I probably should save this for later in the week when I have absolutly nothing to post about, but I'm really anxious to share pictures of the table and chairs we ordered for our kitchen!!

We've been shopping around for a table and chairs for a long time now and had been having a hard time because we were quite particular about size, shape, style, and well price. We had to compromise a little bit, but I'm really excited about what we were able to find!



The table is an oval, solid oak pedestal that is a great size for our kitchen, but grows to a size that is tight squeeze in the kitchen, but will still fit and accomodate guests.





The chairs are just plain arrowback chairs. We were hoping for something with more of an Xback, but that wasn't available to match the table.



This chair is to go with the desk that we have our computer on. Zach's grandfather made it and it's a wonderful piece of furniture that we love using for the computer and all of our "officey things." It didn't have a chair to go with it, and it's in a very central location in our house. So, we kind of splurged and bought this X back chair that will be custom finished to match the desk exactly!


The table and chairs should be here by early May and the custom desk chair by the end of May!

Home Improvements!

You might have noticed that Zach and my dad weren't in very many of the pictures I put up...well, they were busy!!! I was so happy with what they got done and we were really glad to have my dad's help.

The least exciting to me, but biggest project: The Garage

Zach has been working on this project for many months. He's insulated all the walls and is now putting up wallboard. He cleaned up the attic and then this past weekend he and my dad made a new opening to the attic with a pull down door for stairs. Our house is a cape cod, so it has really accessible attic storage upstairs, but because it's a cape cod, that attic part is more like closets than a large attic. So, we've quickly filled it and are looking forward to being able to store a lot more in the garage now!



A Ceiling Fan For the "Dining Room"

We use the dining room off the kitchen (because the kitchen has an eating area) for an office/play area. It sill had the chandelier and I felt like it looked kind of funny to have an older chandelier in a room that was not a dining room. So Zach and my dad installed this ceiling fan on Easter. It turned out to be a bigger project than we knew, but it turned out great in the end.



An Updated Light in the Kitchen

This light was harvest gold yellow (matching our lovely 1952 stove) and we spray painted it white to look a little more modern. I actually really like the older style of the light, but definitely appreciate the new color!


A Bookcase for Carolyn's Overflow

Using scrap wood from their garage my dad put together this simple little bookshelf for Carolyn. It sits directly across from her play kitchen and is going to be great to catch the overflow from her kitchen (tea set, play food, etc) and things like her crayons and paper. I am going to paint it white sometime soon and put felt on the bottom to protect the floor. Carolyn watched grandpa build it with great interest and calls it her "tower that grampap built!"


They also spent a good bit of time fixing our leaky upstairs toilet, but I'll spare you pictures of that!!!

Next on my list is fencing in the backyard, but Zach wants to get the garage all done first (and says that I add things to his list at a far faster rate than he can possibly take them off, which I must admit is very true!)

Easter

Here are some pictures from Easter. Hard to believe this is Carolyn's 3rd Easter! She had a blast dying eggs last year but refused to do it this year. They are all still in the fridge, all white! I'm going to try to convince her to color them this week, but it's not something we'll force!



Mom and Carolyn on Easter. We were VERY grateful that Carolyn was open to wearing something besides her black velvet pants and turtleneck that she has worn to church for the last month of so.... Black on Easter Sunday just doesn't seem right!


Zach and I got Carolyn a bucket of Pop-Beads for her little Easter basket. I remember having them as a kid, and knew Carolyn would just love them considering her extreme interest in jewelery!

Even her dog is fancy!

Easter Dinner:Ham, Scalloped Potatoes, Rolls, Green Beans - YUM!

Carolyn's Weekend

Carolyn had a fun weekend with daddy home for a 3 day weekend and grandma and grandpap visiting. Here are some highlights!

Playing at the bean table in her Tot Time class Friday morning. Carolyn loves to fill up cups and play in the beans. We have an empty sand table that I'm seriously considering making a bean table!

Enjoying swimming at her Tot Time class. One of the highlights of having my mom there was having someone to take pictures of all of Carolyn's fun in the pool!

Doing the hokey pokey in the pool. Carolyn LOVES to do the hokey pokey lately!

Enjoying a good book all by herself (she did this for over an hour!)


Enjoying a book with Grandma!

Watching the Animal Show a travelling zoo did. They brought a cockatoo, sloth, baby monkey, snakes, baby alligators, a kangaroo and a few other animals. Carolyn loved getting to see them all and petting some of them. She especially liked petting the kangaroo!!

Happy Easter!!!

I promise a longer post with more pictures and stories after my parents' visit, but for now, enjoy this!

Umbrella!!

Carolyn has been asking for an umbrella for a few months now. Ever since Franklin the Turtle had an umbrella for a rainy day, she has needed an umbrella. Yesterday at the store, we saw kid umbrellas that were animals. For 3.99, I couldn't resist. Mommy liked the frog or the duck, but Carolyn picked the pink and purple butterfly. She was SO SO SO happy to pick her umbrella and hold it in the cart. As soon as we got home she wanted to go for a walk in the rain. Well, unfortunately for her, yesterday was the brightest, sunniest most gorgeous day we've had in weeks!!! So, she resorted to standing under the edge of the garage where all the melting snow was dripping to get some good use out of her umbrella!!

Can you have too many books?

I love to read. Zach loves to read. But, Carolyn LOVES to read. We don't play with toys anymore. We read and read and read. And then we paint, and play dress up and play-doh and read some more. We have a book of nursery rhymes that is well over 100 pages long. It takes over an hour (literally) to read. As soon as it's finished Carolyn asks to have it read to her again. While she wait for me to finish up what I'm doing so I can read to her, she lines up her books along the couch in the order she would like them read. I love that she loves to read, but didn't know it was possible to read so much!! I've resorted to books on tape to save my parched throat!! ;)