Wow, have I really not blogged since Sunday?

This has been one of those weeks when the days just blurred into a hot mess of pick ups, games, practices, drop offs, work, more work, and school year end wrap up stuff.

In a nutshell, here is the week in review:

• First, the shower glass was delayed and will not be installed until next week.  We are LOVING the new bathroom but have yet to be able to take a freaking shower in there.  The glass company is a totally separate vendor and they operate in their own timezone, apparently.  We've been having fun, still, getting decor onto the walls and such.   I will post photos when the glass is installed and its finally finished!

• Second, Logan ended his t-ball season with his last game Tuesday night.  He's loved it so much, we're signing him up again for the fall season.  His end of the season party with the whole team is this Sunday night, and the boys will get their trophies. Go Blue Claws!

• Logan also enjoyed his first week of summer camp this week.  I found a preschool summer camp he could go to every morning for outside play, crafts and fun with kids his age.  They even got to make sno-cones today.  He loved it, and I hope to get him enrolled a few more times this summer.  It gave me the chance to have some kid-free hours now that preschool is over, so I could work.

Getting them to all sit on the bench to wait their turn to bat has proven to be quite challenging these past two months!   When they're in the field, its all about stomping to make dirt clouds.

• This week was Dylan's second week of swim team practice.  He joined a neighborhood swim team this year for the first team called the Lightning, and so far he LOVES it.  He's always been a water boy, and it will be fun to watch him compete this summer and become an even stronger swimmer. Great exercise, tons of kids  he goes to school with, and fun parents to hang out with. 

No, he is not peeing in the pool!

• I am one hour away from kicking off a total girls weekend.  Andrew won tickets at work for the Go-Go's concert tonight at Wolftrap (my favorite outdoor music venue), and I'm going with a huge group of friends. My picnic basket is packed and I'm ready to re-live the 80's.  Well, maybe not quite. But its sure to be a good time.

• Tomorrow morning, early, Dylan has his first swim meet.  Its only a practice meet, but it will give the kids a feel for how a real meet will run.  His first real meet is next Saturday. 

• Right after that, I'm heading to this luxurious resort nearby with four of my besties for a much anticipated girls night away.  No kids for 24 hours.  Poolside, drinks, girl talk, need I say more?  On Sunday morning, the Dads will bring all the kids for some family pool time at the awesome resort pools and then we'll eventually head out for Logan's t-ball party.

A great weekend ahead, starts in 50 minutes!  Next week, Dylan has only four days of school and then its officially summer vacation!

field of dreams

Logan's t-ball season, sadly, is coming to a close.  He played his second to last game yesterday.  The last game is Tuesday evening, and his end of the season party is next Sunday.

Its been a great experience for him, he loved it even more than we imagined.  He never cried once, not even when he got out.  He really liked the boys on his team, and we're so glad they'll all be starting kindergarten with him in the fall at the same school.  We met some really nice families too.

We're going to sign him up to play again in the fall.  I don't think many of same the boys will play in the fall, as its more low key.  A lot of the kids switch to soccer and then do t-ball again in the spring.  But by playing t-ball this fall, he'll get more practice for the big baseball season next spring.  Next spring he can play Instructional Rookie, which is hitting off the tee some, and some coach pitch, too.  Hopefully we can assemble some of the same boys for the team again too.

Blue Claws, one more game to go!

cozy little nook

One of the reasons we orginally bought our house was the screen porch on the back, off our kitchen.  Through the years, and two kids, and many parties, it always proves to be a great gathering spot and a place to relax.   Or if you're 4 and 8, eat popsicles. 

Having a screen porch wasn't on our list of criteria when we were house shopping 8 years ago, but its sure nice to have.  And adding one yourself is a pretty extensive and expensive project.

This weekend we changed it up a little bit, adding a patio table and chairs to the corner.   We thought it might be nice to have an area to eat outside, and still be on the screen porch.  Our table and chairs on our deck (off the screen porch) are almost constantly in full sun, and that makes it too hot to eat out there very often.  But putting a table in the screen porch, where have a ceiling fan, is just the ticket for a nice place to have a cup-o-coffee and read the paper.  Its a nice little sanctuary, and when we have parties, it will give us more seating out there too. 

I love when we find better ways to make our living space more enjoyable and comfortable.  Our house is showing its age in some ways. And we live in an area where many of the houses are brand new with lots of bells and whistles we don't have.  But the things we love about our house: the big flat yard with trees, the huge family room, the screen porch, the finished basement, and the big bedrooms, and now our gorgeous bathroom, make it a very comfortable place to live. We just have to find ways to make it shine a little more, and to show off its strengths.

Also, since the day we moved in, there were some hideous vertical blinds hanging as the window treatment for the kitchen sliding glass door.  I mean, they were circa 1982 office ugly.  I've hated those things for years, but for some reason other items on the to-do list always moved ahead of that one.  I think with the bathroom being so pretty now, I'm looking at the house with a new vision for how I'd love it to be.   Anyway, we hung a valance over top the the blinds, trying to spruce them up a bit.  Really, it was like putting a bow on a hairless cat. Doesn't really hide the fact they were still butt ugly. 

Thursday morning, I came downstairs, looked at those awful vertical blinds, and told Andrew they had to go.  "Right now?", he asked (in shirt and tie ready to go to work).  "Right now," I answered.  And being the awesome guy that he is, ten minutes later those suckers were down and in the garbage.

What took us so long to get rid of those awful blinds, I have no idea. They were the four D's: dusty, dirty, dull and damn ugly.  I went out and found some nice, light airy curtains instead.  It really softened it up in there and gave it a more updated look and feel.   Less than $25 and a little touch up paint, and 30 minutes.

Ahhh, much better.

the serpent

The boys were getting in the car to go to Logan's t-ball game late yesterday afternoon.  I was still inside, getting stuff ready to go.  Logan came in and calmly informed me there was a snake in the garage.

They're constantly playing tricks on me, so I barely even heard him, too focused on getting the water bottles filled and out the door.. "Okay honey, just get in the car, I'll be out in a sec....".

Except then I stepped into the garage and the boys were intently focused on something behind the cooler on the floor.  And then I realized ............ SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE! A big one!

  &&^$#*&#($&#(#)+*&^$$%&$%!!

It was curled up behind our cooler, at the bottom of the steps leading into our laundry room.  My life quickly flashed before my eyes.  I peed my pants, at least in my mind.  And then I asked what any sane woman would ask in this situation.

"Where is my HUSBAND??????" 

This clearly falls in the husband department.  Dude.  I'll be in charge of school paperwork, grocery shopping, and our social calendar.  I can wipe butts and boogers with the best of them.  But snake removal is NOT EVEN CLOSE to being a part of my job description.  Not even close. 

Thankfully he pulled up from work right at this moment of hysteria, grabbed a flagpole, tie and dress pants still on, and while I shrieked my way across the front yard, my feet never touching the ground and arms flailing wildly like I was on fire, he got that sucker to crawl up on the pole and led it to the yard.   He was hissing and striking the whole time. And when I say he, I mean the snake.  Andrew was calm and collected. Almost as if he had done something similar before.  The boys were getting dangerously close. It was all a blur.  I'm pretty sure I dropped the F bomb, at least in my head, repeatedly.  And peed my pants again.

Andrew's plan was to get it into a paper bag and then carry it down and release it in a wooded brush area next to a pond down the street.  But alas, the beast got away from him and slithered into our neighbor's bushes.  Just as their teenage son was coming out the front door.  We informed him of the intruder, to which he simply replied, "Cool," and went on his way.

I still haven't fully recovered.  We were late to t-ball and to Dylan's first swim team practice and I barely watched either them as I was too busy telling the tale of the serpent.

It's still out there. Ssssssssssssssssstill.

the home stretch

The end is near, the end is near!   Here are the latest photos of the bathroom, taken this morning after vacuuming up about 10 tons of drywall dust.

The frameless shower door guys are coming to measure this Wednesday, and hopefully within a week or so after that they'll install the shower door and glass walls, enclosing the shower.  I can't wait to take my first shower in that puppy.  We could take one now but without any glass it might be pretty wet and slippery in there.

Andrew worked his butt off all weekend painting, installing the light fixtures, hanging mirrors, etc.  Craig is coming back tomorrow to finish installing the pipes to make the sinks operable.   He'll also install the wall controller for the heated floor, put in the shower overhead light. 

Once he's done, I think he'll bel moving onto his next job.  We're beyond thrilled with the job he's done and the care he's taken to make this bathroom so beautiful for us.  We enjoyed getting to know him and his family, and we'll miss him.  But never fear, we have three more bathrooms and a kitchen that will all need updated at some point!

We haven't ordered the wall artwork yet, so that will probably happen this week too. That will really finish it off.  I also want to add a wall mounted bronze cosmetic mirror.  We've been thinking a bonsai tree somewhere might be a nice touch, too.  Once we have towels hanging and such, it will be lived in again.

Our bedroom, bathroom is to the left just past the tall dresser.

Looking into the bathroom from our bedroom. The double doors will be put back on tomorrow too.

close up of floor

We can't put the drawers back in the vanities until the sink plumbling is installed tomorrow. The  middle cabinet will give us some storage and we liked it added a different height in between the two vanities.  You can see the new commode, too.

I just love the river rock.. and when it gets wet it changes to darker shades. The wide part to the right will be the shower bench,with a glass wall facing the tub.

new bathtub fixtures to match

I don't think I've posted a photo of our granite yet.  It was installed Thursday evening, and then Craig was able to get the new faucets in.

We went with rectangular undermount sinks, which I think work nicely with the clean lines in the bathroom.

The shower, no glass yet.

shower floor and threshold

half wall looking into shower, new towel bar and better view of granite

niche to hold our smelly goods

close up river rock

If you go back and look at the before photos, it hardly seems like the same bathroom.  Here is the progression:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Days Four and Five

Days Six and Seven

Eight and Nine

Ten

Eleven and Twelve

Thirteen

Its been fun watching it all come together.  You choose all these finishes and stones and fixtures and paint colors and you have no idea how its all going to look when its put together.  I can't wait to start living in there again.  It will sure be a nice, peaceful place to begin and end each day.

Delaplane Strawberry Festival

Yesterday morning, we drove an hour west through the quaint Virginia hilly horse country towns of Middleburg and Upperville, and enjoyed a few hours at the Deleplane Strawberry Festival at Sky Meadows State Park.  We met our good friends there, and the kids enjoyed some good old fashioned fair games, a petting zoo, and of course, yummy strawberry desserts.  And maybe a funnel cake.

We had a nice picnic after plopping down under a huge shade tree, too.  A great summer day with wonderful friends.  We'll mark our calendar to go back next year, for sure.

And for those who were there, I bid you a very fuzzy, wooly sac.

11

Love begins in a moment, grows over time, and lasts for eternity.

Happy 11th Anniversary to my sweetie.

waddle waddle quack quack, it was fun

Even though Logan has ONE more day of preschool (Tuesday next week), the end of the year party was this morning.  The class hosted an ice cream party, and we all gave the teachers their end of year gifts. The teachers had gifts for each child, and they also gave us the many books the kids have compiled over the school year including their weekend journals, ABC book and a memory book the teacher made for each family with photos and special items they've saved the entire year.  

I wish I could share the entire book here, its so special and so full of memories that sum up a great year in the life of our special 4 year old.  But here are photos of a few of my favorite pages:

I won't lie, there were some tears.  It seems like he was eons younger when this preschool year began.

I don't know when my toddler became a little boy whose now ready to move into kindergarten and take on the world.  They tell you when you have kids it "goes by so fast"..   And its true, it really does.  You have to savor every minute, the great ones and the not so good ones, because next thing you know they don't want you to kiss them at the bus stop anymore and they start getting their own phone calls.

They memorized and recited a poem about what it was like to be a Lucky Duck this year.

And then it was time to give the teachers their gifts.  The room moms (I was not one this year) had a great, creative idea to collect money from us all and put together picnic/BBQ baskets for the teachers.  They filled them with all sorts of marinades, cookie cutters, grilling tools, s'mores fixins, Wegman's gift cards, and lots of other fun stuff.  They also collected favorite summer recipes from all the moms and compiled a Lucky Duck cookbook, and gave us all copies.  Fabulous idea, and I can't wait to try some of the yumminess listed in there.  I did share my Mom's famous baked bean recipe and my recipe for lemon bars which I've been hankering and I'm gonna have to make soon.

After all of that, it was time to dig into some ice cream.  At 10:30 in the morning.  It tastes even better before lunch.

As preschool ends and we look to kindergarten, we can certainly say Logan was a Lucky Duck to share the company of these teachers and his friends this year.  I met some really nice moms too.  I'm really going to miss that preschool.  There are no words to describe how much I respect the teachers and the program there.

And as one door closes, another one opens.  Tonight we head to our elementary school where the rising first graders will sing to the incoming kindergarteners, and Logan will get to ride the school bus around the neighborhood.  I can hardly believe our little bear is heading to big boy school in a few short months.

Waddle, waddle, quack, quack.