Before and After: Dining Area

First of all, far more important than a new place to eat is the fact that I have a new nephew! Holden Taylor Brayden was born last Thursday weeeeeee!! I can't wait to (take a solo trip to Colorado and) meet him! Here he is, in one of Alex's old outfits :)

Until he was born, I didn't know if I would have another niece or nephew and I'm SO glad it's a nephew because now I have the best reason there could be to start clearing out the basement of the boys' old stuff. Welcome to the world Holden! May a lifetime of hand-me-downs begin.

And now...our most newest completed project! As a refresher, you can click here to read the preview. We don't have a dining "room", it's more like an "area" in our big open living space and we really wanted to cozy it up. For the past year we've had our old dining set and rug, it just felt so blah. We took the plunge on a new table, new chairs, new rug...new everything really except chandelier, and it looks fantastic! 

Before...

After!

Going way back, this was the night we moved in...

And this is now:

YAY! Let's talk about the project! 

We began knowing that we were going to build a bench seat under the windows. It was a good space saver and gave us a guide for how big a table we needed (most days, we will just have three chairs on one side and the bench on the other- the armchairs on the ends will live in the basement). We also knew we wanted a pedestal or trestle table in order to avoid people hitting table legs as they slid in and out of the bench. 

Ultimately we chose this table. We waited over 2 months to get it and I am in love. Here's a better shot of it by itself:

This table was selected for one very important reason: it is distressed. And since it is already imperfect, I cared slightly less when THE BOYS TOOK THEIR TOY TOOLS AND PRACTICED SAWING ON THE EDGE.

Yep, I barely batted an eye. See? It blends right in. *grits teeth*

Let's go over something that makes me much happier and that is my token DIY project: the faux roman shades. 

The color is a green stripe, hard to tell. I followed this tutorial for the most part, but used hot glue for the seams. It was so simple! You basically cut your fabric, glue the sides, glue a loop at the top, and then glue the bottom to the loop to make one continuous piece.

(Jason intentionally made sure my wine glass was in that picture.)

Then, you put the whole thing up with tension rods (Target), adjust them as you go to get the drape how you want it. See how I have them in this picture? They are going across on the two little windows at the top.

Anyway, I unintentionally made things more complicated (don't I always?) by picking a fabric with stripes that needed to line up. So that was a big pain. In the end though I love the finished product.

Back to the actual building of everything, of course that goes to Jason. We special ordered the cabinets for the sides but he did the rest! The platforms, the faux walls on each end, the lights, the bench...

And then yesterday, paint paint paint. All the trim and windows were like a cream. If you recall the mudroom, you know I love me some nice white trim. See the difference?

Trust me it was big. After all the painting, Jason cleaned up all his tools, we vacuumed, put the cushions on...voila.

Left to do: hang artwork on the walls and fill the cabinets with all our glassware. I also can't wait to set the table for Thanksgiving, it is going to be beautiful!

General notes: we got pretty much everything from Pier 1 - the side chairs, arm chairs, cushions and rug. The bench cushion especially was a tough call for us because to have one custom made would have been $550+, including the cost of the fabric. Pier 1 made a great boxed cushion for $80, so we bought two and added a pillow to the ends to make up the extra inches we needed. I think it works! We also bought an extra side chair, we can technically seat 10 now with 4 on each side. 

One last before...

and after!

So what's next...fireplace, I'm looking at you!

Art Imitates Life

Ashton has turned into a little drawing machine. He made me a very nice birthday card that he claimed "only had the rainbow on it because he loved me". He likes to do representations of what he thinks our family looks like and lately has been recreating important scenes in his life. He gave me this last night.

"Mommy! Let me tell you what this is. This is me right here, see? In the middle. And then this is my dinner on the counter that I'm eating. Yes, that's my dinner and this, on my other side, is the cabinet with my Halloween candy in it. And I'm telling you that I am all done with my dinner and I really, REALLY want a special treat from the cabinet and here is you and you are not happy and you are saying no to the candy because I didn't eat any dinner and you spent a lot of time making it. You really are not happy, see Mommy? See? This is you."

To ease your understanding, here is the decoded version.

I mean I was a bit speechless at first. But then, it's based on a true story, so I put it on the fridge and started to make dinner, thinking I already knew how things were going to turn out.

See you in April (Bemoaning Daylight Saving or Savings or whatever!!)

Well, we've gone and done it. We've turned the clocks back which, as any mother will attest, spells doom. NOT ONLY do the playground trips and bike rides after work cease entirely, but all of a sudden we have newly minted "early risers". It's a vicious cycle because, at least with my kids, after it has been dark for 3 hours I am ready to put them to bed, even though it is barely 7:15. Kids only need so much sleep, so 6:00 am and BAM! Loud mouth breathing straight into your face by two expectant children wearing dinosaur pajamas. Long gone are the 8:30 pm - 7:30 am days. The darkness shifts everything earlier because there is flat out NOTHING TO DO. For months.

But we've had a few things going on in the three days since this catastrophe. Jason and I hit the Giants game on Sunday with Evan and Kaelyn and Chera and Eric. It was a bright sunny day (but I had a zillion layers on) and perfect for tailgating and football!

We left the boys with Grandma and Grandpa allllllll daaaaaaaaay (insert fireworks and cheering). Actually it was funny, on Sunday morning Jason and I were heading out, packing up the final car stuff and Alex came running over to me. I bent down because I thought he wanted a goodbye hug, but he pushed me and said "Go 'way Mommy!"  I was like geez, I'm going, I'm going! I guess the feeling was mutual ;) But the boys got to go to McDonald's for lunch, on the big carousel in Greenport, and spent time with their cousin Owen who they love. Bedtime songs with Grandma:

The Giants game turned out to be an important one (who knew?) and they won, so everyone was quite happy.

We rolled on home on Monday and Jason started up on the dining room built-ins...

Things are looking good. Our new dining room table got delivered today, FINALLY! I have only been waiting for ten weeks. Thanksgiving is around the corner and that is our deadline to get this all ship shape and magazine-like. [The (temporary) salvation with the time change is that you're distracted by all the holiday stuff coming up. I don't become suicidal until January.]

And then of course, yesterday was election day. I was at the polls at 7:03 am and it was hoppin'! I got my sticker, took an obligatory selfie, told Facebook I voted and went off to work.

Today I woke up to discover that we picked Donald Trump to be our next president. I really have nothing further to say about that except he will be in office the next time we change the clocks. There is a lot to survive between now and then (and of course, in the next 4 years overall). But, one season at a time.

Halloween 2016

[WARNING: Halloween is filed under "Major, MAJOR Holidays" in our house and as such, this post will be a monster.]

Madness to the Nth degree. That's what last night was. You want to know the funniest part? I don't think either kid ate a single piece of candy. It's like the treats were secondary; tearing through the neighborhood after dark with their friends whilst wearing a superhero costume is all it took. We're talking bona fide frenzy.

So here are the boys, right before they completely lost their minds.

Ashton struck that pose on his own, by the way. Maybe that's how Captain America sits leisurely, I wouldn't know.

But let's back up. The Halloween prep this year was ridiculous. A week ago we went to our neighbor's party. Then last Saturday was the Natick Spooktacular, Sunday was Brae Burn's kids' Halloween, Monday was Ashton's school parade and wait, don't forget the pumpkins! I'd like to say we went to a pumpkin patch and cut them off the vine like true pioneers, but the truth is they were $4.99 at BJ's and it was too good of a deal.

On Sunday afternoon Kayleigh and her mom (our neighbors) came over and we all got to work scooping out the guts and drawing our faces.

Done! The dress rehearsal:

From left to right: Kayleigh's puppy, Alex's smiley one, my nervous nelly and Ashton's dental nightmare.

Now, let's get to the costumes. It started about a month ago when I began encouraging cute complementary ideas. I thought it would be nice to give Alex a day in the sun and have him go as Batman and Ashton go as Robin. No? Santa and an elf? How about Mario and Luigi? Woody and Buzz Lightyear? I mean, for Pete's sake, what good are kids if you can't dress them up on Halloween. Ashton warmed to the idea of coupling up with Alex only if he could be a pumpkin and Alex could be the seeds. Uh, next.

For awhile after that, Ashton wanted to be some kind of dragon/ghost combination. Specifically, a half of each. Then, he thought he could go as a lightbulb. After that, a witch (I corrected him, "You mean warlock" and he said "No, I mean witch."). Finally, they settled on the most original costumes ever in the history of little boys on Halloween: superheroes. Captain America and Spiderman, to be specific.

As an aside, superhero worship amongst kids is a real thing. The thought is that children sometimes struggle with their vulnerability and lack of strength and superheroes, by contrast, are extraordinary and powerful, they get the bad guy and they always win. Especially with boys, it is so easy to see why they love dressing up as these characters. People need them to "save the day" and they get to pretend to do so, which can really give their confidence a boost. The boys smiled so big every time they put on their costumes. They raced around striking poses and flexing their "muscles":

The night broke down as follows. We had our new awesome friends come over (Ashton and Elijah are both 5 (they met at camp) and Alex and Crosby are both 2) for round 1.

They were off like rockets as soon as we blew the whistle (metaphorically speaking). My pictures all look like this.

Round 1 was a blur. Perhaps because I had (hot cider + bourbon) in my travel mug :D But honestly, the boys ran around at full throttle. Ashton took off his mask at one point and said, "I can't wear this anymore Mommy, there's too much water in it." (Um it was sweat.)

Around 7:15 pm we regrouped at the house, our friends said goodbye and I tried to serve the boys some semblance of dinner (BAHAHAHA, as if they could focus on anything at all). 7:45 pm? Round 2 baby! We hit a different corner of the neighborhood and the decorations were pretty impressive.

The new thing seems to be this little device:

It is FRIGGIN' CREEPY. For example, if your house is totally blacked out and you put this on one of your windows, people outside will see this:

But the figures are moving. Like you SWEAR they are real and trying to claw their way out. It's so lifelike that I was nervously laughing, wondering aloud if there weren't really paid actors in there. Right? Anyway, there are lots of other scenes too and they rotate (i.e. dancing skeletons, ALSO very realistic!). Can you tell I was thrown by this.

Anyway, a few random shots:

See Ashton's dazed look? Halloween wore him out good.

Same with Alex. On our way home from Round 2, he just stopped and laid down in the middle of someone's driveway. Really, he did.

Even Spiderman needs to rest sometimes. 

Back at the ranch, last ones :)

Captain America and Spiderman costumes, may you rest in peace.