Working weekend

We have been home all weekend (for a change) and it was a working weekend for sure!!! Yesterday Jon took Jackson golfing and SB and I cleared out Jackson's room and her room of excess toys and junk. Today we had to do the same thing with the garage that was overt-taking us. In the midst of that we also had to swap out our spare garage refrigerator which we never realized how much WE NEEDED until it broke about two weeks ago OMG. So.....we moved the old one out, moved a new one in, and loaded it back up with our excess bottled water, soda, wine and snacks and then we all jumped in the pool as it is HOT HERE...95 today and just HOT.....we leave Wednesday afternoon for a long 4th of July weekend at the lake so this weekend was all about getting our act together!!!! We have two families joining us so it will be a crazy/busy holiday weekend but we are looking forward to sharing the lake with them. There will be 13 of us in all...we will use every bed and pull out sofa for the first time...and of the 13 there are 7 kids, 6 adults OH MY. Ages ranging from about 9-4 so no babies at least but still 7 active children, 4 boys and 3 girls and 6 parents!!!!! Pictures to come after the 4th weekend.....We also finally got all of the pictures hung back on the walls in our house after the big paint and crown molding job that was done while we were away! Feels like an orderly home again:)

Father's Day Weekend at the Lake

We spent Father's Day weekend at the lake, just our family, no visitors and it was great! We left after work Thursday night and boy did we all just need Friday to lay low after a very busy week that we returned to after vacation! I had a pesky headache half the weekend, I'm not sure if it was a migraine or tension headache but I'm not surprised after the 4 busy days I had after being away and that was after working half of Sunday last week to take the edge off upon returning from vacation, ugh!! Luckily we had the lake weekend to unwind. We had beautiful warm sunny weather and little wind so the lake water was flat and perfect for any imaginable water sports! We did wake surfing and tubing and lots of jumps from the rope swing at the end of our dock and we were treated to the most beautiful sunsets each night we were there. We also did some fishing which Jackson is REALLY in to right now. We just do catch and release but he loves it and is really learning. NO HOOKS after last summer's escapade with hooking his own arm and like a millioin dollars of medical bills for NINE MONTHS afterwards for about a 2 minute procedure.....safe fishing poles and gear for a child only:) We had a lazy morning for father's day enjoying bagels and coffee and juice on the dock and then fishing and a boat ride and more swimming and rope swinging before we began the close up process which we have down pretty well now but still takes us a few hours, both of us working like dogs the entire time! It is worth it though and by 3pm we were pulling into our driveway to enjoy the afternoon and evening at home to get ready for the week. Just before our vacation we got a new camera, another Canon Rebel but seems to take much sharper pictures than our older one that we bought right before we had Jackson!!

summer project

Besides having the house painted and crowned out I'm always up to something it seems and this summer I AM DETERMINED to get Jackson's room re-furnished with a loft and bunk bed system for friends to sleep over, and more of a big boy room...clear out clutter, and get a proper wall system for his things as well. Sarabeth will inherit his adorable unisex but soon to become very feminine white twin bed and bye bye to her toddler bed. I am going to pack up her nursery items...her extremely comfortable lazy boy rocking chair from her nursery will be re-purposed at the lake and she will also get a new "big girl" room fit for a pre-schooler! I love doing stuff like this...have already ordered the first wave of items for SB's room from PBarn kids for bedding and accessories...we're going with a pastel theme and mermaids!!! I LOVE having a girl. For Jackson's room we are still settling on the furniture, going to get design ideas from PBarn kids but get the actual furnishings elsewhere and spend the money from pbarn kids again for his accessories and bedding. I love their bedding and cannot seem to find the same quality anywhere else so I like I did for the room at the lake, I will get the bedding there and accessories and find the actual furniture elsewhere. FUN PROJECT and will be great when finished!! Pictures as we progress in the coming weeks, for now we are at the lake this weekend...the clear out process wont be fun and I wish we had grandparents close by that could take them for a weekend so we could really do this without them underfoot but we will have to make do!!

lots of photos to sort and life back in the world of work and post vacation= crazy!!

On our main new camera we purchased just ahead of our vacation I downloaded 480 something photos yesterday night....that was after I got home from work after 7PM and had also worked all afternoon for 5 hours on Sunday....welcome home for a business owner and attorney OMG. I still need to dowload and condense and edit the various i phone pics we took as well on the go for the trip!!! It is always a crazy week post vacation with being self employed and having to hit it double time, but it is worth it to have the freedom we have and the income we are able to generate from being self employed. Here are some pictures from various parts of our trip...next up I will do a post from one morning when we did a Sesame Street Character Breakfast...Beaches owns the right to the Sesame Street Characters and they were fairly unknown to our kids before this trip but none the less a HUGE HIT! We came home with many stuffed animals and they have been watching dvr recorded Sesame Street shows each morning!!! SB even watched one in our room tonight before bed time.