Easter

This was our first Easter since moving to Redding, and I have to say it was pretty fun. We started the day like this:

Thank you Pinterest! 

Nolan and I managed to wake up before the kids so that we could hide Easter eggs in the back yard undetected. The boys were SO excited!

One in each hand and she was done. No interest in putting them in her bucket, she clung to those things for dear life!

"Lola! Look, there's one over here!" Yea, she didn't care so much.

Then it was off to my parent's house for a barbecue. My brother and sister in law were in town for the weekend, so we were able to have a rare get together with all of my siblings and nephews in one place at one time. Which led to the inevitable "let's get a picture of all the grand kids together in one shot!" picture. Honestly this never goes well. Eight kids (seven boys) ages six and under sitting still? No, I think not. Usually we end up with something like this:

1...2...3...4...5...6...7... Eight? Where's eight? See? We can't even get one shot of all of them together before one goes rogue. 

The rest of the day was a mix of chaotic relaxation, and of course plenty of candy :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Disclaimer

Hello all!
I just wanted to clear something up in case you are all being flooded with email notifications of new blog entries. I have been merging my old blog with our new one, and entering in some of the posts I wrote after Jax was born, while I was pregnant with Maddox, and so on. I back dated them, so don't feel obligated to read them, I'm just cleaning house and wanted everything in one place! Sorry!!

And this year's Spring Break project is....

Broyhill Brasilia!
Anyone remember this post? You'll be surprised to know that it has been almost a full year since I brought home the biggest score in the history of treasure hunting (okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration...), and it hasn't moved an inch from where we parked it in our garage. It is not like me to show such self restraint. Honestly I was terrified of the project. I have been so worried about screwing up something with the potential to be so amazing that it has just sat, patiently waiting for it's time with the sander. In the year since I rescued my Brasilia I have "practiced" on this:

And this:

And this:

Now that I have a few notches on my belt, I think I'm ready to face the Brasilia. This weekend I cleared out a space in the garage big enough for sanding, pulled out my trusty Mouse Sander, and went to work! I have made some progress, but there is still a long way to go. I am trying my hardest not to curse the person who painted this iconic piece of mid century amazingness green. This isn't just any green either, it's what can only be described as government issued, mental hospital green. Honestly, WHY?! Everyone reading this do me a solid, promise me that before you put brush to wood you do a quick google search on the piece you're painting. If it holds no value, by all means have at it! But if you happen to find that you are sitting on $900 credenza, for goodness sake, DROP THE BRUSH!

Sorry. I'll simmer down now. 

Here are a few photos of my progress:

Top and sides are done, but unfortunately someone was abnormally thorough and actually painted the insides of the cabinets, as well as the outside. See that shelf on the left hand side? Yeah, that's not removable... I'm super pleased to have to sand that while INSIDE the credenza.

Drawers are done, and the fronts of the doors are almost there. That green thing you see behind them is the hutch that sits on top of the buffet. It too has doors and non removable shelves to deal with. I'll get to that later.

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What makes this such a pain, but so amazing at the same time, is that the wave design is actually three dimensional. This is a view looking down on the "u" shape of the wave. I've been able to get most of the evil green paint off, but there are areas I can't get sandpaper into that I think I will have to strip with chemical stripper. Joy.

Can you hear them? They're singing. "We're free! We're free!!!"

It pays to be thrifty... and determined!

For years I have dreamt of wandering into a local thrift shop and stumbling onto the holy grail of mid century furniture- Broyhill Brasilia. Time after time I head straight for the furniture zones of thrift shops holding my breath, only to be let down. This Friday my persistence finally paid off!

On Friday I found this baby for $9. Yes, $9! I almost passed it by, but as I was leaving the room I saw that iconic wave design peaking out from the pile of headboards in the corner. Thank you Salvation Army!

It's a queen size headboard, which I have absolutely no use for. But for $9 I couldn't risk it falling into the hands of furniture painters!

On my way home I stopped by the Goodwill and picked up a couple of fabulous pieces of vintage Pyrex, because let's face it, I'm a Pyrex addict.

  

On Saturday my mom and went thrifting at some of our favorite ghetto hole in the wall shops. My Brasilia luck continued at one of our first stops, when I found this baby for $10!

I cannot believe that after years of hunting I came across TWO Brasilia pieces in two days. This makes me think that someone's estate got broken up and donated, which means there must be more out there, no?!

Goodbye Pathfinder, HELLO Tundra!

This weekend we said goodbye to our Pathfinder. It has served us well for the last six years, but as our family has grown it has become more and more like a traveling sardine can. While it was amazing to not have a car payment for a few years, our SUV was getting to the point of needing major repairs. We made the decision to put the money we would have spent on repairs into something new (to us).

Being stubbornly anti-minivan, we decided a few years ago that the Toyota Tundra would be our next vehicle. Amazingly, these things have FAR more room than our Pathfinder ever had. It's cavernous really. We're in love.

Jax is SIX!

It may seem like we just celebrated Lola's birthday a few weeks ago... and that is because we did. Jax and Lola's birthdays are six days apart. Six DAYS people. That means unless this momma strategically plans birthday parties, I don't even get a solid weeks rest between events.

Last year we celebrated Jax's birthday two days after I came home from the hospital with Lola. I waddled my freshly hacked up post c-section self into the kitchen and made a pretty fantastic five layer rainbow cake COVERED in sprinkles (thank you post c-section pain meds!). I forced Nolan to blow up 50 balloons to cover the floor in Jax's room so that when he woke up he knew it was a special day. I don't know what I was thinking. Except maybe that I didn't want to him to think for one second that his sister coming home from the hospital outweighed the importance of his 5th birthday. 

This year I lucked out. My brother and sister in law were coming for a visit at the end of March, so I managed to convince Jax that if we waited to have his party until the end of the month he could invite his cousins. Thankfully he was on board for that. That gave me three weeks to switch from pretty pink chic little girl party mode to loud crazy Star Wars party mode. I admit, I could have done better. I cut a lot of corner were I could have pulled off some really cute ideas. The cake was... not my best work. Frankly, I was too exhausted to care by the end of it. The important part is Jax and all of his buddies had a blast!

Here is what I came up with-

Sorry for the blurry shot!

We went easy with the food this year in anticipation for 20 six year olds! This momma just wasn't up for cooking THAT much food. Instead we went with pizza, a veggie platter, chips and dip, juice boxes, water bottles, cheese sticks, and fruit snacks. 

My cake was... um... 

Well let's just say that thanks to a rush trip to Walmart for some Star Wars toys it ended up looking remotely cute. Definitely NOT my best work though. Thankfully Jax didn't seem to mind!

Adorable goody box printables thanks to BaBaBuffBaby 

Light Saber popsicle cozies 

I also included glow in the dark stars, suckers, Star Wars stickers, and bouncy balls.

Upon arrival all of the kids got to put on a Jedi tunic and grab a light saber. 

The girls even got amazing Pricess Leia headbands thanks to my sister.

You all have to understand one thing- when I planned this party the weather was (and had been for quite some time) sunny and warm. Naturally the weekend of the party it poured rain, which left me with lot of little boys, armed with light sabers, cooped up in my house.

We opted to push all of the furniture to the side and let the boys run wild. What are birthday parties for, right?

Every little boy needs a Millennium Falcon pinata right?

Happy Birthday little dude!!!