Follow Me!

Coincidentally, I'm posting this exactly one year after my last post. I'm going to keep this blog up, since it has so many pictures, but I'll mainly post to Facebook and you can always follow my posts over on Sex and the Knitty for a little snapshot of our lives.

Halloween and Home Improvement

And, all the while, he's patiently waiting out the chaos...

Charlie's visit to the pumpkin patch at Klicker's

They told us all about how they've smeared peanut butter on an electrified fence to prevent this from happening...just what my boys need to hear :)

Where are the pictures of Henry's class trip to Klicker's, you may be asking yourself? Well, I'd have tons if I hadn't marked the date wrong in my calendar :(

Now my little Jack-o-Lantern has two missing teeth! 

notice anything amiss with Dear Charlie? Sad swollen mouth :(

Poor Henry drew on the face for his pumpkin from school, then Jared carved it as drawn. He was so disappointed because he wanted the eyes to be the same. We thought he'd drawn them different on purpose and he said 'I guess I'm just no good at this!' We assured him that it was awesome, and it looked super cool. Even if it looks a little like a Tim Burton character :)

A green and orange smoothie made with pumpkin and spinach (and bananas and honey and greek yogurt) for my little monsters.

Henry as Darth Vader

Henry's class party, just before heading out for the parade

The boys had to get their flu shot this morning, so they had just enough time before heading out to dress up all over again!

Before

Laying it all out

One wall down!

Taping over the details in the tile before grouting them

I ordered the same grout that the builder used so that it would match

One wall left to wipe off!

I almost didn't add the decorative tile in, because I thought it would be too hard. I love the way it turned out!

The wall that is a little off, because I didn't want to nip 8 tiles...I'm impatient like that!

Just before wiping off the final round of grout haze, and I love it!

New Patio!

We knew we wanted to extend the patio, but thought we were going to do pavers. In order to do it right, it's a LOT of work, lots of steps, and the pavers are pretty spendy. Fate stepped in and a concrete company was in the neighborhood to complete some more of the sidewalks. I asked them to give us a quote and the number was good enough for us! Because the lot behind us was empty, they were able to just remove a portion of our fence and do the sod removal and concrete laying with a bobcat they could drive through the empty space in the fence.

It was a trying couple of days keeping the kids out of the backyard and having Dailey on a leash to go potty, so there were no little boy or dog prints in our new patio, but we're really happy with the results! Next summer, we plan to build a cedar pergola over a portion of the patio to help block out the late afternoon sun, and it will truly be an extension of our home! We also plan to build curved planters on either side so that it kind of encloses the space. I may have a bench built into one of them on the side where we'll have the table, but we'll see how that goes :)

Because we have a gas pipe coming out, we're able to convert our grill to gas, so it'll be ready to use all the time on the side patio in about a month after the cement is fully hardened. No more dragging it in and out of the garage and wondering if we have enough propane. I can't wait to experiment more with the grill to make pizza!

Here are a couple pictures of the process, and it was worth every penny!

(wow!)

Kind of a disconcerting sight outside your window in the morning!

Here's the outline of the patio

The forms are in place and the gravel tamped down

Our new patio! After they left, Jared went through the sod that was cut out, and patched in the areas where they overcut (which the contractor told us we'd have to do) We were also able to patch a couple other dead spaces in the lawn where 'somebody' whose name starts with S spilled a giant blob of stain this summer.

Oh Lordy, where has the time gone?! We had a fantastic summer filled with many adventures and are now in the swing of a new school year. Henry is enjoying Kindergarten, and Charlie is in preschool two mornings a week. I've really enjoyed the extra time with just Charlie, but we sure miss Henry when he's gone all day! Our weekends are full of fun and travel and when fall slows down just a touch, I promise to be better about posting. Here are some highlights since I last posted:

Jared finished his first Olympic Distance Tri-athlon

I finished my first full marathon!

 Charlie turned three..

Or was that Thor? (Granny thought he was getting confused about how old he was when he said he was 'Thor' on the phone)

My best friend Lesley and I trained for this together from afar and got to  celebrate with a little pool water in our champagne:)

We got to play in the sand with Grandma Wutzke and Jasper at the Key Family Reunion in Newport

Play with bubble guns

Built a play structure! (best investment ever!)

\

Celebrated Fourth of July at our house with all of our  Edvalson cousins!

Got to sleep outside in the tent ALL BY OURSELVES! (daddy slept outside the tent because he thought there wasn't room for him. The mosquitos were happy for the tasty treat.)

My bedroom got a makeover! (now we just need that King-sized mattress to accomodate our 'family bed' :))

Henry learned to ride a two wheeler

and crash

I got a little paint on the walls in a couple rooms

had some fun with praying mantises

gave my first backyard dog bath

Charlie learned the fine art of harassing his brother

discovered the bliss of home-made ice cream

enjoyed the bounty of our neighbor's garden

Henry turned six!

Dailey continues to embrace my shenanigan-filled children who like to imitate him

...and then school started, and the chaos continues, just in a new way.