Home Improvements

I've sufficiently recovered from my initial home makeover of painting the whole house. In fact, I've missed the busy-ness and satisfaction of the job. So I've made myself busy finishing off the smaller details of the house that I didn't get the first time around. But first let's appreciate the juxtaposition of my life. 

The first makeover started in the downstairs bathroom. Here's the before:

And here's the after! I am eventually going to add two thick, wooden floating shelves above the toilet, but until then let's appreciate the hours of Sharpie-ing I endured. 

That's right. The design is done in gold paint Sharpie. I'd like to thank my sponsors, level, top knot, and touch-up paintbrush for making this project possible. 

Next up: Laundry room! I was so excited when I saw this house had an actual laundry ROOM and not a laundry closet. Granted, the room could be bigger to be considered more of a room and less of a walk-in closet, but this was a tiny step up from our last in-the-basement-walls-weren't-even-finished laundry closet. I had great dreams to make it cute and a place that would maybe have the power to make me smile while completing my least favorite household chore.

YAY! I'm obsessed. It should be noted basically all of my ideas have come from Classy Clutter. Do you guys follow them? They're adorable and I love them and all of their ideas. 

This project started with pink walls. Because if there's a room I can paint pink, it's this one, and then I paint brushed black squares onto the white accent wall.

I realized I could create a faux thick shelf look pretty easily by putting a couple of pieces of wood over the shelf that was already there, so Jeff got that project done for me lickety split. Then a mere 2 hours at Hobby Lobby later and I officially had the "Babe Cave."

As much as I loved the "Babe Cave" sign and thought it was hilarious given my house of boys, and my ability to only be able to claim a small corner of the house as my own that I could guarantee wouldn't be overrun by boy-ness, I decided "Babe Cave" was a little...non progressive...and debatably offensive. So I replaced the babe cave laundry room dungeon sign to instead say "loads of fun" which I think portrays a better message to my flock of growing boys.

I've been on the hunt for a piano because Carson has shown some interest in music and I would love for all the boys to learn how to play. We were so excited when Jeff's brother said they had an extra one they would be willing to give us!

I had a friend who had painted a piano with chalk paint, and I couldn't shake that idea as soon as I saw the new addition. After many hours of YouTube and many dollars of chalk paint later, our piano had a little bit of a facelift!

My proudest moment with this piano was the whitening of its keys.

I had low hopes of being able to whiten the piano keys, but after a lot of internet research, I learned that a hair bleach product called Salon Care 40 and a lot of sunlight can actually whiten plastic. We ripped all the keys off the piano and gave them two full days of a sunlit bleach bath.

We went from this...

To this! I'm still not over it!

Next on the to-do list: Pantry and closets! Stay tuned! Oh sorry, I was talking to the piano. We just got it tuned and it was like $200. So I really need it to stay tuned. Okay bye. (I was talking to you this time. What are you still doing here? The post is over. Bye.)

Electro-Cuties

The best thing about Las Vegas is its endless supply of parks. This is one of our favorites. Lincoln is wearing his electricity soccer ball shirt which reminds me of my favorite thing he says right now. Whenever he is trying to say electrocute (which is more often than one would think), he says electro-cutie. I love it every time I hear it. 

Here's another electro-cutie minus the electro. 

And another one!

I'm not sure why my phone blurred Jeff out, but it's currently my favorite picture of us....or at least it was until we made things right with this picture.

My favorite hike!

Carson had been begging us for donuts, so one Sunday I mustered up the energy to make them. Fun for all! Until my floor was covered in flour. But right up until that moment it was buckets o' fun. 

Jonah's TV viewing positions are often endearing. 

Carson's school projects are also often endearing. I gave him a hard time because he wrote "loves dad" on his list of things about him but not "loves mom." 

I also particularly loved, "never sleepy." He knows himself well. Another cute thing about Carson is he LOVES art. He has an art class at school every week and for the first month of school he always made sure to wear his "creative" t-shirt for art day. 

Here's another hike! 

Look! Vegas has green things if you know where to look for them. 

 Please note all the sticks my boys are holding. They are weapons and/or tools. My boys could turn absolutely any wilderness item into a weapon or a tool and were constantly in caveman survival mode for the entire duration of our outdoor excursion. (Carson has a wrench.)

Gun. Obviously. 

Tool crafting station. 

That's a wrap! 

Wait a Second, School Started, and so Fourth

You don't even want to know how long it took me to come up with a somewhat comprehendible sentence that made a pun out of my kids' entrance into second and fourth grade. And I understand the weakness of my pun which is why I'm here pointing it out to you so you can appreciate the last hours' worth of my time stewing over it. 

Carson's our second grader! Woot, woot!

Let's spend this moment appreciating that I accidentally went with a full-blown mugshot vibe for our back to school pictures which really makes you feel like my kids are going places...like jail? 

Just kidding. The mug shotting was intentional. Not because I was prepping them for an orange jumpsuit but because I wanted to capture every angle of their first day of school cuteness!

Fourth grade ain't got nothin' on Eli!

And someone's schooling welcomed an excitable start. 

Lincoln is doing a joy school, a community preschool, and online preschool. I kept fearing none of these options would work out, so I kept making back-up plans, but everything worked out and Lincoln LOVES all of his schools, so we're making them all work right now. Turns out he's a lot less mischievous when his little brain is working on learning instead of on how to tear the house apart or pester his brothers. 

And Jonah is going to school. Just long enough to drop everybody off and then he's stuck home with me. But he still thinks he's one of the big boys!

School is off to a great start!

For the past few years I have wanted a first day of school dinner tradition. The only thing I could think of was this one time when I was growing up and my Grandma was watching me on the first day of school while my parents were gone on a trip. I came home from a long day to piles and piles of Pringles paired with a heaping pan of sloppy joes. My mom never bought Pringles and my Grandma had at least four different flavors lined up on the table for our enjoyment.

Much like my mother, I never buy Pringles, so I thought it would be a cute tradition to continue on with this fun memory of my Grandma and serve heaping piles of Pringles with a side of Sloppy Joes for our back to school dinner. The kids appproved!

With all the stress of back to school, the boys have gotten a little feisty. We stole an idea from the magazine, The Friend, where they shared a story of siblings who got to choose an activity out of a bucket to do together whenever they weren't getting along. We decided to give The Love Bucket a whirl. Nothing makes me happier than walking upstairs to screaming children, making no noise other than the subtle shaking of The Love Bucket to prepare the bickering boys for their mandatory love assignment. 

A Boy's Life

After our month-long hiatus from the heat, we made our way back to Vegas and were greeted by a few extra boys! Ben and Laura were going on a trip and I had volunteered to watch their boys as a fun finish to our summer. 

As I was planning how we would spend our week, I knew the secret to our success would be 1) keep them busy 2) keep them moving 3) keep them fed. And with that, Sarah Excell's Exclusive Summer Camp for Adventurous Boys was officially in session!

Day One involved showing our visitors our favorite Las Vegas hot spot...and it's our favorite spot because it's actually not hot. Up the mountain is 20 degrees cooler, so we hit up a hike!

They worked up an appetite. Time for make-it-yourself pizza night!

Day two was filled with a morning at the splash pad...

And an afternoon at the trampoline park. My daily goal was to get them more tired than me by 7:00 PM.

We even had a little extra time after dinner this day so we went rollerblading at a park.

Of course, if you give a boy some excercise, he's going to ask for a cup of milk. And chances are if he asks for a cup of milk, he's going to need a Rice Krispy Treat to go along with it.

You know that part of the movie A Bug's Life where the ants are all chanting to themselves, "They come, they eat, they leave, they come, they eat, they leave" as the grasshoppers begin to swarm them?

You could say that's my mothering mantra, "They come, they eat, they leave."

Day whatever-this-one-was started at a nature preserve center place where they have a whole bunch of rescued birds and a few other animals you can go keep company.

The llama was a favorite.

Oh, have I mentioned Jeff happened to go out of town this same week, so I had been running the show solo? We celebrated his return with a trip to the swimming pool!

We fit one last hike into the last morning before passing the torch off to David and Mary.  

I feel very privileged to be able to say that I have eaten lunch with The Blue Man Group. 

We all wore blue shirts accidentally and that happy coincidence was the best way to end a fun week of boy bonding!