Rain Gutter Bookshelves

I've been wanting to make these bookshelves for a while now.  I saw a tutorial here, but of course Chris didn't want to follow someone else's instructions.  It ended up being really easy.  We just cut two ten foot vinyl gutters in half, put end caps on, and screwed them right onto the wall.  The whole project cost less than $20 and was done in an hour!  Now all of the books are visible and easily accessible. Yay for reading!



David seemed to like them....



Well at least for a little while.....

Free Bathroom Makeover

Okay, makeover is probably too strong of a word :)   We acquired this new (to us) mirror from grandma and grandpa Reintjes' stash of pre-renovation treasures.  Don't mind our sad little shelves, they came with the house and as you can see we are in no place to get rid of extra counter space.  I think everyone can agree though that this mirror is a step up from the five dollar Target mirror we had up before....

Before



After

 A few weeks ago I found this....let's call it a plant stand....I'm not sure what exactly it is but it definitely looked like it spent some time outside.  It was in a pile of free garage sale rejects (I love walking on Sundays!).  I wasn't sure what to do with it but I finally decided to clean it up and hang it in our bathroom.  Since David began potty training we've had to move everything away from the potty because of some *aiming* issues :)  Now everything is up high and out of the way!

It definitely spent some time outside....



Before





After


Our little white cabinet was also a freebie--Chris pulled it out of the dumpster and brought it home to our very first apartment.  Since we have no storage in our bathroom, all of our toiletries live here.  Impressive I know :) 

Summer Vacation, Coming Home

I think this pretty much sums up our trip home.....

We decided to abort our efforts to get home on Friday night (after a few straight hours of the above) and we detoured to Kate's who graciously took us in for the night even though she already had company!  Henry still gives me the stink eye whenever I try to strap him into his carseat--now he thinks any trip in the car might turn out to last for upwards of ten hours.....It's a good thing we didn't make it home when we had originally planned though because unbeknownst to us we were heading straight into a thunderstorm/tornado.  When we finally did arrive home the next morning we found trees down everywhere, power outages all over town and a warning not to put any "unnecessary" water down the drains because the wastewater treatment plant was out of commission, yikes! 

Summer Vacation, Gratuitous Henry Cuteness

Get ready for the cuteness....

Summer Vacation, A Day at the Beach

We couldn't go down to NC without a trip to the beach!  David was having a ball and Henry.....well, Henry thought it was just all right :)

This pretty much sums up David's thoughts on being at the beach!

Henry making a break for the water...

Henry did not think the water was as fun as he thought it would be......

David with the fish he and Daddy caught.....



Henry, tired from all of the excitement....or could it be the ridiculous heat?



David wasn't tired though......

Summer Vacation, A Day at the Park

We have two trips planned for this summer and the first was a trip down to NC.  We spent about a week and a half down in the south--where we belong :)  We spent most of our time playing outside--here are some highlights from a couple of our park trips! 



Having a picnic--I love Henry trying to get into the banana in the background!



David after discovering a new passion for kite flying.

It's good to have a brother!

We spent one morning playing bubbles at the park.  We literally had every child at the park in a crowd around Chris, hereby known as the Bubble Master, running around trying to pop his monstrous creations!

David hasn't quite gotten the hang of blowing bubbles quite as large as the Bubble Master's



Attempting to pop the bubbles with his pine cone :)



Fun with Watercolors

I was at the craft store buying some new watercolor supplies for myself and I thought it would be fun to get some kid's watercolors for David.  He really loved it--well of course he did....water + paint = a giant wet mess, which happens to be his favorite kind! 

 Off to a good start....we practiced our watercoloring mantra: "water, paint, paper," "water, paint, paper".....

 Of course Spencer the train had to help out.....

David's finished masterpiece.  This photo doesn't really do it justice!  I gave him my good watercolor paper to work with, which was a good call because even the good paper was no match for the amount of water that got flung onto this piece!  You can see the big water spot in the middle where I taught him about blotting up the excess.  It actually looked pretty nice about ten minutes before he stopped painting--maybe our next lesson will be on knowing when a picture is complete and when it needs more paint.........I think I may still frame it up somewhere though :) 

Nature Explorers

We've been spending a lot of time outside lately and the boys have been loving it!  Our mission is to get to all the local parks and trails and really do some exploring this summer.  We're off to a fine start!

 King of the rock hill.....well, Henry wasn't exactly fighting him for top position.....

Giving up at the last stretch of our nature hike.....I turned around and heard, "hold me mommy!"  You haven't lived until you've been on a nature hike pushing one child up a hill in a stroller while carrying the other one on your shoulders..... 

Periscope down......

 My men.....

 Flowers for mommy, so sweet....

or maybe not......

Henry is One!

We had a BBQ with some friends yesterday to celebrate Henry's first birthday.  I think he enjoyed himself--well at least he enjoyed the cake!

David and I made a chocolate cake from scratch for Henry in the morning.  I severely underestimated the added mess involved in baking with a toddler when you throw cocoa powder into the mix.  At least I had the foresight to tie on the apron before we started......

 David *helping* Henry blow out his candle....

 David licking the candle while I'm not looking--and by licking I mean biting off the end--delicious....

 or maybe not so delicious......

 All my boys enjoying the cake.....

 Henry really enjoying his cake....

 Henry got two books from our friends and we got him this set of blocks with primary colored water in them--they were a hit!  I love that when you hold two up together you can see the new color that forms (red + yellow = orange, etc!)--I'm sure that's Henry's favorite part too :) 

And of course Mr. Leroy was on hand to provide the musical entertainment!