Joe's Birthday

Yesterday was Joe's 40th birthday! Can you believe he's 40? Craziness! Hannah and I decorated the house. She was very excited to use markers for the first time!

Joe came home a little early from work so while we were waiting for dinner, Hannah wanted him to open a present...



I let him choose whatever he wanted for dinner (the only caveat was that it had to be takeaway (I've just recently boycotted all cooking due to the remodel) so it was pizza for dinner and then cake and ice cream.

This weekend we'll continue the celebrations with dinner out (minus Hannah, plus some friends).

Humidity Detector

Who needs a weatherman when we have Hannah? All we need to know if rain is in our forecast is to look at her hair. She went down for a nap with straight hair and woke up with curly hair. Looks like rain is coming....and hopefully it will break this awful heat.

Construction - Week 21

Another week....a bit more work, but still clearly not as close as we thought to being finished! Wagner (one of our contractor's employees) has been here every day this week working which is quite an accomplishment. The frustrating part is that Eddie told me they were going to be working on the cabinets which is why I painted the wall green so fast. In actuality, he's been working on all of the trim in the rooms that haven't been painted yet. Only annoying because now I have to be a bit more careful while painting, something I don't particularly like to do.

Now for the pictures.

The one room I did get to paint before the trim went up is the "mud room" (actually the back entryway...does that make sense?). One of the things Joe took with him from Amsterdam....his love of orange (The Netherlands national color). Once the other walls and floor aren't so stark, it should warm up a bit!
A different angle. Here's our 1/2 bath, you can literally see the whole thing in this picture. And instead of "Where's Waldo?", we should be playing "Where's the toilet?" in our addition....it gets moved from place to place as the need arises. And that's the bathroom door hanging out against the post...

And here's the mess that is currently in our family room. Between Wagner's carpentry stuff and my painting stuff, quite a disaster. The sad part is that Wagner does a better job than me cleaning up each day when he's finished.

Portsmouth Children's Museum

With Nana in town, Hannah and I thought it would be nice to go to New Hampshire and spend the day with Nana. I planned the day around Hannah's naptime in the car and much to my dismay, she stayed awake the entire 1 1/2 hrs to Somersworth and then the 1/2 hr to Portsmouth. Nap, or lack thereof, aside, we had a great day. We went to the Children's Museum and had so much fun playing there. It was very much geared towards the 5 and under crowd and Hannah loved it.

Hannah finding out that each flower does something different.
Learning all about magnets.
Making a yummy drink at the Kid Cafe.


After the museum, we took a walk along the water and through the town.
Nana used to be a tour guide in this neighborhood and gave us some background information on some of the historic houses.

I thought for sure Hannah would fall asleep on the way back to Aunt Polly's house, but she never did. Her great Nana and Papa came over for pizza and cake with us and then we headed home around bed time....and she was asleep before we got on the highway.

Construction - Week 20

We have actual walls!!!! I never thought I'd get this excited over walls nor will I ever look at a wall the same way again. The guys plastered the walls on Saturday and by Monday I was priming the ceiling and walls. After a few mistakes, the painting is going much faster (once I started using the right paint and supplies - like I really know what I'm doing). I'm learning more than I ever wanted to know about priming and painting new walls. I have a mother's helper (well, actually 2 girls) that come over in the afternoon to play with Hannah while I paint.

Here are the standard pictures (no changes to the outside)


Green is the new color, yellow the old one...
And no the toilet will not be staying in the middle of our kitchen forever....soon it will be moved into the world's smallest 1/2 bath ever! : )

Visit with Nana, Aunt Polly, and Aunt Connie

Yesterday, Hannah's Nana, Aunt Connie, and Aunt Polly came for a visit.

Hannah and her Nana.

Aunt Polly playing with Hannah (and Charlie).

I'll post the house update tomorrow! And thank goodness, there will actually be an update! : )

Nana and Papa's 70th Anniversary

Sunday we celebrated Joe's Nana and Papa's 70th wedding anniversary at Portsmouth Country Club.

The happy couple!
Joe's mom, all of his aunts, and most of his cousins came to celebrate! It was a big family affair!

Construction - Week 19

Yes, I am still counting the weeks. It feels like forever! But we've been making progress!!! Joe finished both coats of priming and we have walls! Well, they still need to be plastered but that should be this week!

Here's the standard picture.

And the other side.


Perspective from the kitchen to the eat-in area and "mud room"New family room (you can see where the walls come together where the house used to end).
Looking from "mud room" into kitchen which is a disaster with toys, a toilet (of course), paint supplies, and things I'm still using to cook...

Little Miss Attitude!

Hannah is 2!!

Getting fancy! Here's her latest bit of knowledge...followed quickly by her new favorite word.

Hannah's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Hannah's 2nd Birthday Party at camp this year. While Hannah was taking a nap, Mikayla and Addie helped me decorate.
The birthday girl!
Blowing out her candle.Cupcakes are yummy!
Posing with Mikayla and Addie (well, actually just eating her cupcake while they pose around her)
Owen eating his cupcake!
Opening presents! She loved all of her presents and wanted each one opened completely.

We all had a nice time and it was a great way to spend our last few days at camp!

S'mores

A wonderful tradition at any camp! Roasting marshmallows for s'mores. Yummy!
Hannah just loves s'mores! (We have yet to find a dessert she doesn't like - quite like her mommy).

Old Orchard Beach

Another side trip...this time to Old Orchard Beach in Maine.
It was our first time (well, Hannah and mine) to a New England beach. And what a beach Joe chose! Not only was there the water (with very small waves that broke close to the sand), there was also an amusement park on the boardwalk (with fair type rides), a pier full of kitsch shops, and a street full of stands selling fried dough, pizza, ice cream, etc... We had such a great time!

Hannah was in the water before we even had a chance to put her bathing suit on.


Burying her in the sand. She thought it was great fun!

We took a break to walk around the amusement park and eat lunch. Hannah rode the carousel with her Daddy. Every time they came around, she was on a different horse. Joe said it was because she really wanted to try them all out. Hmmm...sounds to me like she has her Daddy wrapped around her finger.

We went back to the beach (since the sun had come out) for more "swimming." Hannah used the opportunity to run around and chase seagulls.
The only ''incident'' of the day happened when Hannah was lying on her tummy in the shallows of the water practicing her kicking (like she always does at the lake and at our local swimming pool). A wave came and went right up over her head. She was a bit shocked but quickly recovered (although that was the end of our water time).

On our way home, we stopped at a local farm for an ice cream cone (because the pizza and fried dough wasn't enough). It was funny because Hannah was napping in the car so Joe went to get our ice creams. When he came back she started to wake up and once she saw the ice cream (we were outside of the car and trying to hide them), there was no going back to sleep.


How can you say "no" to that face?