Addie has a Party!

So, lots of stores put out Christmas stuff before Halloween, so I'm going to write about Halloween the week after Christmas!  I'm bucking the standards...

Halloween in our home was better know this year as Addie's birthday party day!  She invited all her cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandparents.  Naturally, we also made it a costume party!

 We keep the parties pretty simple: food, cake, and gifts.  This year Addie chose to have a "Princess Hulk" theme.  It's fits her perfectly.  On a typical day, she can't decide if she wants to be a lady or just get outrageously mad and smash things to bits.

She had a purple and green Hulk cake (though it was important that it was primarily purple).

We dined on pizza  then thankfully it was a gorgeous day so the kids just played outside much of the afternoon.

After they tired a bit, they came in for presents and cake.  

Here she is checking our her new Hulk "doll".

Another love of Addie's is baking.  Now she is all set!

Following presents she blew out her candles-all six of them!

You can tell from these photos how nice it was outside.  It looks especially desirable now since we woke up to temps of about 1 degree.

These are the best attempts at all the kids in their costumes!

After the party died down, we ate a light dinner and headed out for trick-or-treating!

What a day!  It started with partying and ended with talking with neighbors who dish out candy...lots of candy!

Happy Birthday, Addie!

Adeline Marie, age 6.

Dear Addie,

You are such a blessing.  After being our mellow,easy going baby, you grew to be our spunky little fire cracker.   You are our wild card, refusing to conform to anyone's standards.  You drink life's cup to the full, expressing every emotion-joy, anger, sadness, fear-passionately.  You are slowly, slowly gaining self-control. ;)

You love to draw, paint, go for bike rides, run, and sing songs.  Lately we've enjoyed listening to hymns of praise that you make up while in bed.

You also humble us most every day.  If we ever thought we knew anything about parenting, God gave us you to keep us always searching and seeking His wisdom!

 You are perfectly sandwiched between Ella and Evelyn.  You are a dear friend to them both and a protective big sister.

We love you beautiful Adeline Marie! 

God is continually working in your heart, and we are so privileged to get to be a part of this great adventure!

With Adeline turning 6, I did our annual birthday interview.  It was fun to look back at the previous year's and see how her answers changed (or in some cases didn't).  This year's theme in her answers seemed to be love for Daddy.  

My favorite food is:  hot dogs
My favorite sport to play is:  soccer
The best show on t.v. is:  Wild Kratts
The coolest person on Earth is:  Daddy
My favorite thing to learn about in school is:  our bodies
The thing I do the most awesomely is:  climbing the ladder
If I could anywhere in the world, I'd go to:  Colorado
My favorite color is:  pink
When I grow up I'm going to be :  a mom, just doing nothing
My favorite song is:  This is My Father's World
The book I am loving right now is:  The Bible
Three words that describe me are:  Love my dad
When I was little I used to:  take off my shirt and dance in the background of my brother
My favorite season of the year is:  October
The snack I like best is:  Veggie Straws
The food I really dislike is:  zucchini and squash
My best friend is: Molly
If I had one wish, it would be:  my Daddy holding 100 pounds
My best memory is:  At four years old having flower blankie, Love-A-Bear, and Swim baby and sitting on Daddy's lap at Papa's house.

 Thanks, Fall baby!

Adeline's Birthday!

We now have a 6-year-old in the house!!

Her day started very early.  She was uber excited to open her package from Grammy.  It had arrived a couple of days prior, so the anticipation was building!  We let her open in the morning (even though Nathan and Matt weren't there), but she had to wait for her sisters.  She may have "accidentally" woken them up...

(all of these photos are with my phone and therefore a little blurry, I'm disappointed iphone)

The package was exactly what she was hoping for.  A robe and a suitcase!

They also happen to both be Frozen.  Addie loved them.  She's been playing with her suitcase and wears her robe every morning.  It does make me want to get one for the other girls too, the mornings are starting to get chilly!

The birthday girl got to choose what she wanted for breakfast.  No surprises here, she decided on donuts!

After doing a couple of fun errands and spending much of the day at home playing, we set out to get Nathan at the usual time.  The girls love to play on the playground while we wait.

The weather was decent.  Not sunny, but not cold or windy either, so after getting Nathan we went to the zoo.  I could say that Addie picked this event out, but since we have a pass I just asked her if she wanted to go, and she said yes.  :)

It worked out well because they still had decorations set up from zoo boo the previous weekend.

Here's the crew!  Love them.

I didn't notice until after I uploaded the photos that the girls are pretty matchy in their pink and turquoise.  Since, I've noticed they often match.  I usually just send them upstairs to get dressed unsupervised; I'm picturing them planning and coordinating their outfits!

They were intrigued with what the brown bear might do next....it wasn't much, but it is still is humbling to think about.

We came home to meet Daddy, then go out again for birthday celebration dinner as a family (f you haven't noticed, birthdays last the entire day!).  Addie's fine dining experience of choice:  Dairy Queen!

 

It was a fun day!

 I love you my sweet butterscotch-dipped cone buddy!

There will be more celebrating with extended family this weekend...and of course, I'll be back with an obligatory birthday interview!

Exterior Painting Update: Bye, Bye Brown House!

Do you ever go into a project knowing that it's going to be a big time and money suck...but hoping it's worth it in the end?

Maybe that describes most all house projects.

We endeavored on one such project this summer:  painting the exterior of our house.

Last summer we had a hail storm that reeked havoc all over the neighborhood.  Our house fared well, but the siding and paint got dinged up.  We were never in love with the color of our house to begin with, so we decided to dive in and switch it all up!  

We knew it would take a lot of time, so the first thing we did was get some estimates to hire it out.

After getting two bids that both far exceeded what we wanted to spend, we stopped doing that.  Then we started looking into doing the work ourselves.  Since our house is on a hill and two-stories tall, there were a few challenges.  We would need to rent some taller ladders and/or scaffolding, and there was also the danger of falling.  We both knew full well that I would not be going up a 30-foot ladder, and even though Matt is confident with heights, it certainly wasn't ideal to have his ladder on a hill with only his scaredy-cat wife as a spotter.

So, we opted for what we hoped was the best of both worlds: hire out the difficult stuff and paint the rest ourselves.

Now that it's finished it doesn't seem so bad, but I will admit that it took us three months from start to finish (July-October), and there were many days when I felt like every free moment went to painting.  I would get up and paint an hour before the kids woke.  Then in the afternoon I would paint an hour while they had quiet time.  Then Matt would come home and we'd try to get a few hours in after dinner.  Thankfully the weather was great (not too hot or humid) and the days were long!

So, let's get to it.  

Here is the "before" of our house, what Nathan affectionately described as a "big, ugly brown box".

(I still remember taking this photo from the van while driving by before closing)

Brown siding, brown doors, brown roof...brown, brown, brown.

Here is the "after":

Improvement?

It's not completely finished, because I still intend to add some shutters and a window box to our puny front window to beef it up a little.  We also plan on redoing the landscaping next Spring.  (We're sick of caging all of our plants, so we're going fully deer resistant...hopefully). And, what to do with that front door?

I do however, love that it's so much lighter! No more blah brown (well, except the roof).  

We even painted the garage doors, which Matt was hesitant about, but I'm so glad we did.  At one point, Addie told me to quite painting everything white...but if just felt so good!

Since we had all the light fixtures down, we replaced those as well.  Bye-bye 1980s brass!

I found this light for the front door at Menards of all places.

(...and we still have an ugly doorbell)

For the garage, I bought two barn style lights on super sale at a local lighting store down town.

 

 This is the west side of our house.  We hired out the just the upper half of this side.

Finally, here is the rear of our house.  

We also hired out the upper story back here.  I took this late in the afternoon, so excuse the crazy shadows! Part of the reason, it took so long is because we waited to do the left side of the back until after the garden was done for the season.  So, there was about a month where we mentally checked out of the painting project and didn't do anything.

These lights on the back are not new, but show evidence of the Asian invasion.  Asian beetles were everywhere, ugh!

 I should also mention that Matt replaced a dozen or so of the siding boards which were damaged or just in need of replacement.

So, for better or worse the painting project is now over!

We are still negotiating a few things with the painting company we hired (unfortunately we did not have a positive experience), but in all we saved about $2,000 by doing some of the work...no small amount of changed!  Granted, we could've saved even more by painting it all, but you have to pick your battles!

Now, excuse me while I go off and finish our basement!

Indian Summer.

Anne Shirley has a way of saying most everything simply and well, and I whole-heartedly agree with her. 

We've been enjoying amazing October weather:  sunny, 70's, and no humidity.

A week (or has it been two?) ago we were able to drive out to a pumpkin patch a few miles outside of town.  We met some friends, and between the sunshine, fresh air, friendly service, and great value we all left with even more excitement that what we came with.

The first minutes at the patch were primarily spent running,

 

then thinking over pumpkins,

 

 selecting the just right, perfect pumpkin,

which naturally means the biggest pumpkin you can find,

 

and hauling in the loot.

After pumpkins, we picked a few apples and bought some produce from the shed.

 

At the last minute, the girls picked some zinnias.

As I write this, the warmer days are behind us, and the nights are creeping in earlier and earlier....but praise God for these sweet Autumn days!

A Wonder-fall Wreath.

Isn't this weather wonder-fall!

(my niece made up that word and I thought it was clever).

In the spirit of Autumn, I decided to get crafty and make a wreath.

 

My poor door is usually not decorated and left to bare its 1980s facade.  I love, love wreaths, but they are so, so expensive.  So, I took Matt's advice and "just made one myself".

 

sidenote: Matt has this amazing ability to make things that require real skills  himself.  A gift I'm quite thankful for.

So, after a quick visit to Pinterest I found a few inspirations (what did we do before Pinterest?).  

 

I really wanted something colorful to pop against the door, but I also liked the texture of burlap.  

I decided to combine the elements and came up with this:

In general I like the outcome.  

My biggest critique is that it looks a little more "country" than I normally like.  I think if I would have off-centered the "T" that would've help.  It also doesn't look as colorful as I would like from the street, but what to do...

It was super easy to make, and way less expensive than just buying a wreath!

  

I purchased a metal wreath form,

 

. 

burlap, artificial leaves/flowers, floral wire, and a metal T. The burlap just weaves in and out between the wires and around the wreath.  It's pretty easy to work with.  The stuff I bought had a funny, chemical-like smell that I didn't love, but I'm not sure if that's normal.  Then I attached some of the leaves with floral wire and others I hot-glued...then, viola!

This project sat in my living room for almost a week waiting to be finished, but actual hands on time was only about an hour and a half.  So it could easily be done in an afternoon (well, after I typed that I realized that nothing gets easily done in an afternoon around here...).

Here's to completed projects!  Now to just finish painting the house...

In a Pickle.

Sorry for the title, I can't say the word "pickle" without thinking of The Sandlot, and how Benny the Jet got Smalls out of the "biggest pickle any of them had ever seen".  This post, is not about that, but merely about pickles...

It started a couple of weekends ago, we went to the farmer's market downtown.  In my ideal world, we would go every Saturday and get our veggies for the week, and of course some fresh cut flowers.  I love all the smells and colors of being at the farmer's market (even if it is near a meat packing plant).

In reality, we usually think of it about once a year, and we end up buying things like cinnamon rolls (not complaining about the cinnamon rolls).

Getting to the pickle part:  Addie and Evelyn love pickles.

 I used to be the same way, I remember even drinking the juice out of the jar...gross.  I haven't caught them doing this yet, but I can totally see Evelyn going for a swig.

So, when we were at the farmer's market and Addie saw the little cucumbers for pickling, she really wanted them.  They did look like bins of actual pickles. Once she found out we could make pickles, she was excited to try it.

I conceded and bought two pounds of pickling cucumbers.  I've never made pickles before, and most homemade pickles I've eaten I have not liked, so we decided to start small.  We also picked up a bunch of dill.

We looked up a couple of recipes online (then had to go out again to get pickling salt), and decided to make a refrigerator version of dill pickles 

It was so quick and so easy!

It was about 15-20 minutes in the kitchen, and then we had pickles!

 (well, technically we had to let them sit in the refrigerator for two days...then we had pickles!)

All three of the girls helped, but Addie and Evelyn were especially pleased with themselves...and with the fact that there were pickles in the frig!

If I had it together, I would have taken a photo of them trying the pickles two days later.  

It was a mixed review.  

The pickles were crunchier and a little "zingier" than store bought.  I thought they were delicious, but I could see how a 6 year-old version of myself would disagree.  The girls preferred the littlest ones over the bigger pickles, I think because they were softer.  In the end, they each ate and enjoyed the pickles, though they took a little getting used to.

 It  definitely was worth it and we'll do it again!

If you're so inclined, here's the recipe (though I didn't follow it exactly):

Small Batch Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Ingredients

• 3 lbs pickling cucumbers
• 1.5 cups vinegar (white or cider)
• 1.5 cups water
• 2 tbs salt (pickling or kosher)
• 1 chili pepper (I used Serrano, but a jalapeño will do too)
• 3 tsp dill seed
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 glass pint canning jars with lids

Instructions

1. Wash and slice the cucumbers lengthwise (trim there top and bottoms, they are bitter).
2. Sterilize the glass canning jars in boiling water. Remove them from the hot water and sit them on the counter.
3. Add the water, vinegar and salt in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Mix it until the salt dissolves.
4. Add a clove of garlic and a teaspoon of dill seed to each pint jar.
5. Slice the chili and divide among the jars.
6. Pack in the sliced cucumbers and pour the brine on top. Make sure to keep a half inch space at the top.
7. Put on the lid and let it sit for 48 hours in the fridge. They will last up to 2 months.

Enjoy!