he was done at that point

All cuddled up in his towel

Ethan had the Baywatch run going on!

Aiden now watching happily from the sidelines

Pointing out the tower of water spraying, he would walk over here then start to cry when he would get cold and wet. :)

Venturing over to the water again with his big brother

Aiden and Zane

Zane running through the water

Trying to get a GOOD group picture, this was the best I got. At least the older two are looking and smiling :)

We can't wait to go do some more fun things with Zane and Emma this summer! Ethan had so much fun with Zane! Thanks guys!!

What happens when...

I have both of these bottles in my shower, and this morning I was really tired from running and I grabbed the pink one and started to wash my hair. Yep, you guessed it, I used the Oil of Olay, with CREME OIL RIBBONS! It took washing my hair three times with the super cleansing shampoo that I usually use once a week to get my hair feeling semi normal. But hey, I didn't need any conditioner at all today!!

Ethan's 1st 3D movie

I took Ethan to see Up today and as we were driving there I was trying to explain to him what 3D was, if you have never tried to explain it to a 4 yr old, it's hard to do! He thought we would put on these glasses and it would make us jump onto the screen. :)
Let me just tell you he LOVED it! We watched about 3 previews for 3d movies coming out, Toy Story 3, Ice Age, and G-Force. He laughed through out those, and when I looked over at him, I saw him reaching his hand out, trying to touch the screen, too cute!
:)
The movie theater runs a summer special, and I am going to buy us tickets. We won't be able to make all the movies, but I can at least get that price, and then give the tickets to friends of ours when we are out of town.
Here is a pic of Ethan all ready for the movie to start!

Oh, and Ethan & I have been randomly saying *SQUIRREL* all day! He laughs so darn hard every time!!

Yay!!

My last post was asking for help and I had both Heather and VA help me out! Thanks girls!
The other night our friends Scott and Amie were over and Scott helped Seth hang up the wires for my curtains and then I attached the hooks and threw them up there. No, I didn't even bother to iron them. I figured after a day or two in the sun, the wrinkles would just fall out. Can I just tell you how awesome these are! We can draw them shut and have a nice dinner out there without the sun cooking us. I want to get two more drop cloths and use them on the sides, that way we can close the whole thing up if we want to, or just the sides on windy days. For the tie backs I just got some 2 inch wide grosgrain ribbon in a cute print, love! The whole cost was under $30!
2 9x12 drop cloths- $20
1 pack of clips- $3
1 pack of eye hooks- $1
1 roll of 50b weight limit wire- $3
1 roll of cute ribbon- $3

Total $30

Standing on the other side of the pool deck, looking up at the porch. I *thought* I had cleaned off the porch, guess I didn't do that good of a job. Ignore the yellow bag of salt and the sunscreen bottles on the table.

One half of the porch, our new dining set.
See the cute ribbon!

Help please!

I follow a LOT of home decor style blogs, and there is one that used canvas drop cloths for patio curtains, but I cannot for the life of me find the blog that I found them on. Have you seen them? In the meantime, I will be going one by one through all my blogs, ugh!

~Front door makeover~

If you can't tell from the last few posts, I have been in total make over mode throughout the house. I have been wanting to paint the front door, but I was scared to, because if it looked terrible I couldn't hid it and we didn't have the budget to buy a whole new door. But after talking to a few friends, I decided to go for it, and I am SO glad I did!
For under $10 and one hour, I have a brand new look.

Front of the house, I think we need to trim the tree's, you can hardly see our house! I didn't realize it till I took these pictures!
Better view of the front door/walkway area. Please excuse the dying flowers. I have no idea why they are dying, maybe too much water!? We have had so much rain this year. We also have an armadillo that is tearing up our flower beds and our neighbors. I go out every morning and fill in the holes...grrrr...

Front door with screen/glass door open

Front door all cleaned and ready to be painted!

rusty, nasty looking old hardware

1st coat of paint
All done! I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it looks!

We can't afford new hardware right now, at least the ones I want, so to tide us over, I sprayed them with hammered nickel paint. They really help finish up the door.

New front of the house. I still have to put the nickel kick plate and hardware up on the glass door. I also grabbed that pot out front and gave that a spray of black paint. I also want to do the light and the hanging basket on the wall.

I really like how it is coming out!

~Kitchen Remodel Part Two~ The Cabinet Makeover

Once we did the first part of our *remodel* in the kitchen, it just kept leading to other ideas! :) I know Seth loves that about me...
I practiced on the 4 cabinets in our bathroom and once we had the technique down, I started on our kitchen.

Ethan helping me wash the cabinets, child labor laws what!?

Now they are laying out to dry

My new friend! Saved me HOURS of sanding and then rewashing. All you have to do is pour some of this onto a lint free rag and make sure it is all covered. In about 10 minutes it is dry and ready to be primed. Easy peasy!

Spray primer. This is where we experimented. I can paint on the primer, and then paint on two coats of paint, OR I can spray on the primer...

Here are the cabinets with one coat of primer. Don't mind all the paint cans in the background...can you tell I am addicted to paint?

Then I can spray on one coat of this...

Here are what they look like with those coats on them.

At this point I get out the paint and a QUALITY paint brush, that is the key! I do one good coat of paint, then they are all done! Using the spray paint for my first two coats literally has saved me hours of work!


My kitchen with the doors off. Don't mind that mess in my spice cabinet or the drill on the counter. Doesn't everyone have a drill on their counter? With the bases, I actually have to hand paint it all, cause I am not about to tape everything off just so I can spray it!

My helper today, I love that Ethan is old enough to help now, and actually enjoys it!! Bonus that Aiden took two really long naps today, so Ethan and I got a lot done!

Aiden was not into helping, here he is watching the music station. Yeah, it's a black screen except for the white box that bounces all around to tell you what is on. He was looking out the window, but I guess the bouncing box caught his attention!

Here are the cabinets just after the liquid sandpaper and the primer coat. They already make the kitchen look so much brighter and it's not even done yet! I know that it is going to be great when it is all said and done!

Next up! Finishing up the top AND bottom cabinets, then new wall color!