Zalen

I know there are two posts in a row of Zalen but I wanted to post some of him out of the hospital blanket. Even though Zalen is just 4 days old you can already see some personality showing though.

More Zalen Pictures

Zalen is here!

Zalen is here! 

Born at 3:56 pm on 9/20/12. 
20.5 inches, 8 lbs 7.8 ounces

project #2

Here's that cabinet inside and being loved.

 Yesterday we started our second furniture project: refinishing the top of our kitchen table.

 The plan was to sand it and paint it the same green that's inside the TV cabinet, but after we sanded it, I had another idea.  We had just watched a show on HGTV were they were making a table and they burned the top...so that's just what we did.

 This is right after we finished burning.

And this is right after we finished the last coat of poly last night.  We will bring it in tonight after the kids go to bed.  We love the way it turned out.

Kids' schedules

So for those of you who are in the area and would like to attend, here are the activities Lexi and Merrit have going on through the end of the year. I will try to post the elementary concerts as I get more info for them. Lexi's Choir Schedule Messiah Concert - Dec. 7 at Central Nazarene Church (I'll have to get the address later) at 7 p.m. Holiday Concert - Dec. 13 at the high school auditorium at 8 p.m. Holiday Collage Concert - Dec. 19 or 20 at the high school auditorium at 6 and 8 p.m. each night. You have to purchase tickets for these concerts so you need to let me know in advance if you would like to go and when so I can get the tickets for you. These concerts are really great. I would highly recommend going. Merrit's Cross Country Schedule 9/11 at Carmen-Ainsworth middle school at 4:15 pm 9/15 at Springfiled Oaks Golf Course (12450 Andersonville Rd. in Davisburg) at 8 am 9/18 at HOME at 4:15 pm 9/22 at Linden Community Schools Complex at 8:50 am 9/25 at Grand Blanc East middle school at 4:15 pm 9/28 at EA Cummings Center in Mt. Morris (where the county fair is held) at 4 pm 10/2 at Davison Regional Park at 4:15 pm 10/9 at HOME at 4:30 pm 10/13 at Huron Meadows Metropark (8765 Hammel Rd. in Brighton) at 11 am 10/16 at Silver Lake Park in Fenton at 4:15 pm The kids would love to see you come. Hope you can.

Fun in Philly

It's 4:30am and I can't sleep...again.  This pregnancy hasn't been hard physically, but the sleeping situation has been grim.  So...a post instead!

We decided we needed a family vacation several weeks ago, but for various reasons couldn't pin down exactly where to go (Richmond? Baltimore? Philadelphia? The beach?) or what to do (Aquarium? Children's Museum? Sesame Place? Camp?), until right before we left.  Literally.  Like the night before.  So, what happened was an ill-planned, though rather enjoyable, little trip to Philadelphia, PA. 

**PICTURE ALERT!  LOTS OF PICTURES TO FOLLOW!**

We started out early Saturday morning, and found Macie in the backseat looking like THIS.  What fun!

#1. Please Touch Children's Museum

Started our adventure at the Please Touch Children's Museum.  Pretty cool museum, although Jason and I agreed COSI still beat it.

Carson is OBSESSED with cars.  He found every single one in the entire building.  Even this itty-bitty, out-of-the-way, toy car on display.  

 My, what a handsome grocer they have in this store!

To scale replica of Statue of Liberty torch made completely of old toys!  Cool!

#2. Liberty Bell and Independence Hall

After church on Sunday, we ventured out to downtown Philly to see Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  Well, we didn't see much.  We DID see this guy, said his name was John, and that he was 50 years old in 1793. 

 Since it was Sunday, we only wanted to do free things.  Well, it started to rain and the line into Liberty Bell wound all the way outside and around the building, but Jason caught a glimpse through a window, and now you've seen it, too!

 Independence Hall is where The Declaration of Independence was signed.  Again, long lines to go inside.  So, here are outside, across the street, in a drizzling rain.

 

We did get to go into Old City Hall, where the first Supreme Court met.  That was pretty neat, but we didn't take any pictures.  Oh well. Haha.

#3. Surprise Fireworks

There was a park next to our hotel that night, and we had a great view of some surprise Labor Day fireworks! 

#4. The Crayola Experience in Easton, PA

Color-on Eraseable Car...Carson's favorite!

It was really just a fun place for Crayola to push all their products.  Didn't work on us, we didn't buy anything!  This room was awesome, though.  The Drawing in the Dark room.  The girls loved it.  Addie drew that cat.

Trying to keep Carson distracted with my phone, it had been a long day for him, and there wasn't much he could do there. 

Macie making wax art in the melted crayon room. 

 Our family in front of the largest crayon in the world!  Called Big Blue, it is 15 feet long, and weighs 1500 pounds!



 #5. Dairy Queen!

The girls asked to bring their piggy banks along so they could buy something on our trip.  Well, everywhere we went, everything was too expensive, so we decided to stop at Dairy Queen on the way home so they could buy ice cream--with sprinkles, of course!  They were so excited to hand their change to the ice cream lady!

All in all, a very successful short road trip.  It was SO NICE to get out of our basement for a few days, spend some time together as a family, swim in the hotel pools, eat junk, and have fun doing new things.  Yay!

the cabinet

 Before we moved we sold our tv stand for a few reasons-we didn't like it, we didn't want to move it, and I wanted a furniture project.  My friend Melissa (Allen) Franson has her own furniture refinishing and building business that is small but she makes pretty good money and I was hoping to follow in her footsteps in a couple of years when the kids are older and we are making some money.  Anyway, I looked and looked on craigslist for days and found a gem.  

The guy that posted this said that his great grandfather built this for his great grandmother as a jelly cupboard.   I love the way it looks, it is a perfect height and I love the history.

 Three weeks ago we started taking her apart (yes she has become like a family member ;) for a date night.  We thought it would be a rather easy process, but it turned out to be a nightmare.

In stripping the paint we found a green layer of paint that was like elastic sludge...it was horrible and super hard to remove. But underneath on the side and on the inside of one of the doors we found writing that suggests that this was made out of an old crate-just whatever the guy had on hand.  This says Wet Penna-we know that Penna can be an abbreviation for Pennsylvania, but can't find anything for the wet part.  And the inside of the door says Bank Bros Allentown, PA...we think it's an old grocery store, I found vague references to it online but nothing concrete.

We both worker really hard....

And after stripping, sanding, 2 coats of poly, and 2 coats of green paint inside, we rehung the doors and put the hardware on last night.

 I just love love love how it turned out.  The poly has to cure for 72 before use so we can't bring it back inside until tomorrow night and I am just itching to get it in here (and get our garage back) so I can use it and look at it all day.

I have definitely caught the furniture refinishing bug...it was so fun to turn this piece into exactly what I wanted.  Up next: our kitchen table.  Can't wait!