Selfie awesomeness

Oh, and on the way out from Fort Fun, I made all my guys stop and take a selfie with me (using Nathan's longer arm). (It's a testament to how great a day it was that they all cooperated, lol.) This is the one we eventually ended up with:

Not bad. But this was the selfie attempt just before that:

Look at Asher's face! ;) Apparently, looking into the sun makes him SUPER happy, lol. (He's making this exact face in all of the tries from this position, so it wasn't just a single fluke...I defy you to not smile when you see that!)

Awesome.

Celebrating spring

Once upon a time, for years, we celebrated spring by feeding geese. 

Last Tuesday, once our local schools were back in session and not on spring break, we celebrated our own spring break with a day of fun. :) Got day passes up at Fort Fun and spent the day going back and forth between their many offerings...

There was the shooting gallery...

...and miniature golf (Asher was in a weirdly happy mood, lol...I have a whole series of shots like this with him literally dancing through the course)...

...and go-karts. (The younger two rode with Nathan and I the first couple times, with Asher managing one round on his own with the help of a cushion thing. Also, btw, Noah has long legs. His were all bent whilst I was extending mine fully to try to push the gas pedal...I think maybe I needed one of those cushions, too, lol.)

We also went down the giant slide (which did not go over as well with Micah...this was the only time we actually got him down it, the other times he came back down the steps)...

...and spent some time in the arcade. (Yes, we spent a good bit of time at this one...and, yes, we cheated and had three people manning it, so as to make sure to hit all the sharks, lol. We earned enough tickets altogether with the arcade tokens included on our day passes to redeem a bunch of candy on our way out, lol.)

We also played laser tag (a first for me, who, unsurprisingly came in last among us), which was entertaining.

All in all, we just had a great day being together....more expensive than feeding geese, lol, but memorable nonetheless. ;)

Yay, spring! (We'll just ignore the fact that the forecast says there may be snow later this week, shall we?)

Bathroom

And here's the bathroom...

We didn't change as much in the bathroom area but are happy with the results. The flooring extended here, and we painted the walls from green to beige (technically, it's "polished pearl" but it's still beige, lol). We also changed out the towel bars and curtains and replaced the light fixture. Some day, we'll change out the faucets (and maybe the sinks) for bronze to match. :) 

And here are those curtains I've mentioned before...the bathroom window one (trimmed down from a longer sheer on clearance) and the teal-ish one separating the bathroom from the bedroom area.

We still have more to do in both the bathroom and the bedroom in the way of decorating (want to get a plant and some wall things (maybe a clock and some plaques/frames)) but are pretty happy at the moment. I appreciate, too, how emptying out a room and then putting it back together creates the opportunity to see what you really use and need...purging feels good.

Whew. :)

Before & after (finally)

Okay. I know these are late. Here are our before and after pictures from our bedroom project. (Sorry it took so long...technical difficulties as I'm trying to learn a new photo system and such...which I still haven't figured out; thus there's no formatting or anything fancy here, lol.)

 

One of our favorite things about our new room is this reading area and fabulous orange chair. :) The ottoman serves as a little bench when it's not being used as an ottoman. We think the orange goes quite nicely with the frosted jade paint on the walls. (I love that the color looks different depending on the light and time of day...varying from more green to more blue.)

We moved that dresser and are trying to find a new home for the tv. We're planning to get a flat screen tv to put atop that new corner unit, but are in no hurry. (Incidentally, in case you were wondering, between this dresser and the one in the first picture, we only actually were using two of the drawers. We rearranged things in the closet to accommodate that stuff so don't need any drawers in the bedroom.) (If I get really ambitious, I may actually take the drapes down and iron them one day. Probably not, though, lol.)

Here's a picture looking in from the doorway. Don't you love the new light fixture and floors and curtains and all?! The flooring is bamboo and, so far, is lovely.

And here's the view from the attached bathroom. Micah says our bedroom looks "royal" and I'm inclined to agree. :) The bed is a metal frame and a long story, but we love it. (The throw pillows are currently living mostly on the corner unit, btw. They're also nice on the orange chair.)

That teal-ish drape in the forefront is in the bathroom...more on that in a minute... ;)

While We're Waiting...

...for me to finish going through my photos so that I can post pictures of our bedroom (which is now almost completely DONE!), I thought I'd list some of the things I learned in the process...

• No matter how many trash receptacles I set out throughout the room, Nathan will drop his garbage on the ground for later. ;)
• Pillowcases are ridiculously expensive. (We have two sets of pillows, so I thought I'd just buy an extra set to match the sheet set that I'd already picked up. Just two standard pillowcases cost half as much as the entire set. Yeah. I couldn't handle that but fortunately finally found some that coordinated well enough at TJ Maxx for a fraction of the cost.)
• Home projects are best done when there's no snow...so that we can park in the driveway and use the garage for extra space and for any woodworking issues. (Yay for having a gargage and for the snow holding off!)
• If you're looking for bathroom curtains, be aware that curtains to fit bathroom windows are stupidly hard to find. I looked in soooooo many places and couldn't find any that weren't either too long or too short. (Yes, yes. I fully recognize that I could just hem the curtains. My sewing machine and I aren't on good terms and sheer material is difficult to sew anyhow.) In the end, I found a clearance curtain at Target that, given the design, I was able to simply cut below a fold at just the right length. Whew. 
• Also, if you're at Bed Bath & Beyond looking for above-mentioned bathroom curtains, the sales people likely won't know that there are actually bathroom curtains in the bathroom section, not the window coverings section. I know, I asked...and the sales person (who was actually quite knowledgeable and helpful) couldn't find anything. I happened to chance upon the bathroom curtains (which are still slightly too long for my window but considerably better than anything else I found) a week or so after I solved my own problem. Just so you know...
• Tackling a project like this just before spring break and spring cleaning is good timing. We took a big load of stuff to Goodwill yesterday, have another load for Habitat, already gave away a few pieces and have a few pieces to list on Craigslist. Feels great!
• It sucks to paint bathrooms. Enough said.
• It's nice to have both Home Depot and Lowe's (and Ace Hardware) so close. We discovered that, though they stock mostly the same things, each has its strengths. (For us, Home Depot was our go-to for paint and electrical stuff but Lowe's ended up providing the light and bathroom fixtures that we preferred.)
• Always double check that power is "off"...even after flipping the circuit breaker. Ours is labeled incorrectly, fyi. (Fortunately, Nathan remembered this from a previous encounter with our breaker box.)

Whew. :) Hang tight now while I edit photos...