birthday

Five years ago today a little brown skinned baby boy was born in a hospital in Galveston county. He would go to Dallas to live with his maternal grandmother for five months until he was placed into foster care. That same month, a white couple not too far from there, had been trying to conceive a child since the springtime. How could they have ever known in their growing fear and heartache that their first born son had entered this world? They certainly didn't know that 15 months and 3 weeks would pass before he would come home. But the moment he became their child, time did not make any difference.

How did that tiny baby grow so fast into such a big boy?

Thomas/Chuck E. Cheese

So Isaac turns 5 years old tomorrow. Believe it or not we have never had our children's b-day party at whom I like to refer to as "Mickey's cousin" when Vivi screams "no Chuck E!!" at the top of her lungs as soon as we enter. And on that note, I have never bought a store theme b-day cake. Well, we are breaking our long stand-off with marketed birthday parties! I thought lets go with a pizza theme...simple cake...nothing fancy. Then the store with the big red dot lures us over to their bakery promising free samples of baked goods (the kids beg for everytime.) And low and behold, there bright- shiny, colorful....is the cake catalog. In all it's glory. Should I have turned away? Yes. But birthday parties are my weakness and I began to thumb through. I was convinced after spider man, spongebob, wwf wrestlers, and monster trucks that I had good reason to not buy store theme cakes. But then, there he is, and with his friends too! The cake of my son's dreams. Thomas. Why do trains excite little boys so much, by the way? So what is a mom to do but cancel the ginormous generic Costco cake and order her little man some serious frosting in the shape of a rectangle...and a shiny blue engine, of course! Well...we can't have a Thomas cake without any other Thomas party supplies, right? I have never been a big fan of the party favor bags loaded with junk that I will step on in the middle of the night. But after having to go to Party city for balloons, anyway, who began to beckon me from the party theme aisle? You guessed it. SO we now have adorable little green birthday boxes with Thomas blowers, stickers, a whistle, a chocolate bar, and a lollipop. Oh and of course a Thomas mylar. Darn you, commercialized birthday themes!! How did our Chuck E Cheese birthday turn into a Thomas party? That is what I get for shopping with my kids!

Projects around the house

My mom helped me scrapbook these framed letters for Vivi's room.
The kids and I went to a party last year where they did a hand print and footprint.
The artist turned them into a puppy and an airplane. My mom and I scrapbooked mats for them. They hang in the playroom.

Kohl's has these adorable stuffed animals available for $5 each and the corresponding books. All proceeds go to a children's charity. Grandma hooked them up with these little gifts! We also got "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake", but I left the cat stuffed animal there. We are afterall a dog family!

This billboard hangs above their activity table in the playroom.

We have been crafting for fall and hanging our art.
I will be buying seasonal borders for it from the dollar store each season.

Here is Isaac in the completed library doing a game on playhouse disney.

These curtains were marked down to $4.98 at Target. Love it!!

Fall Is Upon Us

October is my favorite month of the year. It just goes by way too fast.

Some things I am looking forward to this month are:

Isaac's birthday, going to the state fair for the first time ever, going to the zoo when it is actually cool enough to walk the whole place, our church fall festival, trunk and treat at Isaac's school, costumes, the pumpkin patch, filling up on pumpkin flavored drinks and baked goods, and of course Halloween.

Dollhouse bookshelf

I did this bookshelf for Vivi's room.

The before picture does not do justice to how disgusting this thing was! Faded, dirty. grimy. Like it had spent a lifetime in a garage.

I painted it bright pink and white. The paint job needs to be touched up in places, I was in a hurry to get it done before we moved.

Now if you are wondering, where can I get this adorable bookshelf? Here are some ideas:

Pottery Barn Kids $399.99

Target $79.99

Walmart $109.00

So guess where I got ours!!

Answer:

The side of the road in a heap of trash

Cost: Free!!

Well....$20 for paint and supplies.

Woohoo for me and my lack of shame in pulling over and throwing trash in the back of my van!
I think it is the Target one, same design...same pale pink. But thank goodness ours didn't cost me 80 bucks!

The House!

Before you get to my massive picture post of our house, I will give you the details. It is just two streets down from the Elementary school Isaac will go to Kindergarten at. It is a block away from a nice park and fire station, and most importantly a short drive from the best Target I have ever seen! It is in an older neighborhood (older than me!), but we like the large trees and family feel. Many of the rental houses we saw were not in good parts of town and were not in good condition. The day we viewed this one, we put our application and deposit down. It had only been on the market for 2 days. Another family turned in their app. the day after us and cried that the house was gone. This had happened to us over the past month, so we sympathized. But of course are grateful we got it! It is four bedrooms. I do not have photos of our bedroom as it still has several large boxes cluttering the ground or the library/4th bedroom as it is still a work in progress too. But here you go of the rest of the house after working really hard. I don't do well when my life is all packed up and I have to step around it, so we kicked things into high gear once we were in. We look forward to all our holiday celebrations here this season! Nice big tree in the front yard, I hope to get a swing for it.
Front of the house.

Come on in and take a look around!

This is the view of the foyer from the living room.

The first room when you walk in is the playroom and then the living room.

This is the view of the living room from the foyer and playroom.

Living room.
I am very excited about the woodburning fireplace.

Shot of living room looking into kitchen.
Tile floor from foyer to back door and down the hallway to the bedrooms.

Backside of living room.

Entry into kitchen. Bright and white.

Other side of kitchen.

Dining area, garage door, and sliding door to backyard.

Hall bathroom.

Isaac's room- baseball theme (the sport Billy played as a kid).

Vivianna's Room (she will eventually have her name on that wall above her bed).

This cabinet has all her board books in it.

The kids and dogs are loving their big backyard!

That is it for now! Photos of our bedroom and the library will have to come later!