Making a House a Home - Part 7

Well we took the winter off (obviously!) from our various landscaping projects. But the weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer so it was time to resume our yard transformation! But before that Charlie did do a small interior project last month over February vacation. Our bedroom has these wood panels and it was time to get rid of them. We wanted to move Charlie's dresser and hang our TV on the wall.

It turned out that it wasn't as simple as taking the wood off the wall and painting. The wood had been glued to the wall and so it had to be sanded and then painted! By the end of the project Charlie finally got a good system down, but not without creating tons of dust!





The final product!


Now onto the yard work! On St. Patrick's Day, my Dad and brothers helped us get started with tree removal. We made a good dent but we have so much more we need to accomplish so Charlie got himself his own chainsaw. It's a small electric one, but it will help us start to make a dent in the smaller trees. Today we were able to get outside tackle some of the smaller trees and brush! It's starting to really come along. I'm excited to keep going and get some grass planted and eventually some fruit trees and some sunflowers!

The boys are ready to get started:


Here are some before pictures:




Charlie getting to work:


And here are the after pictures (so far anyway!):




We still have a laundry list of projects as we continue making this house our home.  The next big project we will be doing in the coming months is painting the house.  It hasn't been done since the house was built 10 years ago and it was something we were told to make a priority during our home inspection last year, and since we need to do it anyway we get to change the color!  Goodbye Easter Egg house!  I'm really excited to see how the changes will look!

Project 365 - Day 91

The Doc's new toy! Let the yard work games begin!

Project 365 - Day 90

Leaving the park this afternoon Shaun saw the moon in the beautiful blue cloudless sky. He looked up and said "Hey Momma, look it's the moon and it's following me!" This is Shaun watching the moon follow him all the way out the park!

Project 365 - Day 89

Evan enjoys a delicious ice cream sundae tonight at the schools PTA Ice Cream Social fundraiser!

Project 365 - Day 88

My new food obsession: Eggplant Parmesan. I could eat this every day right now because let's face it, what is better than eating something that has been breaded, pan-fried and smothered in sauce and cheese?!

Project 365 - Day 87

Look who went all the way under water! He's getting more and more confident in the water and has even recently started to try and swim a little "by my own self" as he told Daddy tonight!

Project 365 - Day 86

Another "Proud Momma Moment" today during homework time this afternoon! David had to draw five things he could find in the sky. The first one he came up with was cloud. After he drew the picture I asked him to write the word below the picture and just as his teacher has encouraged us to do, I had him write it how he thought it sounded. He remembered that the "ou" sound in cloud was made with using OU! Thank you Electric Company, it goes "ou", "ou", "ou"...

Project 365 - Day 85

I got David his first pair of tie sneakers last week. The velcro on his old sneakers was no longer sticking on one of them and when I told him I would get him a new pair he asked me if I could get him tie ones. I knew he was learning to tie his bathrobe so we decided to give tie sneakers a try. It's a little harder for him to tie the sneakers but he's getting better and faster! Loop, swoop and pull!

Project 365 - Day 84

Shaun likes to sneak an extra story after Daddy tucks him in for bed. As soon as Daddy walks away out comes the flash light and the book. I couldn't resist trying to capture this moment, just like his Daddy used to do when he was little! Like father, like son!

Project 365 - Day 83

JUMP!

Project 365 - Day 82

Papa & Evan

Project 365 - Day 81

Freak blizzard before Halloween and now SHORTS and TEES in March! Crazy!

Project 365 - Day 80

Driveway chalk art in the driveway after school today!

Project 365 - Day 79

Skates?! Evan don't need no stinking skates!

Project 365 - Day 78

The first day of spring is on Tuesday, but we had our first flowers bloom today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's St. Patrick's Day today and just as we do every year, we got together with my family to eat boiled dinner and celebrate Irish style! This was the first year it was at our house and the only thing missing was Dad's Irish records playing on the turn table. I'm sure it's the first thing he did when he got home, either that or popped in his copy of the Quiet Man!

As I do every year, I put the boys in their St. Patrick's Day tees and get the annual picture! This was the second year with Evan so I went back to compare my two pictures and I can't believe how much they have grown!

Top = 2011; Bottom = 2012

I normally sport my own Irish tee, but I saw this green wig at the store this year and I couldn't resist!

While my mom and SIL Kim helped me get appetizers and dinner going, the boys headed outside to cut down some trees and brush. It's the start of our massive yard remodel. We're trying to do as much as we can on our own, plus since my parents heat their house with a wood stove, they'll take all the wood back with them!

Getting the fire going to burn the brush!

Dinner is served!  Corned Beef, cabbage, carrots, rutabaga and potatoes!  Delicious!



After dinner we made Shamrock Sodas (sprite and sherbet!) another gem I found on Pinterest!  We also made some brownie pops and dipped them in green and dark chocolate and then added green sugar sprinkles!

Me & Charlie

Me, David & Dad

My Mom & Dad

And finally after everyone left, I sat down to enjoy a piece of my from scratch carrot cake, and well, not to toot my own horn but...it was AWESOME!


It was another successful Holiday celebration at our new house and I look forward to many more!  Next up, Easter!

Project 365 - Day 77

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Project 365 - Day 76

From scratch Carrot Cake = SUCCESS!! It's has been about 5 years since I attempted to bake a cake from scratch. The last time didn't go so well - let's just say it resulted in a gooey mess that boiled over in my oven. Considering my history with baking cakes from scratch, I did not have very high hopes on the outcome of this Paula Deen Carrot Cake. But I love carrot cake and I have been having a lot of fun this winter baking with the boys. I have made from scratch cinnamon rolls, toffee fudge bars and Andes Crème de Menthe cookies, but I have not tried a cake until tonight!

It's a little uneven but I'm very happy with how it turned out. All we need is the official taste test tomorrow to get the final verdict, but at least I'm not cleaning burnt cake batter off the bottom of my oven!

Project 365 - Day 75

Shaun with his teacher at Family Math Night at his school tonight. There were lots of fun math games and puzzles and this was the math obstacle course. The kids had to roll a dice and jump whatever number they rolled!

Project 365 - Day 74

Wordless Wednesday

Project 365 - Day 73

Enjoying these above average temperatures! Swimming was cancelled today so we loaded up some bubbles in the bubble machine instead.

Project 365 - Day 72

After a very long and busy weekend, and the dreaded yearly adjustment to daylight savings, I was very grateful to have Mother Nature on my side today! Nothing cures cranky kid syndrome better than a trip to the park!

Project 365 - Day 71

Celebrating Cohen's 5th Birthday today! Make a wish!

Project 365 - Day 70

Ready for a fun evening out with Omi and Auntie Kristin. They went to an acrobat show at Merrimack College and then dinner and ice cream! I may be slightly biased, but I think they look very charming!

Project 365 - Day 69

Shaun at the movement & song portion of David's music class. They were practicing the their rhythms using the hula hoops today. I think he was concentrating really hard!

Project 365 - Day 68

We had 8.5 inches of snow that melted over the last 2 days and that made for a lake in our front yard and a pond in front of our walkway! Evan apparently missed the flood warning and drove his fire truck right into the thick of it! Needless to say he was soaked again, though thankfully not muddy today!

Project 365 - Day 67

Spring is right around the corner! With the temperatures reaching in the low 50's today I couldn't wait to get outside and into the fresh air! The snow was melting all around and we even lost the head to our snowman. And where there is melting snow, there is also MUD! There were puddles pooling around the gutter drain off to the side of the house and seeing the water drain gave David the great idea to dig a stream for the water to flow. Even though they were digging up the grass, they were having so much fun. There was no way I could tell them to stop, besides we can always plant more grass!

Project 365 - Day 66

Even though Evan isn't in school yet, doesn't mean he can't dress up like his big brothers!

Project 365 - Day 65

Since the beginning of this year, I have been trying to get Shaun interested in learning to write his name. At this point David was already writing lots of letters and he also had great pencil grip. I try very hard not to compare them, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned. Thankfully his teacher put my worries and concerns at east. She told me that it's perfectly normal and OK at this age to not be interested in writing and he will start when he is ready.

So we keep trying. We have the crayola dry erase board and I wrote his name three times on a piece of paper and stuffed it inside so he could start to trace it when we do homework time in the afternoon. Today, after he traced his name three times I asked him to write below by himself and he did. Proud Momma moment! We still have to work on his pencil grip but I was happy to see him interested and he was so proud of himself, he yelled "Mommy, I DID IT!

Project 365 - Day 64

Our first snowman at the new house! It has been a really bizarre winter, today was a great day to build a snowman. It wasn't too cold out and after yesterdays sleet and rain the snow was heavy enough to pack down for the perfect snowman!

Project 365 - Day 63

This morning we used our SEE Science Center pass to check out the McAullife-Shepard Discovery Center here in Concord. It's a small place but the boys enjoyed checking out the big space ship and seeing a movie in the Planetarium. Here is Shaun checking out the interactive globe.