Life continues

We're still loving our house, even if we're hardly here!  We love our puppy, who's getting huge!  We love our chicks that are almost full-size hens.  Kira and Ben successfully completed Cross Country, and Kira has already played in the first two basketball games of this year.  She started the first one and not the second.  She was glad not to start, so I will be glad with her!  Since last year was her first year, she's still working out the kinks and getting used to things.  She's getting much better, just needs some more practice!  Ben is pretty awesome at making dinner, usually pasta or rice.  The after-school program and LIFE take up a lot of time, but it helps pay the bills.  So. Many. Bills.  Now our "new" van's brakes just had to be replaced, so that's $215 gone.  But, it brakes better, which is essential!  Marco is getting used to his amazing doghouse that I helped make, for free!  I love building for free!  Our chicken coop was $120 and Scott figured out how to make it and got it done!  We've been helping with my mom's backyard patio projects most Saturdays too!  I can't wait until it is done!  It is going to be awesome!  Our kids are growing up so fast!
Ben wears the same size shoes as me, Kira is a smidge below.  Danny is 32 pounds!  Today is his 9-month birthday and he's already long been on the move!  He's been cruising for at least a month!  If he's distracted he'll stand for a second.  Samuel wore underwear to church and made it the first hour and a half.  Then he said he had to go potty as he pottied.  Poor little guy!  Josh was wearing Cecilia's pants today.  They fit, except for length.  Cecilia can read "The Zany Zoo."  I mean, recite, not read, although she can read at least 4 words!  Leah is rocking her new glasses and is feeling so much better about everything!  Emma is loving Enrichment.  Kira is having to work hard to get her Gifted work done along with band, choir, and Basketball.  She's got a lot going on and is so talented!

Big girls' room

Kira and Emma picked mountains, with a chevron wall.  They had a picture in mind, but kept changing things.  So, I went with it and the cheap mistints we got.  I didn't want to spend that much on paint!

 It was originally a huge pink wall, like the boys' room.  First we taped off the "chevron" and the sky.  We painted all the blue.  Then we added some white to the blue and as we were sponging it on, Kira made it tie-dyed and loved it.  Good times.  

 Kira did the pink, with Emma following behind with purple and I blended it.

 Looking craggy, right?

 The random dark lines for the mountains.

 Changing up the mistint more blue.

 Then we added brown and blue to make it darker.  And a dark brown mistint for the trees at the bottom.

 Kira adding the sun.

 Behind the big dresser.

 Next to Emma's bed.

And next to Kira's bed,

Boys' room

I'll be honest, the boys' room came last, so I was a little crazy, but they're mostly happy.  Ben wants more landmarks and such.  I might add those later.  We'll see.

 They had this huge pink wall.  Gross!

 One can of black chalkboard paint down!

 And second can on!

 Josh helped paint the road, with lots of drops where they weren't supposed to be.

 So, sadly, I fired him.

 Cecilia's grass

 Yeah, not my best work.

 It looks cooler with stickers, right?

Even the chalkboard wall got stickers!

Girls' Forest Room

My two younger girls got stuck with the bathroom room.  I'm still not sure why there's no divider, but we're working on it.  One thing at a time!

 First we did the sky and bare trees.

 I let them help.

 Leah put in a tree house and a ladder on her tree!

 Kira did this corner tree.

 I added the second color to make it more realistic.

 My phone died, so I don't have interim pictures.

 I cut a huge sponge in half and cut out leaves that I used as stamps.  I did light green first, then dark green.  Every other tree got green glitter leaves too.

 The rainbow above the sink.

 The tree line above the bed.

Tada!

Kitchen update

Okay, so I've never had a house I could actually paint, so the first thing we did was change up the kitchen.  We're not done yet, so I'll have another update when it's done.  This is just the so far.

 Before, so brown

 We took out a ridiculously huge microwave box!

 Painting on the Citristrip

 I can't even say how much I LOVE this stuff!  It smells good, and it works great!

 We painted it on and let it sit for a little while.

 You can see the nasty coming off!

 We came back after a few hours (I worked in my classroom) and started scraping.

 You can already see the beautiful wood grain coming through!  I almost felt bad about painting it!

 I tried a spray paint on the counter.  I abhorred it, so we quickly scraped it off.  Phew!

 On to the paint!

 We painted the doors and the edges.

 We let it dry overnight.

 My husband came in and did the countertop magic from Rustoleum.  It's tan, so it works.

 The finished (for now) project.

I did some chalkboard paint on the door to the basement in here for chores and a menu.  I really need to get on that...