Peach Pictures

While looking over my last post, I realized I forgot to add my peach picking pictures! So, here they are. The trees were so full of peaches that some of the branches were broken or in the process of breaking. It was really cool to see so many peaches in one place! We had several pounds in several minutes, and I had to cut the kids off from picking pretty quickly.

A Full and Fun Saturday!

Saturday morning we drove to Bluemont, Virginia, to join our cousins at Great Country Farms. We had so much fun picking blackberries and peaches! Madeline got stung by a bee in the peach orchard which wasn't so much fun, but the rest of the day was awesome!

The girls got their faces painted! Here is a total of twenty dollars worth of face painting. FYI, on a hot sweaty day, it doesn't stay this pretty for long, so it's a good thing we took these pictures right away. Think sweat rolling down cheeks, hands smearing, jewels unable to stick on sweaty faces, and the novelty wore off pretty quickly. All except for Eddy, her's lasted until bedtime, and she was bummed that it had to be washed off.

We ended the afternoon going up and down this slide several times. And by "we" I mean Uncle Blake and the kids. Definitely a lot of laughing and screaming over this event.

After the farm adventure, we had everyone over to our place for dinner. Kent grilled chicken and steak for tacos, and everyone pitched in with sides and desserts. There are so many leftovers, I don't think I'll have to cook for several days! Thanks everyone for coming over!

Friday!

Friday afternoon, we went over to Blake and Jen's to see how their new landscaping project was going and to visit with our cousins. They had an eight person crew putting in flower beds, sidewalks, and patios in the 100 degree heat! The ice cream truck must have know how hot the workers were because the truck pulled right into Kyla's driveway! It was a very exciting event for kids under eight. Talk about service! Grandma treated all the kids to ice cream! Thanks Grandma!

We topped off our night with pizza making at home. We had this tradition for awhile in LA, and I have decided it's time to bring it back. Yum, yum pizza night.

We Moved In!

As previously mentioned, we have started to settle into our new digs! We are very excited to have our own space and to be surrounded by our own things once again! The highlights of our home include: it is a three level townhome, and it has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The best thing about our new home is that it is a three minute bike ride to the metro, and Kent doesn't use his car at all during the week. That means no paying for parking, no gas money, no wear and tear on his car, and a little break on his car insurance which we need since this new home is costing us a pretty penny.

Some other high points include a neighborhood pool and excellent schools. Since the girls will go to work with me, we won't actually use the neighborhood school, but it still makes me feel good to know we have some excellent back-ups if things don't work out with my work, or if the girls decide they want to go to school with their neighborhood friends.

Luckily, the place came with window treatments that work for us, but unfortunately there is little overhead lighting, and we've had to purchase several lamps.

Ok, back to the layout of the house. The basement is basically our storage, the contents of our two sheds, Kent's studio space, and a full bath. The upstairs, we love! We have a large master bedroom and two closets! Two closets! The storage is fabulous. The girls each have their own rooms, which they love and spend hours upon hours in and kicking each other out of. :) They each have large closets with organizers, and I am constantly wondering how I fit all of their things into one little closet for the past four years????

Following are some pictures of our main level. The layout is awkward. Where we use to have a large kitchen and a large living room, we now have four smaller spaces. Thanks to a previous owner and his installment of a wall making the dining room into more of an office space, we have had to be creative with our furniture arrangement.

Starting with the kitchen (refer to first picture at the top of the post). It is on the back of the house. It is small. Not much cabinet or counter space, but I do love the island, and I love the amount of window and light it gets.

Here is the view of our new backyard from the kitchen window. Yes, it is quite large for a town home, but compared to our old yard, anything would be a disappointment. We loved our old back yard, the swing set, and patio area. :( Still, I don't have to walk the dog, and we enough space for a little backyard gathering of friends and family.

Next to the kitchen, is this room. It would make sense to use it as a dining room since it is so close to the kitchen, but with the fireplace, we wanted this to be our family room on cold winter evenings. We also love the afternoon and evening light this room gets around sunset.

This TV cabinet is against the wall that use to be an opening for the dining room. Since that area is harder to get to from the kitchen, we are using the main living room for our dining room. It's not perfect, but it is working for us.

Since the family room is too small for both our couch and love seat, our love seat hangs out in the living room which we're using for our dining room. :) Awkward, like I said.

Behind the area where we dine, is what was meant to be the dining room. But, we're currently using it as a playroom. I want to get some book and toy shelves for the area to spruce it up a bit, but for right now, we're using some make shift baskets and stacks of stuff to organize toys.

Once our upstairs is mostly put together, I'll take some pictures of those rooms too. They are pretty sparse at the moment since the girls' old furniture has been divided into two rooms. Sophie needs a dresser, both girls are waiting on their lamps to be delivered, and we're going to paint some pictures to frame for their walls.

There you have the details so far. More to come!

Back in Bumpass

We went for round two with Bumpass, Virginia for this year's family reunion and weekly vacation. We had such a blast last year that we decided to gather together and rent the same house for a second year in a row . . .

We scheduled our Lake Anna house rental several months ago. Little did we know, we would be vacationing during the hottest week of the year.

The first four days were comfortable and fun, and we were able to fish and swim and hang out together outside, but by Thursday, it was hot, hot, HOT and such a bummer. The lake temperature was 99.5 degress (Mom measured with a thermometer), not even a little refreshing, and outside was over 100 with high humidity. Outside was out of the question.

Without the great outdoors to entertain us, Jessie and I set up an arts and crafts table in the basement for some indoor fun for the kids. By Thursday afternoon, the air conditioning was having a hard time keeping the upstairs of the house under 80 degrees, and from there things went downhill. I'll just leave it at that.

Here are some pictures from before the big heat wave:

Maddie caught the biggest fish:

Sophie fishing:

Dads on the dock and kids in the water:

Sophie's first manicure, hot pink:

Finding a frog:

Playing in the sand:

A little boating:

Miniature golfing:

Arts and crafts:

On our way out of town, we stopped to feed the fish at Anna Point Marina as Uncle Josh had suggested. It was fun, but holy cow were we hot! When we got back to Northern Virginia, my car measured the temperature outside at 107, and I think I read the heat index at National Airport was over 120 that day.

The Colemans!

One of Madeline's best friends came for a quick visit! Sarah Jane and her family had about a week long layover in the DC area on their way from Los Angeles to England. We were so lucky to be able to spend two days and a night with them. The kids had fun riding the train and carousel at Burke Lake and "solving the mystery" as they like to play.

It's been a minute . . .

So much has been going since my last post, I am not sure where to begin. Let's see . . . well, we missed out on another property, but Kent found one on craigslist, and we are currently living in it! Yes, we found and place and moved in! We still have many boxes to unpack and lots of organizing to do, but we have a home. Hallelujah! The girls love having their own rooms, and I loooooove the effect separate rooms have had on their bedtime routines. I'll post more details about our digs later when we're more settled in.

Also, the girls and I spent a week in the midwest visiting family and finally getting a chance to relax. Relax, oh yeah, relaxing is good. We arrived at the Sioux Falls airport about an hour before Jessie, Emmet, and Sawyer did. We rented a van, piled in, and headed to Dad and Mel's for four fun days. We spent most of our time in their yard enjoying the grass, the gardens, the dogs, the treehouse, the tractor rides, and so much more.

The fireworks Dad set off for the kids were a special treat since even sparklers are illegal in Los Angeles. The kids weren't in love with the loud noises but were still able to enjoy the show from an indoor window.

I was finally able to take the girls to the Henning Farm in Adrian, Minnesota, where I spent so many summer days as a kid. It was great seeing it again, and although there have been some changes made to the farm since I was little, the best parts, the pigs, the open space, the four wheeler, and good times with family were exactly the same. Madeline said, "I wish I lived here," and I couldn't help but think, I wish I did, too. Maybe someday . . .

We spent an evening at the home of my cousin Lon where we met little Eva. She taught Sawyer some cool things like drinking like a dog from the dog bowl. Fun, fun!

We went to see the falls, as in Sioux Falls. Very pretty. It was raining, but that didn't stop us.

Finally, on the last day of our midwest trip, we stopped by to visit the Elias farm. They have 2500 pigs, lots of cows, and Madeline's second cousin Ryan showed us the lambs he's raising.

I have over 200 pictures and so much more to share about our trip. It was great to see so many aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins. At least I have caught up with my blogging a little. More to come later!