Granny Kate's Cupboard: DURING

After everything was puttied, sanded, and painted with a fresh coat of white paint, my wonderful friend Jenn Gray came over to  help me antique it.  Her blog has lots of wonderful ideas and tutorials, as well as all of the techniques we used here.  There was some Chalk Paint, and soft wax and buffing involved, but also some Mojitos, so I can't remember exactly everything she did! ;)


She first defined the corners with some dark brown craft paint.   Then she did more distressing with the chalk paint and soft wax.  Isn't she such a great friend!?


 Then we had to wrap it in plastic and wait a couple of days!  EEEP!

So exciting!!!  .......

Granny Kate's Cupboard: BEFORE

This was my Granny Kate's cupboard, two years ago.  I had swiped it out of my sister Patti's garage.  (She had rescued it from Grandma's when her house was sold.) 

Boy, was it beat up!  It always sat in the corner of Granny's kitchen, with her "best" dishes on it, some of her coffee cups were even displayed on little screw-in hooks! 

She had it rigged to the wall with a spring, so it wouldn't fall over. 

There were layers of paint, and even varnish.  Lots of cracks, and broken parts.  But I have always loved this cupboard, it was worth rescuing!


Lots of sanding, sanding sanding!  And wood putty.  And a good disinfecting!  With distilled white vinegar.

This began in the Summer of 2010....

July 24th!

What a great 24th of July we had today!! 
Most of us in the neighborhood have our first day of school tomorrow. (Year-Round School Schedule!)


So, that meant that we couldn't be up partying all night long!


I thought it would be fun to do a late afternoon bike parade, followed by a BBQ and a few fireworks with our neighborhood.  IT WAS SO FUN! 

Who knew a bike parade would be so easy to pull off, with maximum results for everyone!
Those kids all looked so proud and happy to be in a parade!  Each bike, trike, and scooter was decorated so cute!



I loved every second of it!



Then we all congregated in our common area, and shared some yummy food, and some laughs. 


All the kids have so much fun together, and look out for each other!  I am more grateful every single day for the neighborhood I live in!

Our boundaries have split us, so about half of the kids will be going to a different elementary.  I'm so glad these friendships are already so solid!  It won't matter if they're not on the bus every day together, they'll still be tight!
Love, love, love!













Happy Pioneer Day!


And here's to a great new school year!

Last Day of First Grade!

As of today, we officially have a 2nd Grader! Wow. What a year! First grade was the first year for Cannon to be at school all day, and the first year to eat lunch at school, and his first year of Chinese Immersion. He spent half of his day learning in English, and the other half learning only in Chinese. We really loved his teachers this year, and he flourished! He made leaps and bounds in math and reading levels, and he learned another language without even realizing it!

I am sad to leave these teachers behind, but we are excited about the year to come.
This was also the last year for Cannon to ride the bus to school. I made sure to snap a picture of his last time jumping off the bus after school. And I had a little tear! He loves riding the bus! Our school boundaries got changed, and our neighborhood will be going to another school. We will be permitting back to the same school, to stay in the Chinese Program. So, he'll be hitching a ride with Mom or Dad from now on!







Harper and I met him at the bus stop with cheers... and an air horn! I think this may be the last time for that too, because he was pretty embarrassed! Hee heeee!! Cannon is sooo much like his dad, a no-nonsense kind of guy!




To celebrate, we went to lunch. Cannon chose Training Table. And a round of root beer floats. Cheers!
















And to top it all off, a PERFECT report card! Highest marks all around! I don't think he realizes what a big deal this is! I hope these kind of report cards continue to come home every time!
I hope he never loses his love of learning and reading!




WAY TO GO, CANNON! A Graduate of First Grade, you did it! We love you and are so very proud of you!!

OH Joy, Johnny Boy!

Our Johnny Boy is HOME! He arrived home at the end of May after serving an LDS Mission in Indiana.


I was lucky enough to be among the first to see him, because he NEEDED a haircut! What is the deal with return missionaries and the black socks and the deep side part?? ;)






It took a minute for Harper to aclimate, she has been under the assumption that Johnny "lived in the computer" for the last 2 years! She got over the shy act quickly, and loves him to pieces!

Johnny is still my Johnny Boy, but he has changed so much. He left a (tall) boy, and came home a young man. He is calm. He is serene. I NEVER thought I would ever in my life use those adjectives to describe him!




Wa Wa can finally quit worrying, and start making her chocolate cake again. She makes a wonderful chocolate cake from scratch, and it's Johnny's favorite. She felt like it would be bad luck to make it while he was away. Hooray for chocolate cake!


I love being able to text and call him at any moment, "just because". That makes an Auntie happy. :)





Cannon had a bit of an adjustment when Johnny left. He had just lost his grandpa Johnny Mack (my dad), and he looked up to Johnny Boy so much. Johnny was always there to hang out and goof around with Cannon. Just after Johnny left, Cannon built this Lego Monster. My mom helped Cannon keep it safe for 2 whole years, so Cannon could proudly show it to Johnny when he got home. Good ol' Johnny showed the appropriate enthusiasm!

We are getting back to normal, and finding what the new normal is. We are trying not to be too "IN YOUR FACE", but after all, that's what we do best! Can you blame us? WELCOME HOME. JOHNNY BOY! We love you so very much! THE MOST! :)

Yellowstone

For Memorial Day Weekend, we decided to take a road trip.  Our plan was to stay in Idaho Falls, and take day trips to Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, and the Tetons.


Well, PART of that happened!  We knew it was going to be  cold, but we didn't expect to be FREEZING!


So, we started with Yellowstone. What a beautiful place!  It was snowing,  yet the trees were the greenest I've ever seen.  It was cold, yet there were definite signs of spring.  We saw baby buffalo!

We visited the "Artist's Paint Pots"  which are kind of like bubbling cauldrons.  The water in them is HOT HOT HOT.  So there was lots of steam as the snow fell. 



We made it to Old Faithful, but we watched the video of it, instead of waiting the 40 minutes to see it actually erupt.  IT WAS TOO COLD!
 As we left Yellowstone, it started snowing harder.  We saw the snow plows head out.   

We were so happy to get to our warm hotel room!   By the next morning, we discovered that many roads in and out of the other places we planned on visiting had been snowed out. 

The good thing about a road trip, and not being very far away, is that it's an easy decision to just go home, and call it a day!

We will definitely be going back, but maybe when the weather's a bit warmer! ;)

Pinteresting Pennies

 HOORAY for Pinterest!

 It is well worth all the time you can spend on there!

 A while ago, I saw a project for making a "penny ball" to keep slugs out of your garden.  A natural remedy, I'm all for it!  I'm so tired of the holes in my Pansies and Hostas!  It's a regular slug buffet in my front yard.
The writer of the original blog post used an old bowling ball.  That seemed a bit much for a first try for me, so I found a metal ball at Hobby Lobby instead.  Small, and just right. 
We used some glue called "AmazingGoop". It was smelly, but it set up really quickly, and held the pennies on tight.
 We put our Penny Ball in the yard yesterday morning.  It looks really cool!  I hope it works just as well!