Landscaping and gardening

It all started on June 1. We had 5 cubic yards of loam/soil/whatever delivered for various projects around the exterior of the house. And by delivered I mean dumped in the middle of the driveway. Here it is, in all its little-boy-magnet glory.

Yep, this was great to have. Just great. Trying to keep Ashton and Alex off this heap was so exhausting I not only gave up but handed them their shovels.

The hell with it.

So this dirt went everywhere, including (of course) in the house - my favorite place for it. But also in the yard. Jason and Ashton seeded the entire backyard and front lawn in about 6 hours. The owners before us had two big dogs whose pee really did a number on the grass. There were big bald spots. So Jason got that growing and it is thicker and greener than ever! I don't have a before and after on that yet. I better get one soon, we are a week into a mandatory water ban in Natick due to some sort of equipment failure - everything is fading fast despite Jason's illicit midnight watering.

Besides that, we I mean Jason has been swapping out the pre-existing red mulch with brown and edging certain areas with stone. A la:

Vs.

There's lot of little areas where we I mean Jason did that and it looks really nice.

We definitely wanted to start a garden too. The "before before before" of the area we picked, which is right next to our side door and underneath our dining area windows:

The "before before" after we yanked all that out.

Then just the regular before (or, first "after")?

And this is today. As you can see, we I mean Jason clearly overplanted.

It's like the Hunger Games in there and they haven't even hit their prime yet! Our first harvest was a banana pepper a couple of weeks ago.

Growing these things is a waste of space if you want my opinion. You can't eat them raw and they cost about $0.12 at the store if you actually need one to cook with. But there are about zero recipes in my repertoire that call for banana peppers so it's like, what's the point.  Anyway, Ashton proudly carried it around for a couple hours, it sat in the basket and then went soft and I threw it away.

And then this week, we got another useless pepper but also a zucchini! Look at Alex's technique:

Big ol' slice right through the middle ;) 

But the zucchini, ohhh the zucchini. Jason sauteed it up and the boys ate it all for dinner! They were so excited to have helped grow something that it was gobbled up with abandon and they asked for more!

At least, that's how the legend goes. I was at a haircut appointment and didn't actually see this "miracle" transpire. Jason claims it is 100% true: they had a completely different approach to this food that they cut out of the garden themselves and couldn't wait to try it. We'll see, then, what happens with the tomatoes. Tomatoes are currently on the black list, at least, store-bought ones. What will I do if the boys really do eat anything they can grow?? We are going to need a lot bigger garden!

Before and After: Completed Kitchen Renovation!

Well here we are everyone! A little over 3 months since kitchen demo day and our kitchen is finally complete! This has been my first major renovation and even on the scale of things, this wasn't that major. We were fully functional in the new space after just 2 weeks because we did not change any walls or plumbing; keeping the footprint of the original kitchen definitely helped in terms of budget and timeline.

So as not to repeat myself, here is the post where I outline why we did this project to begin with. The kitchen wasn't our taste and we were going to be dealing with an appliance issue right quick. Also, one of the major aesthetic things I was looking for was to have the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. Turns out, our floors and our ceiling are nearly 2" off from corner to corner (read: VERY uneven) so our contractor had an insane time trying to get everything level (it's not 100% perfect, but totally fine). The fact that he finished it in 2 weeks is, frankly, unheard of.

Why, then, did this post take so long? Well, the backsplash tile had an 8-10 week lead time (of course it did! I have a knack for picking the most inconvenient things). When it finally came, the installer told us we actually needed an additional 5 square feet before he would start. We rushed the order, but that was another 3-4 weeks! It finally went in last weekend. Also, there was a lot of additional custom trim work that needed to be done (if anyone lands here because they search the internet for Home Depot/Martha Stewart purestyle cabinets, contact me before using them! I have many-o-pieces of advice on this product).

Overall, it's done and I LOVE IT! It's clean, fresh and (I hope) classic. The gray/white scheme is very in right now.  Let's get to the before and afters, shall we? :)

Before 

After

Before

After 

Before- side desk area

After- toy storage!

Before- island

After

Before

After

Before

After

The whole room

 (Notice the ridiculous contraption on the bottom of the stool - it's called a KaBoost and it's because a certain 2 year old, I won't name names, refuses to sit in a clip-on high chair or any sort of booster- chair only!)

And lastly just a few of my beloved backsplash tile that was so worth the wait!

The pictures don't even do it justice. The flowers are raised so the relief on the tile reflects the light ever so slightly, and the glossy blue is just soooo bee-yoooooo-tee-ful!

This tile is easily my favorite part of this whole thing. Second is the countertops and third is my pendant lights.

We went with Jenn-Air for appliances, the combo oven/convection-microwave oven is awesome. Two weeks ago, I had made a chicken/broccoli/pasta thing for the boys. Everything in it was cooked, so I took it out of the fridge around 4:30 pm and slid it in the oven. I said, "Hey Oven, in about an hour at 5:45 pm, start up. First preheat to 375, then cook for 30 minutes, and then just keep it warm at 200 until we get back." We left the house, went swimming at WTB, came home at 6:30 pm and dinner was READY! Boy did I feel like I had life under control in that moment. (My biggest challenge is finding time to make dinner - I have limited time after work and it's a struggle to balance it between playing/scootering/going to the beach/etc with Ashton and Alex but then having time left over to cook a real dinner for them that takes at least 30 minutes). It's been a little funny getting used to our induction cooktop as well but I love how easily it wipes clean and how fast it boils water! We don't have a gas line on our street so it was basically electric or induction.

I think I mentioned at some point our cabinets were Martha Stewart- Ox Hill style in Picket Fence. Oh and I chose this line of cabinet hardware, blue counter stools from Target...overall there was a lot to pick! Anyone that has been through a renovation will tell you it is very stressful, for a whole lot of reasons. Looking at the after pictures, it was so worth all of it!

Now, what's next...?

Recent Days (Independence and Birth)

My poor little blog has been all alone lately! We've been out and about having crazy wild times and I am now back to share all the juicy details! (Just kidding, there's really nothing too out of the ordinary coming up ha ha.)

We packed up and took a little sojourn to Long Island for 4th of July weekend. Our official summer vacation there will be the last week in July, but we were ready for a change of scenery and some beach time. We spent a 3 days there with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris and Aunt Lizzie and Cousin Owen and it mostly looked like this.

We came back early on Monday July 4th because Jason had to work. He had to work BECAUSE I surprised him with a trip to Block Island for his 39th birthday (July 6). We actually went down on July 5 and stayed overnight. BY OURSELVES. I was willing to overlook missing the fireworks due to the promise of a kid-free 36 hours beginning the next day. Jen came at 8 am on Tuesday morning off we went.

How was it? The best word I can think of to describe it is: light. We were so relaxed! For starters, we only packed what we could fit in the back of our beach chairs (plus a very full cooler with lots of adult drinks :) ). This was my pile:

That's it! That's all I had to pack! To give you an idea of what I didn't have to pack: kids' bathing suits, rash guards, shorts, tee shirts, pajamas, sweatshirts, shoes, diapers (overnight, regular and swim), wipes, towels, toothbrushes, monitors, lotion, hats, sunscreen, toys, snacks, sippy cups, nightlights, booster seat, pillows, stuffed puppies and the list goes ON.

It was a very rainy morning and I was a little distressed about the weather, I'm not going to lie.

(Coffee toast: we were freeeeeee!)

We got to the ferry around 11:30 am and the minute we walked off the boat and onto BI, the clouds parted and the sun came out.

And then we stayed at the beach ALL DAY. Like, until 7 pm!! We did switch beaches in the middle of the afternoon but just because we could! I didn't have to worry about any kids being hungry, thirsty, tired, hot, or sandy. No one needed my assistance to dig a hole and I didn't have to play lifeguard. It was glorious. Dinner and drinks were in front of the most beautiful sunset outside at the Surf Hotel, and then we were the first people back on the beach at 8 am the next morning. Our ferry home was at 12 pm after a solid 24 hour getaway. It was sunny and perfect the whole time :)

If it looks like we drank all day, that's true. We did :D But in a leisurely way of course. And at times, gazing out at the scene, I did feel a little guilty because there were happy laughing tanned kids everywhere frolicking on the beach and we knew the boys would have had a great time. OH WELL! We had an even greater time without them ;) 

Case in point: we got home that afternoon and celebrated Jason's birthday dinner outside (Alex's favorite-upon-favorite thing to do lately is eat outside. I think it's because it's his longest sentence that we understand. He'll say "I wan ea ot dog ow-tide mommy! I wan ea ow-tide!" [Translation: "I want eat hot dog outside! I want eat outside!" - as you know, he's in speech therapy haha.]

ANYWAY, we had dinner and dessert outside and the boys pitched a FIT when they saw Jason's candles (there were 3). Jason divvied them up so everyone could have one.

And then we sang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f04V_lYBxjM
Can you believe Ashton? That attitude is exactly why we went to BI without him ;)