Guest Bath Update

My most recently completed project is the guest bathroom.  My plan was to get it finished before Russ and Mary Ann came to visit at the beginning of the month, but sadly, remodeling always takes longer than planned.  But it's done now, if anyone else wants to come visit!  

Before:

 After:

Before:

 

After:

When I pulled the old Hollywood-dressing-room-style light bar down, there was a hole about an inch wide and 9 inches long across the wall.  The old lightbar covered the hole, but the new one I had already bought wouldn't.  So I went to the Depot and asked them how to repair it.  I didn't take a before photo of that, but this is during the patch job:

And after:

You would never even know it was there.  It wasn't a hard fix by any means, but it was something that I had never done before.  The whole time I was working on fixing it, I kept thinking, "My dad would be so proud of me if he could see me right now. "  That thought is actually what inspired me to take these photos, so he could see what I did!  

So to recap, I patched the wall, painted the walls and baseboards, replaced the mirror (Adam actually put the new one up), replaced the light bar, put in new hardware (towel bar, towel ring, and toilet paper holder--Adam did all of that, too), refinished the cabinetry, and put new hardware on the cabinets.  The granite countertops were already there, which was one less project to do!  I really love the way it all turned out!  And as much as I would love to re-do my other bathrooms, too, I am getting a little burned out and am taking a house-project break for a few weeks! 

Easter

Our Easter was wonderful,  but my photo documentation of it was anything but.  On Saturday night we dyed eggs, and I did manage to get a few pictures of that.  

The Easter Bunny brought all the kids new jammies, and Annie put hers on on top of the pajamas she wore the night before.  I tried to get a picture of her, but she kept running away screaming, "No!"  So this was all I got, and it was the ONLY picture I took on Easter morning.  Mom fail.

My plan was to take pictures of all the kids in their church clothes right before we headed out to church.  Adam was long gone by that point, though, and since we have afternoon church, Annie had just woken up from her nap and wanted nothing to do with the camera, her brothers, or really anything besides her blankie.  So I got a couple quick shots of the boys, with the thought that we could get all three of them together after church.

But then I didn't get home from church until 4:30, and I had the elders AND the sisters coming over for dinner at 5:30.  The ham was supposed to cook for an hour and a half, I had fruit to cut, asparagus to steam, potatoes to bake (twice), rolls to get into the oven, turkey to trim, ribbon jello that still needed its final layer added, a table to set, and a baby who needed a diaper change.  In other words, the pictures were the last thing on my mind.  In fact, I didn't remember at all until they were in the bathtub.  Mom fail AGAIN.
But, even though I was a rotten photographer, we really did have a great day!  Adam was able to be home for quite a while in the morning--his first appointment wasn't until 10:30.  So the kids were able to hunt for eggs and we were able to have a nice breakfast together.  Church was great, and once the dinner was actually prepared, it was wonderful to have all four of our full-time missionaries in our home.  I LOVE Easter.  It really is one of my favorite days of the year.

A Day for McKay

Yesterday McKay turned five.  Five is a big birthday in my mind--sort of the graduating point from "little kid" to "big kid."  I cannot believe how quickly the years have gone!  We decided to have a birthday party for McKay on the morning of his actual birthday.  That's the nice thing about this age--most of his friends are in afternoon preschool or just home with Mom all day--so it's possible to have a morning party like that.  We invited friends from his primary class, and a set of triplets who are in primary and preschool with him.  He said he wanted a superhero-themed party, but wasn't picky about which superhero(s) he wanted ("I don't care what superhero it is, as long as it's a superhero or ninja party!")  We were able to find lots of spiderman party supplies, so we had our theme.  My dear friend, Alicia (whose son was invited) offered to "trade" kids for the morning and take Annie so I could focus solely on the bigger kids.  She's just amazing like that.  

We played "Stick Spidy on his web."  

The boys LOVED it.  The girls were not terribly interested.  In fact, two of the three opted to play with Annie's princess castle rather than play.  I was totally ok with that.  I understand it was not the most girl-friendly party ever.  

We also played "Spiderman Obstacle Course", in which the kids had to try to get through Spidy's "webs" without touching them.  Everyone loved it, girls included.

We played another game called "Don't Eat Spidy" which was super simple and turned out to be everyone's favorite of all.  Which goes to show that for a five-year-old birthday party, keeping it simple is really ok.

McKay opened presents from his friends.

And then we had pizza and Spiderman cupcakes.

I ADORE this boy!

 I thought overall it turned out to be a raging success!

McKay selected Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday dinner, so later that evening we went there as a family.  It was the third time in two days we had pizza for a meal.  You know what they say about too much of a good thing.  I can go a LONG time before I will be ready to have pizza again!

After dinner and playing, we came home and had more cupcakes.

And opened the presents from Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa.

Annie's face says it all--we were pretty much partied out by the end of the night.  

Lest you think it was the perfect day for our little man, the night ended on a rough note.  After some extreme defiance and disobedience, McKay lost all of his birthday presents.  The night ended with two little boys crying their eyes out--one because he was making bad choices and losing his stuff, and the other because he felt so bad that his brother was making bad choices and losing his stuff.  I'll be honest--I felt like the meanest mom ever for not letting McKay use any of his birthday presents today, but he was obedient today and earned everything back for tomorrow.  Whew.

McKay is great.  He is a party waiting to happen!  He loves to joke and have fun.  As the middle child, he has a great relationship with both of his siblings.  He and Ty are best friends and usually play super well together.  Since he and Annie are home together in the mornings, they have a really special relationship, too.  McKay has this crazy stubborn streak in him that can be SO difficult at times, but he has a tender heart and is a really great kid.  I love him so much.