Teddy Bear Picnic - 2 Years Old!

Jewell turned 2! Can you believe it? We've crammed a lot into her 2nd year of life. A new sister, a new house, living with grandparents.

Here's a look back at her 1st birthday. A little celebration with just a tiny cake. I throw a party for my kids every other year. I sure do love kids parties. So this year it was teddy bear picnic.

How sweet are these girls with their teddy bears?

And their little teddy bear ears?

Pair those with some good food, good crafts and good friends, and we had a great time!!!

Moving In!

Yesterday, we began our transition into our new house! At long last! We're so thrilled to be through with the majority of our projects. We have some loose ends to tie up, but for the most part we are done! This past week, I was able to actually chill out (or "chill off", as Katie Belle likes to say) with my kids. And I wasn't even tempted to google "shutter style windows" while reading to my kids. Hooray! A sliver of normalcy. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be mother of 4 kids in 6 years. But here I am. So if you have a "large family" like mine, you'll see why this is probably my favorite new room. (It's a toss up between this room and my laundry room.)

Since I love reading a house with a story, I'm gonna run down the deets. It was funny building a new house and trying to find as much old stuff as possible to make it look like a not-too-new-house. Here they go: Slate style tile, Del Mar Mediterranean 13x13 (a steal at $1.55/sq ft); Newel Post - a Craigslist find from a really old house, $60 ; Old hooks for the mudroom piece from The Cane Ery (tons of old hardware & junk); Bench built with wormy oak wood from our neighbor who planes his own wood. He'd been drying that wood for years and was about to toss it. (We made the treehouse loft from the wood too.); Paint Colors: Door is Wyeth Blue, Walls are Acadia White.