School is here...

Wow...summer break is over. Just typing those words make me want to tear up :)

Here is how we spent our last few days of summer break...Riding around in the Jeep...and just being together.  It was an amazing summer.
And now that summer is over, that must mean that someone started Kindergarten.  That's right, Ella is officially a "Busy Bumblebee." She LOVES her teacher and LOVES being in school.
Mom does NOT love her new sleeping schedule.  I had the world's crabbiest 5 year old the past few days.  She is definitely one of those kids that needs EVERY bit of sleep she can get.  I guess I should have weaned her off of her 3 hour naps a bit earlier.  ha ha ha

But today was SO much better.  So I think she is finally getting used to it! :) YAY!! I think if we would have had one more day like yesterday I would have driven her to some school that had 1/2 day Kindergarten...it was THAT bad :)

I got some decorations up in my office.  Including pictures of Maggie and the family :) And of course Edward in the background!
And look at this display that Jimmy came home with from Sam's Club.  I think he is getting a little bit TOO into helping stock Ella's lunches.  He really wants her to be the cool kid with the coolest lunch (NOT THE HEALTHIEST) ha ha ha. I love it.

Happy Beginning of School!!!!

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The Kitchen

I realized after starting this whole "Home Tour" that I did NOT have very many pictures of our kitchen before.

Then I truly realized why.  I could barely stand on one side of the kitchen and take a picture of the other.  It was TOO close.  It was that small.  Literally it was 10' by 10' square.

Not to mention that in that square there were THREE doorways.

One to the basement...one to the dining room...and one to a hallway.

MISERABLE.

Looking back I don't even know how we functioned.

In the picture below I was standing in the HALLWAY!!!

 

All that is missing from the above picture is our refrigerator on the right side. 

BRUTAL

So after 3 years of remodeling the above kitchen we decided to add on to our house.

And presenting...the NEW kitchen

 

It has EVERYTHING anyone could want in a kitchen :)

 Awesome Pottery Barn Lights

 

 A farmhouse sink

Tons of cabinetry...

 Bookshelves

 Hidden storage

 Double ovens, a warming drawer, AND a tv (which hooks up to the internet so I can view Pinterest and ALL of my recipes are right in my kitchen)

 I stalk the tile...it's my fave

 A bar area that is not quite finished...we have to purchase our ice maker and mini fridge :)

A breakfast nook for seating

****I made these awesome curtains using a tutorial that I found on Pinterest.  Make some...NOW!!!

More awesome lighting

 And seating at the island :)

 And with a fridge THAT large it's perfect for entertaining!!!!

 Right next to the kitchen is a little hallway with a chalkboard...This mini area USED to be our old kitchen...yikes.  Where the chalkboard is used to be where our old fridge was.  It was miserable.

 I don't know that I would have changed a thing when adding on to our kitchen.  I love the colors and the spaciousness.   We are totally spoiled.  We went from 10' by 10' to 16' by 32' of HEAVEN!

Thanks for coming by!!

The Living Room

On to the first room in the house on this lovely home tour. The living room was grand and bland.

Not an ounce of color on the walls and I partially understand their fear.  It is a huge room and a huge paint job.  You must get the color right.

The view out the windows and doors was beautiful.  I STALKED this window from the second I laid eyes on it!!!

 The two story living room was beautiful.  However, not beautiful is this disaster of a chandelier.  I must admit it's still in the house.  We have yet to tackle that LARGE of a disaster. 

 

 Under the staircase was this little "nook." I love it.  And I still have big plans for it someday in the future.  And please excuse our random placement of furniture in all of these pictures.  Move in day was a CIRCUS!!

 This is basically the opposite view of the living room.  I was standing right in front of my favorite window.

 And the last before picture is that of the fireplace. How sad is this fireplace???

Here are some updated photos of our living room

 We went with a bold blue-grey color.  The room needed color and I am thrilled with how the color turned out. 

We still have yet to find our "dream sofa."  But the old one has worked fine.  I truly love the Pottery Barn furniture that we got.  I love the contrast of the blue and black.

 The wall of the fireplace we decided to leave white.  The fireplace is still a work in progress.  We can't take the black tile and gold fixtures, but improvements cost $$$ and that one will take a LARGE chunk as we all know :)

I already want to change this room up big time.  I want to make a sitting area in front of the fireplace.  We originally needed this secondary eating area because our kitchen was MINI sized.  But with that upgrade this area can go.  I see this room getting a major renovation probably next summer.  :) whoops!!!

Here are some close ups of different areas in the living room :)

I would like to get a cute table for the entry area...

The bar next to the fireplace...and yes that is a leg lamp that stays out YEAR long :)

 Our map of Greece broken up

 Where I am typing from right now :)

 Our stairway...maybe my favorite part of the room

I hope you enjoy our living room!

A 3rd and 5th birthday!!! OUTDOOR MOVIE!!!

Finally I am getting around to blogging about the kid birthday party!!!

Only a month later :) Nothing wrong with that right???

The party theme was Outdoor Movie Theater...so get ready for picture overload and enjoy!

The day started off with some relaxing swim time with my immediate family.  We pretty much got everything set up the day before so we just had little things to get ready.

The main delivery the night before was of these AMAZING movie posters that my father in law made...

Um...have you ever seen anything so adorable in your life?????? 

 Obviously the movie choices were Tangled and Megamind.  Two wonderful choices if I do say so myself!

Pool Time with the girls and Grandpa...

Marta and her girls...yes it should be illegal to look that good after having three kids. :)

 Maggie getting her tan on...

 Some flowers from our backyard for our table in the kitchen...

 BOYS CLUB...

 GIRLS CLUB..

 The Birthday Boy and Girl!!!

 More flowers from the yard in some recycled blue bottles.  They are actually vodka bottles that we took the old labels off...

 The boys smoking cigars and hanging out until it got dark...

 The popcorn bar was DELICIOUS.  We had candies of all kinds and SO many different flavors to sprinkle onto the popcorn for magical goodness :)

 Thankfully Maggie has stellar handwriting to label all of the goodies.

 The popcorn bar was a HUGE hit

 The food was AMAZING.  Barbeque, Pulled pork and the best macaroni and cheese anyone has ever experienced...just sayin'

 More swim time for the kiddos...

 And tasty beverages for the big kids...

How amazing are the daisy mason jar lids that I got from Heather????

 Wonderful friends...

 A mini photo session of the cutest girls EVER...

 Presents...presents and MORE presents...

 Jimmy helped Ella and I tackled gifts with Tyler

 Here are the favors for the kiddos.  Each kid got a pillow to lay on while we watched the movies :)

 Cute popcorn decor that my friend Michelle came up with.  Again, thanks to Maggie who helped me put them together...and my mom for picking up the popcorn!

 A picture from every year!!

 Family shot...the only one of the whole day.  It's the best we had :)

 Here is our movie screen set up

 As it gets darker it starts to get real :)

LOVED how it turned out!!

 Glasses for the parents kids :)

 4 cuties in the back yard...

 Adie and Meade :)

 MOVIE TIME!!!!!!

 The kids were great during the movie.  They sat down and watched EVERY minute of it :)

 A sisters pic

 and glasses pic

thank you to everyone who made it for the kids birthday.  We always have so much fun trying to make it memorable for them and for our families.  Happy Summer!!!