Before and After

It has been almost a year since our last indoor painting project.  Shortly after we completed that project we bought paint for the last two rooms of the house that still needed painting, the kitchen and main floor bathroom.  We were finally able to work out a time when I thought I would have time to do it and when David’s mom could be here to help.  A lot of time, hard work, and some change of plans went into getting the projects done, but the results are magnificent.  Everything feels fresh and clean.

 

Here is the Kitchen:

Before.  What a lovely color (with sarcasm).  We do like reds, but this application was not our favorite.

 

After.  The pictures don’t show it, but we had to paint the ceiling too.  That was not a small feat.

 

Now for the Bathroom:

 

Before.  (These pictures were not taken by me, and I don’t have any more recent “before” pictures.)

 

After.  We didn’t originally plan to paint the ceiling, but once we had some paint on the wall the ceiling seemed to really need a fresh coat.

Except for a few ceilings, everything in the house has been painted.  Owning a home is work, but the rewards are worth it.

Birthday Parties

Sunday was the family birthday party for the girls.  Both the grandparents, as well as my brother and a friend, came to celebrate with the girls.  We let the girls decide what they want for their birthday meals, and because Bentley doesn’t quite understand what that means, Bria did most of the choosing.  We had a wonderful meal of hot dogs and macaroni and cheese (from a box).  I decided to also make hamburgers, rainbow jello (I knew Bria would ask where it was if I didn’t), watermelon, and refrigerator pickles.

The theme of the girls’ party was rainbows, that is what they kept mentioning in the days before their birthdays.  It took me a while to decide how to make two different rainbow cakes.  Last year after I had decorated Bentley’s cake with rainbow striped frosting, I was sent a recipe for a rainbow cake that I should try.  At the last minute I did decide to try it.  It was a big success, the girls loved it and everyone else thought it was cool.

These pictures don’t do justice to the cake. 

The other rainbow “cake” was made from cupcakes decorated like a rainbow.

Because the rainbow of this cake was visible the girls both wanted this one as their own.  We put candles on both sides for the girls to each blow out their own.

So excited for the cake.  They ended up eating the other cake once they realized there was a rainbow inside.

The girls also had fun opening their presents.  It is amazing how excited they are about a ream of paper, scissors, stickers, etc.  They both like the clothes they received too, but I haven’t had time to have them try the clothes on.  Bria has worn her new tennis shoes and loves them.  Bria also wore her new necklace for her school pictures.

Thanks to everyone who made the girls’ birthdays a special time.

Homecoming

Last Friday was homecoming for us.  This was Bria’s first year walking through the parade with her class.  The theme for homecoming was Disney/Disney Pixar, and Bria’s class picked the 101 Dalmatians.  Grandma came the day before to help get Bria’s outfit ready—she had fuzzy white fabric to make spots on Bria’s black clothes.  The class was really cute walking down the street in their Dalmatian outfits.

Putting all the spots on.

Walking through the parade.

The kindergarten is toward the beginning of the parade, so when Bria was done she stood with us to watch the rest of the parade.  She especially wanted to see her Daddy’s float.

Their theme was from The Jungle Book.

In the evening, before the big game, the firemen serve a pancake supper, which is where we ate supper.  We then spent the evening at the football game.  Any free time was spent getting ready for the girls’ birthday parties.  It was a full day of activities.

Birthday Girl

On Saturday, Bentley had her 3rd Birthday.  She was so excited to be turning three.  We have been trying to prepare her to answer that she is three when asked how old she is.  She has done very well with it. 

Her birthday wasn’t very exciting because we are having a birthday party for both girls in a week.  The family spent a good portion of the day running errands to get groceries, a new toilet, and plants for a flower garden we started.  Because it was Bentley’s birthday we let her pick where we had lunch.  We knew before she said it, “McDonalds.”  We also let her pick some cupcakes at Walmart so she would actually have cake on her birthday.

After church on Sunday, we had some of our friends from church over to eat lunch and share some cake and ice cream in honor of her birthday.  She hasn’t seemed to mind that she has only gotten one small present and hasn’t had much of a party.

Three candles on her little cupcake.  She had fun blowing them out all by herself.

Alphabet flashcards.  She already knows a few of the letters, but we still need work on most of them.

We love you Bentley!