Summer Fun

I found Lilly in the hall this morning, changing her baby's diaper. Super cute!

Summer bike gang on our street. We're spending hours a day in the driveway. A little white trash, but so much fun.

New Life

After

Before

We finally got rid of the old, ugly changing table and put a new dresser in Lilly's room.

Of course it needed a little paint first!

Preschool Graduation

Eli's preschool had their graduation ceremony today!

The kids sang songs, received their diplomas and then we broke for lunch. We all had fun, and I'm happy to say Eli didn't have to use the bathroom during the presentation (like he did at Christmas, causing us to miss the singing). We've been so happy with his preschool experience so far, and can't wait for fall.

I can't stop laughing at all of the funny faces Eli makes when I try to take his picture. At least they're not of the back of his head anymore!

Congratulations Eli! We love you!

Dozer Day II

Ben finally emailed me the pics from his phone, so here's the rest of Dozer Day 2011!

Here's a random pic of Eli by a Front Loader, not sure where this was. Okay, Ben just told me this was at someone's house when we picked up our bathroom vanity off of craigslist.

I really love how happy Eli looks in all of these pictures! His love of heavy machinery is unwavering, it's an obsession really. We were at Powell's the other day, and he choose yet another book on machines. I told the checker I already knew more about heavy equipment than I ever cared to know. Eli really is his own person, this didn't come from us!

Dozer Day

Eli and Ben went to Dozer Day last weekend.
Eli really wanted to go last year, but got the stomach flu the day before and had to miss it. He's been asking every couple of weeks over the last year if it was coming up, well it finally came. They hold it in a Quarry in Vancouver, WA. Kids get to drive real machines, and play construction themed games. It's Eli's dream come true!

Lilly Lou

I'm not sure where she came up with this, but here's her "silly face"!

Lilly loves to try on everyone's hats. She empties out the whole basket, then tries on all the hats. Some work better than others, Ben's beanie is a little big. She's such a girl!

Easter Festivities

Eli

Biker Lady

Tulip Festival

From a guy who got a C in Woodshop

This whole project started because I found a tutorial online for some cute, but inexpensive DIY bookcases. I showed Ben, he loved the idea so he got started.

Here's our bookcase before

Our living room before

The bookcases after!!

Ben went a little over board, and of course he's a perfectionist. It may have taken a lot longer than expected, but look at these babies, I can't complain!

We went in a little bit of a different direction than the tutorial, but used the same basic idea. We "dressed up" our cheap particle board bookcases and made them into something beautiful. We combined the look of about 5 different bookcases and Ben added some custom touches.

He custom built the base to match our cabinet we got off of craigslist.

After!
Most of our stuff is used, we've fixed up just about everything in here.
I don't know what it would be like to buy something and just set it out. The idea sounds nice, but this way we get exactly what we want, and don't spend too much in the process.

Desk: Craigslist - painted and a new knob
Chair: Goodwill - painted, distressed, and reupholstered
Bookcases: Craigslist - added beadboard, trim, base, beefed up shelves and painted
End table: Goodwill - cleaned up
Coffee table: Craigslist - cleaned up
Clock: Goodwill - cleaned up

Most of the stuff on the shelves is also Goodwill. Ben's been buying books there for years, and I've been collecting "stuff" the last few months to put on the bookcases. Yes, you heard that right, MONTHS, we've had these in the works since Thanksgiving.

We've got a few more projects in the works, so stay posted.

Yo-Yo Ma - Bach Cello Suite 1 III. Courante

Painting to Music

It looks like he painted to some death metal, but it was actually Bach!

(I posted the piece above)

Eli's favorite color is Red, so that explains the majority of the picture.

It was interesting to see how he really listened to the music, and moved his brush as if he were playing music. Long strokes during the smooth sections, and short dots for the staccato. He loved doing this activity and we'll definitely do it again soon.

Pillow Fun

Why is this their favorite pass time?

I swear, we own tons of toys!