Out with the old...

and in with the new!  A new bathroom, that is.  What better time to decide to completely change up our half bath on the first floor than a week when the temps are in the 60's and low 70's with storms and clouds?

I love when this spirit moves me.  Scott absolutely dreads it.  But, one morning I woke up, starting frantically pinning on Pinterest and planning what our new half bath would look like.  No more dark brown molding and trim.  No more off-white walls.  And gone are the framed pictures from Europe and NYC!

Not that the bathroom looked bad, but I was ready for change.  It was one of the only rooms in the house that we did nothing with.  I think Scott appreciated that as he's clearly the painter and handy-man!

And now, the walls are a pale gray called "Gentle Rain" by Behr, the trim and molding is a nice semi-gloss white, and the accents are bright and cheery with a nice shade of yellow.  

I struggled with picking a rug for the bath.  I found one I loved at Target, but it was way too busy with the floor tile so I settled for a solid print for the rug and hand towel.  That gave me some room to decorate the walls with some wall decor I found at Hobby Lobby and some black shelves from Target!

And after a solid week and a half of having the bathroom in shambles with tools and paint accessories scattered in the hallway, we're finished!  I love it!  I love how inviting it is (yes, I realize it's a bathroom we're talking about here), but it's for sure a room everyone frequents when they visit our house.  A big, huge thanks to my amazing hubby for putting his blood, sweat, and tears into this paint job.  It certainly wasn't an easy one!

As the painting went on and the cool weather continued, I was on the job keeping the kids entertained and out of the way.  So, we got creative with some ideas on Pinterest (I swear, what would I do without that website?!) and put Sean's collection of Monster Trucks to work!

Monster Truck races down the zig-zag painter's tape (hey, it was already out and easy to access!)!!  Followed by some Monster Truck Bowling using toilet paper rolls and paper rolls from wrapping paper!!

With my last week of summer school halfway done and this cool weather, we're itching for the heat and sun to return!  The splash pad and our pool outside are calling our names!  This week, with what's forecasted we'll keep busy again with Trader Joe trips, hair cuts for the boys, the rec center (thank God for their indoor pool!), and a Tiger's Game date night.  Fingers crossed there's no rain while we're at the game!

Come back, summer!

A little of this and a little of that...

It's hard to believe that in a little over a month we'll be back to start another school year.  I still can't believe this will be my 9th year of teaching.  That means I've taught over 1,000 students so far in my career.  Where did all that time go?

It's hard to get all excited for the start of the school year when I'm still technically there.  I have 7 days left of the summer school program I've been running and I can't wait!  This was not what it seemed, but I gave it a whirl.  With it being the first time offering foreign language online, there were bound to be kinks.  Unfortunately, kinks = more work for me.  At least it still gives me plenty of time for family outings.

Aside from summer school in the mornings, we are knee deep in summer projects.  The to-do list continues to get longer with no end in sight!  But, that's the beauty of the summer off.  All those things we think about and compartmentalize during the school year comes to fruition in the summer.  Here's what's new in our world...

1.  I joined Weight Watchers yesterday.  After Evan was born, I dropped the first 15 pounds immediately, but the rest of the baby weight stayed on.  Since then, it's fluctuated both up and down by 5 pounds.  I haven't been happy with the way I look or feel since he was born, but I finally reached my limit this past weekend and decided to join WW.  A few of my friends have had great success with the program and I'm confident that with my new found motivation and the support of the meetings, I can lose 30 pounds!  3 hours of meal planning and making a grocery list last night and a $265 trip to Kroger, I'm ready to change my eating habits and portions.  So, here's a "before" shot that I can hopefully compare to a much thinner "after" in a few months!

2.  Birthday party planning has commenced.  We decided it would be easier to have a joint party for the boys this year, so it was easy to decide on a Bubble Guppies theme since they're both border-line obsessed.  The invitations have been ordered, some of the decor has been purchased (Walmart has an incredible selection!), and the favors are coming together.  I'm busy making centerpieces, working on an idea for the cake, and thinking of the menu.  The invites will have to go out a month in advance, which is only a few weeks away!

This is the invite we personalized off of Etsy

3.  We updated our mailbox and our front flower beds.  The majority of the flower beds were full of bulbs that only bloomed in the spring and left the rest of the year looking bare and plain.  So, we pulled out the bulbs and planted a ton of new things like shasta daisies, stonecrop, tickseed, and cone flowers.  We put in a shepherd's hook with a nice hanging basket and bought some of those garden sticks made out of metal that look like a bumble bee and dragon fly from Art in the Park to add some color.  Pictures to follow in a future blog.  The mailbox is my favorite...with a vinyl sticker with our address and monogram!  I love it!

4.  The half bathroom is about to get a makeover!  The tiles on the floor are my favorite part of this bathroom.  We've kept the walls an off white color since we moved in and just used black as the accent color to match the tiles.  But, I'm ready for a change.  The walls are going to be painted a pale gray and I bought a yellow rug and yellow hand towel from Target this past Friday during their Black Friday in July sale online (20% off and free shipping on home items!).

We're considering painting the trim white since it's currently a very dark brown.  We'll do the walls first and see, but I'm leaning towards the white trim.  Now...what to put on the walls?

5.  I've started tutoring the daycare director's son just this past weekend to get him ready for Spanish 2 in the fall and she's passed my name on to two other parents.  I'm excited for the possibility of tutoring 3 students a week for some extra cash.  Disney fund?  New camera lens?  The possibilities are endless...

6.  Plans are being made for the fall with the boys getting enrolled in some sports/activities and to figure out which room Sean belongs in at school.  The debate was another year of preschool for a total of 2 years of preschool or move him up to Pre-K and do 2 years of Pre-K.  The director and I are both leaning towards moving him up to see how he does with the Pre-K curriculum to help us decide next time this year whether he's ready to start kindergarten (with a waiver signed allowing him to go a month before his 5th birthday) or to hold him back another year.  Lots of important decisions and it seems crazy we're already thinking about this!

Sean will be signed up to try indoor soccer again (he wasn't a fan last winter), but this time he'll take it with his cousin, Adelaide.  We will sign Evan up for the parent involvement class, as well.  I know Evan will love it!  I'm hoping playing outside with Sean this summer with the cheap net we bought on sale at Target has paid off and he enjoys the class this time around.  Both boys will start back up with swim lessons.  Once Sean turns 4, he'll be able to take a class without us in the water and I definitely think he's ready.  He'll wear the kickboard backpack that forces him to tread water for 30 seconds at a time!

That's all for now.  I've been going to bed later than I should be nightly because I've been busy planning all these things once the kids go to bed.  It's hard to shut things down at night when there's this many exciting things going on!  I love feeling productive!

A glimpse at summer vacation...

Despite our summer vacation officially starting a month ago, it hasn't really had that true summer vacation feeling until this past week.  Maybe because we started out traveling to Portland to see my brother and then I came home to start summer school followed by a long weekend up north for the fourth of July?  Maybe because I finally got us into a summer routine?  Either way, this past week was everything I envisioned this summer to be like.

Sunday night, as I prepared for another week of summer school I felt depressed.  I just didn't feel any kind of routine and I felt like my decision to work summer school was a huge mistake.  I thought I was missing out on so much with the boys, even though I was only gone in the morning for a few hours, four days a week.  I'd come home and help out with lunch and naps and the whole day just felt like it was slipping by with nothing getting accomplished or without any fun plans.  So, before I went to bed Sunday night, I devised a plan of something fun we'd do daily, whether it be at home or out and about.

Monday, after naps, we took a family trip the grocery store and stayed in to watch a movie since we were all catching up on some rest after a busy fourth of July weekend up north.

Tuesday, the boys go to daycare as their one day to hold their spot and keep them familiar with their teachers and friends.  We picked them up with bags packed to head over to the rec center pool, equipped with a hot and ready pizza and fresh fruit.  We ate at a little picnic table before swimming and playing in the tree fort.  A quick shower, pajamas, and bubble guppies on the car ride home and they were tuckered out.

Wednesday was my favorite day!  We met up with Sydney, AJ, and Nana downtown for Music in the Park and a picnic lunch!

The kids all danced, sat on a firetruck, ran around the fountain, and played on the picnic blanket until nap time.

After nap, the kids did some bubble painting, which was probably the messiest project we've ever done, but so much fun!  Sean and Evan blew bubbles in a bowl through a straw and we placed the paper over top to pop the bubbles.  All you need is dish soap, a little bit of water, and washable paint.

That night I went out to dinner my both of my sisters-in-law and my mother-in-law at Pizza e Vino in downtown Plymouth (yum!) before we went to see The Book of Mormon at the Opera House in Detroit.  I loved it!  It was hilarious and it felt great to get out and do something without kids for an evening.

Thursday was my last day of summer school for the week and I met up with Scott and the boys at Detroit Kid City.  I've never seen the place that dead!  We practically had the place to ourselves.  Sean was busy delivering mail by matching numbers and Evan was enjoying sorting money in the bank.  We took the boys to Bagger Daves in Berkley for some burgers and of course, the trains!

Friday, my mom came out to see the boys so we went to the Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor to play outside and have a picnic lunch.

We dropped the boys off at home to be with Scott while they napped so that my mom and I could go on to the Art in the Park in Plymouth.  I can't remember the last time my mom and I had time to shop by ourselves and even grab a beer and some pretzels at Box Bar on the patio.  It was perfect!

Saturday morning we were off to meet up with some friends at Art in the Park again.  The boys were able to decorate a pet rock, get tattoos, paint a square on giant canvases, and color.  They even met a princess!

Lunch at Ironwood and we were back home in time to nap before Adelaide's birthday party.  The rain held off that was predicted late afternoon and the kids enjoyed bouncing in our bounce house and swimming.  Happy 3rd birthday, Adelaide!

Today was a much needed day of rest.  We re-organized the playroom, cleaned the basement, set-up Evan's toddler bed (can you believe it?!), and watched Planes.  An afternoon trip to Costco (snack ladies!!) left me with an awesome rug for the playroom that has a map of the United States in bright colors and a new fleece coat for Sean for the fall/spring.  My favorite part of today was finally persuading Sean to ride farther on his tricycle.  He rode all the way from our house to his cousin's house that's a few blocks over!  I was completely shocked he made it that far and made it home too!  True to my word, we owe him a "big boy" bike.  Looks like I'll be stopping at Target on my way home from work in the morning...

And now I'm off to munch on some Skinny Pop while planning out this week!  I'm not regretting working now that I know that we can still do all the things we wanted to with the kids while making some extra money....

Our 4th of July!

You know you've had a great weekend, when you come home exhausted, ready for bed by 6pm, and in need of a shower.  I think it's safe to say once you've had kids, your weekends will not be restful.  Add the fourth of July, a birthday, and a trip away into the mix and it was one eventful weekend!

Scott's parents bought a new lake house this spring in Gladwin.  It only added a few minutes onto our drive since we were used to going to West Branch.  Man, this house has it all!  More bedrooms, more bathrooms, more room in general, no long hill to walk up from the water, a great beach area, no mucky water, and a bunch of parks scattered around the lake that are only a short pontoon boat ride away.  Bonus!

In prior years since we had kids and since Scott's sister had kids, we only had one group of us up at a time.  Too many kids and too many dogs made for a stressful weekend.  This year, with the extra space at the new lake house, we all went up.  A grand total of 8 adults, 4 kids, and 4 dogs shacked up to celebrate the holiday weekend and Adelaide's second birthday!

Things went off without a hitch!  We arrived Thursday afternoon and the rest of the crew came Friday morning.  We filled our weekend with bonfires, s'mores, tubing (both boys went out on the tube with Scott and his mom!), jet-skiing (both boys took it for a spin with Scott), fishing, and more.

Friday evening on the fourth, we celebrated Adelaide's birthday complete with "Frozen" cupcakes, presents, and some Pop-its in the driveway (whipper snappers, anyone?).  The lake put on their firework presentation on Saturday night, so we kept the kids up late and let them play with sparklers while eating popcorn before the fireworks started.  Two minutes before the show started, Evan fell asleep in my arms and Sean asked to go to bed.  Maybe next year for the fireworks, boys.

It was a great weekend and especially memorable since the entire Ferstle family, grandkids and granddogs, attended this year.  I've said this a million times, but I love the memories the boys are making with their cousins.  Even though we suffered a miserable car ride home, taking four hours, the boys were troopers and the mini-van's DVD player pulled through again!

It's an early bedtime for me tonight since it's back to the grind tomorrow morning at summer school.  Four weeks to go, but only working from 7:30-10:30am, Monday-Thursday makes it seem more tolerable.  Scott will be busy playing Mr. Mom, but I'm looking forward to our afternoons at the Rec Center pool and our upcoming weekend plans with Plymouth's Art in the Park and a birthday party.  Goodnight all!