Kitchen Remodel Day 1

Things have been SUPER busy here!

This is going to be short and sweet because I have to get to studying...

Today was Day 1 of the Kitchen Remodel.

We accomplished a heck of a lot.  After a flooring crisis we decided on Resilient Vinyl that looks like hardwood and Home Depot had a waterproof grade.  We are hoping when this is installed it will look very similar to the dining room's hardwood floor.  We picked up 15 boxes of the flooring and a few other odds and ends at the Depot this morning.

Then when we got home I packed all of the cabinets, stored the boxes downstairs and created a make shift kitchen in the mudroom.  Let me tell you - remodeling with a 3 year old is not fun!  I wish I had two pairs of eyes.

Hubby tore out all of the cabinetry while the boys and I went to a birthday party.  Then when we got home I was greeted with some pretty disgusting floors that were hiding under the rotting cabinets.  There was a substance that looked like sawdust (basically the particle board cabinets eroding) all over the floor and about a pound of it was in the vent!  YUCK!  I mopped up the yuckiness best I could with bleach water.

Tomorrow hubby is tearing up the first layer of linoleum and plywood.

 check out the new light fixture

I think the kitchen looks better this way!

boxes, boxes, boxes...cabinets, appliances, counters

Summer Update - lots o' pics

What a busy and exciting summer it has been!

So much is going on with our family.  Things got even crazier once school let out - my daydreamy summer filled with lazing around reading books, crafting, playing outside... is flying by and it much more action packed than I anticipated.  On top of everything I am a crazy lady studying for yet another license...

Mommy school has sorta continued - we took a break last week when we were in OC. 

We cut pics out of the grocery store add and sorted them by category: fruit or vegetable since the boys tend to have trouble identifying these.  Toby was able to stay engaged through the majority of the activity and practiced using scissors - Jayden had a difficult time with this and he is a bit scary with the scissors...

Then we made a solar oven for our science experiment and had peach cobbler - the boys enjoyed this!  That is the solar oven below on the picnic table...

We also had time to enjoy nature.  One of hubby's co-workers has her own private oasis on Deer Creek.  We had such fun.  Toby and Daddy enjoyed exploring and Jayden enjoyed climbing up and down the stairs, throwing rocks and getting really wet and muddy!

 

 We also threw a bridal shower for my cousin, Chrissy.  Isn't she beautiful? Oops...I think I am supposed to give this pics to some people...just uploaded and will try to email this week!

Remodeling is still going on - got my new counter tops in unfortunately there are some issues at the seams and the counter top people are picking them up to be fixed Thursday.  Kitchen cabinets are supposed to be in Friday.  I also ordered my dream oven the Samsung Flex Duo!  And today ordered the new window for over the sink.  My flooring installer is supposed to come over so we can look at samples sometime after the 4th.  I am seriously dreading the painting but hopefully it won't take long to knock out.  Still have to pick a wall color...

Gotta include some OC pics:

The boys loved the elevator and even took turns pushing the buttons.

Toby's favorite part of the boardwalk was the games.

Jayden liked the rides best and even scored a free one on the fire engine.

 lovin' the rope swing!

Daddy finally got the kite up in OC - but not for long!  Toby did a really good job and was very patient - Jay not so much.

 

beach buddies

We also took the boys bowling - we were the only ones at the alley!  They did a great job for the most part and stayed interest for about 3/4 of the game...we will be doing this again!

 

We also went to Frontier Town and visited their gift shop and arcade.  Daddy set up the camera for a family pic! The boys were VERY leary of this shark.  We even tried to bribe them with a toy to get them to sit inside his mouth - no way!

 We even enjoyed the beach in the evening - playing with the fort/castle Uncle Joe built earlier...but the boys couldn't stay out of the water.  This was the day Toby finally enjoyed playing in the ocean surf!  It was very neat seeing him conquer his fear and then actually have fun doing what he was afraid of a few days earlier...

 

 

 

We even had time to be lazy!

Hello Mommy School - Our First Day!

My sister told me about a blogger who created Mommy School and we have kinda ran with it - personalizing it to our boys.

We had our first day of "school" today - it was completely unstructured catching little bits of time here and there to do what I had on our schedule.  We had a play date for the first half of the day with one of Jayden's classmates.  There were twin baby girls and Toby wanted to take one home!

This week we are focusing on Food!

We started the day reading a book, Max Goes To The Grocery Store - a pick off the library's kindergarten reading list.  Toby and Jayden took turns reading the pages and then we discussed what the book was about.  I was very proud of Jayden - he sat at the table through the whole book and participated in "reading".  Then Toby rated the book and colored in his reading chart - green for a good book and red for a not so good book.  Jayden "colored" his chart too - he wants to do everything himself and would not let me help him write his name or do anything, Mr. Independent.

After our play date we had lunch and then did a science experiment like Sid the Science Kid.  We made ice cream from scratch!

I was very impressed with Toby - even though this took about 25 to 30 minutes he stuck in there and we talked about what was happening to the ice and the salt and how it was making the milk mixture freeze.  Toby was able to figure this out himself!  Jay had a bathroom incident in the middle of ice cream making, Toby continued with making the ice cream while Mommy helped clean up Jay - we didn't worry about a shirt for Jay when we had ice cream waiting for us!

After we enjoyed the ice cream we filled in our science journal. 

While Jay napped Toby did pages in his Summer Bridge Workbook.

After Daddy got home we had dinner and then headed out to the carnival.  It is so funny to see my two little guy's personalities.  Toby can be very shy at times.  I think strangers and crowds bring that out in him.  He was very content to hold our hands and walk around.  He only wanted to go on one ride and gave his tickets to Jayden who got on three rides.  Jay was super excited - not shy at all!  He would have ran from ride to ride if we let him.  He was happy to participate in the rides and the games. Toby liked the games too.

 

 

 Today was a great day!

Another great day was last Wednesday when my little Toby graduated from Preschool...he is now a Kindergartener!  I have a smart little cookie here who is ready and eager to learn - I am such a proud momma!