Lamb, Koala Bears and other fun!

This was a very crazy week for us, but all in all it was a good one.  The week started out with Megan getting sick so I worked from home almost every afternoon this week, which was nice but I don't love change in routine.  

Next up Annie moved up to the 3 year old class at school!  She is very excited to be a Koala Bear because thats where here besties Catherine, Gianella, and Kendra are.  Below are some pictures on her "first day" of 3 year old class. 

 She was so happy to go she was jumping for joy!

 I got Annie a new tutu and leotard.  I could die its so cute on her!

 Daddy helping Annie switch from her taps to her ballet shoes.  My heart melts!

 We had an awesome surprise on Saturday.  We were getting ready to go out to dinner when my Dad called and asked us what we were doing.  They were in the Bay Area getting out of the Fresno heat and they just dropped by!  I don't get a lot of drop ins out here so it was a really nice treat.  We all went out to dinner and yogurt.

Tonight, Sunday, we had Annie's very good friend Catherine and her family over for dinner.  I made lamb, roasted vegetables and red potatoes.  And lemon poppy seed cake for dessert.  I have to say I have this lamb thing figured out.  It was tender, perfectly cooked and tasty.  Adam says it needs to be my go to dish.  It would be awesome if it wasnt 25 bucks a rack. I think I need to perfect the chicken breast ;-).

 The girls having their cupcakes for dessert.  Happy little kiddos!  They were trouble together.  But it was fabulous trouble.  We had Catherine's cutie pie baby brother Nicholas over as well.  He is 10 months and into everything!

 The girls decided to play dress up and they each had a purse.  Catherine ran down stairs and said "Dont we look gorgeous?!

All it all it was a great weekend.  Next weekend we are having Naomi and her husband and David, who is almost Annie's age exactly over.  I think we will do Halibut!  We also have miss Catherine's birthday party and it's now all Annie can talk about.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of family and friends!

Wonderful Weekend!

We had a really full be great weekend.  That seems to be whats in front of us up until October but that's okay, if all of the weekends are as nice as this one was we are looking forward to it.  We are almost done with the weekend but are off to the neighbors house for dinner tonight.  Monday came toooooo fast.

The stars aligned and we managed to get all 5 of our girls together for a meal!  When does that EVER happen!  We had a great time catching up.  We have real world travelers on our hand.  Lisa is going to Africa for work, Rupal to Australia for pleasure, Lori just back from Paris, and Kerren is off for her US parks family vacation.  Adam and I went to Disney Land, does that count ;-).   So good to see my beautiful girls all in one place.

Annie had her dancing lessons in the morning (we did not bring the camera) but this is her practicing her moves later on.

We then went to the Farmers Market for produce for our dinner salad.  I got these beautiful flowers there.  20 bucks for all of them.  They are huge blooms.  That must be some real Miracle Grow they use!

Getting ready for Dave, Jen, and Baby Elizabeth.  Or as Annie calls her Baby Ezbeth.

Baby Elizabeth was TOO cute.  Little buttery ball of love.

We got her this darling hat.  It's a bit big for her yet but next summer it should be fabulous.

Then Sunday we were off to Kellen's birthday party.  He had it at Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay and I have to say it was one of the best kids parties I have been to.  There were SO many things for the kids to do.

First up was the bounce house.  Annie went in like 8 times.

Then we went in to pet and feed the goats.

Then the big show.  Annie got to ride a pony.  She jumped right up and yelled Giddyup Giddyup Giddyup horsey.  You would have thought she was Annie Oakley and not Annie Heller.

Cara and Nick.

Next up was the train!  Yes, bounce house, goats, pony AND a train.  Toddler Heaven.

Me and Kellen's little sister Baby Adleigh.  She is such a good little pumpkin.  And she looks SO much like Shannon's sister, our old third roommate, Adrienne. 

Annie got to help Kellen blow out the candles.  That girl is never one to miss out on the action.

After that we drove over to the Ocean to have lunch on the water.

Annie is watching the people in water, they look cold!

Hope you have a had a great weekend, see you next time!

This and That

It's not very often that a project Adam and I start turns out really bad. I mean sure, some of them are not total winners, I just skip the blog entry on those ;-) But do they turn out awful? Not usually. But this last one was a real loser. I call an experience like this one a building block for marriage. Meaning you worked so hard together all day, sweat, tears, and such optimism. But, in the end it's so bad you have to laugh until your stomachs hurt.

This is what happened when Adam and I decided to refinish the piece of furniture that the TV was on in the front room. Why did we decide to refinish it? Well it was the first piece of furniture we bought together and we really weren't looking for quality. We were looking for something we could get fast to put our new huge TV on. We bought if off of El Camino in Redwood City. We loaded it into the back of my white X3 and it fit by barely an inch on all sides.  We hauled it up to our 3rd floor apartment ourselves b/c we weren't willing to pay 50 dollars deliver on a 300 dollar piece of furniture. It was a reddish color that screamed 1970. When Adam admitted to me 2 weeks ago he secretly hated it, that's all I needed to start a project. (Really he should know better) We were going to sand it down, repaint it an off white color, distress it, and be the next stars of the DIY channel.

Unfortunately it was bad. Like, lumpy, dull, uneven bad.  *And YES we sanded. We used like 30 cans of spray paint between the kilz and the actual color (this is not an exaggeration) and it was still flat. The paint we were using was glossy. *And yes we primed, 2 coats. When it was determined we could either go back to Lowes for the third time for a new supply and re sand it, or throw the towel in and get a new piece of furniture we both liked, we chose the latter. I know deep down my Dad thinks we are babies who quit ;-), but I think we just have a fancy new garage storage piece.

Anyhow, I am really happy with how the new piece looks.  It hides the TV, gives me a surface to put things on that are not fighting against the TV, and is not too wide for the space as I felt the other was.

I also took some pictures of the other things we have done around the house. I can promise you Adam will not be agreeing to any more project anytime soon. I however am itching to take on the powder room!

As requested by Erin ;) below is a picture of how the piece came out.  You are probably thinking, wow it doesnt look so bad.  But, you have to see it in person to appreciate how poorly the paint came out.  Also, the light color highlights the fact the drawers don't actually fit well in their holes.  All in all its bad.  I tried to take a close up for you all to enjoy our disaster.

 

The overall piece had the texture of fine grain sandpaper.  Really high class.

 

This is a picture of the top of the table.  This is right where Adam put his hand while it was wet as we were laughing about another part that looked awful.  It only got worse as the day went on. 

I also found these great new laundry baskets and put up the bulletin boards I made in the condo.  It only took me a year to get around to this.  Now Annie can hang her art from school.

I had gotten this stool a while back but recently finished off the shelves and the area with a lamp.  I am having a new love affair with soft lighting in a room.

I love the look of all the lights off, and just the lamp and the lights that are built in under cabinets on.  When everything is all clean and Annie is sleeping it reminds me of a quiet clean house growing up.

I also decided to ditch the floral arrangement that I had in the master bedroom in favor of this really great solid glass lamp I found.  It's a cleaner look and I really love the lamp.

I wanted to declutter the bathroom to the extent I could and make most things white, glass, or mirrored to emulate the spa feeling.  I love taking a long soak in the tub by candle light.  The lack of clutter really helps me clear my mind.

Lastly we finally got the last matching umbrella for the yard.  Love having a glass of wine out here after work!

Happy Homemaking!