Busy busy busy

This has been a busy and exhausting weekend, but it has all been very fun and some really exciting things have been going on!

1-Dennis finished the electrical work in our bathroom!!! YEA!!!! No pictures to show, but boy that is a big one to cross off the list. I think it took him almost 2 hours to get one hole drilled in trying to save the drywall and get wires through a couple of very difficult studs.

2-Highlight of the weekend...Eric competed in his first piano competition. He has been adjudicated before, but never competed. He played two pieces in this weekend's Sonata Festival, and he was thrilled to find out he was the 1st place winner in his specific level. What was really neat was to talk with him afterwards and hear what he thought was the reason he won. To paraphrase, he did think that all of his hard practice helped, but he said that he asked God beforehand to help him do his best, and he certainly felt like he did do his best. Neat. So on Sunday, we returned to the winner's concert, and that was a real treat to hear everyone's favorite song from their competition.

3-sewing project-my clothespin bag has been falling apart for 2 years now, and i decided it was finally time to fix it. it turned out well, so i made another for my mom, whose bag was just as old and falling apart as mine. like the ruffle???



4- eric had a soccer game on friday and i remembered to bring the camera this time. though his team didn't win, we had a fun time watching. bay on the fence with his goofy smile. see his black tooth. he busted it over a year ago, and it has gotten darker over time, but not at all loose and doesn't bother him a bit. just looks bad in pictures :)
That is Eric in the green shirt running towards the goal. Not a great shot, but it's something! 5-Warm enough weather to swim/play on our beach. The kids had a great time for a little bit on Friday afternoon and then again for a long Saturday afternoon down at the beach. This is the perfect time of year-no jellies, warm air, cool water, and the pool isn't open yet. It's not too hot for me and Dennis to sit down there and relax in the Adirondacks and watch the kids have a blast. Eric's favorite thing to do is find clay deposits and build swimmming pools for their toys. It's funny to watch, because Bay imitates Eric in his own funny way, and then Leah imitates Bay's imitations of Eric. Quite a little 3-ring circus!

We slathered the sunscreen on their pale winter bodies and nobody got too much sun.
This is Eric on his boogie board 2 minutes before he broke it because he thought it could be a surfboard and stand on it!
6- I also gave Dennis' mom a perm-the very first perm i have ever done-she was brave enough to let me experiment on her. Dennis took a picture, but you know how you look when you are getting your hair done---not your very best---so i decided not to show the world Grandma in curlers :) She's just not as cute as Leah in curlers :) Well, it turned out pretty good and I think i have earned her trust!

Twirling Skirt

I made this super simple super easy twirling skirt for Leah last night in about an hour. I got the idea from this really cool etsy store. I have just recently found etsy. It's kind of like an online place to buy or sell homemade items. Lots of really cute patterns and clothing ideas. Anyways, the skirt is simply a complete circle cut out of a 36" square piece of fabric. I cut out a 10" diameter hole in the middle for the waistband. For this one, I made it reversible with some contrasting fabric I had sitting around waiting for the perfect project. I added some green rick-rack to the yellow gingham side for interest. I really liked the bows that she adds in her purple skirt, but I didn't feel like doing all that last night. I added in a rather large 2" waistband piece of elastic, and then to keep it in place streteched it all the way out and put in a couple of rows of stitching all the way around. Leah loved her surprise new outfit this morning! I have the fabric cut out to make a matching tie to go around it, but haven't had the time yet to do that.

Bathroom redo

Our master bath redo is coming along, bit by bit. My dad and Dennis have been working on the plumbing and electrical together. Our goal is to get the plumbing and electricity moved and in place before the vanity top gets here at the end of the month.

Dennis has been wrestling with a maze of electrical wires. He feels much more at home in his woodshop...this is alien territory to him. I think he will be glad when this part of the job is done.
This is the vanity base. I can't remember if I have posted this picture before or not. There are no drawers or dividers in it yet. It has been put on hold till the other work is done. But this is where it will go in the new bathroom.
This is a view of the new enlarged bathroom and the old existing in the background behind the ladder. The exposed wall will be removed and the tiny vanity behind it will be gone. The tiny closet on the left will be closed up and the new vanity will go in that space to the left.
Here is some of the plumbing for the left vanity sink and the mirror Dennis made (another will be made to match it for the right side. The lights were a great Lowes bargain. Haven't yet decided on a color scheme for the bathroom yet. I don't have any inspiration yet, maybe some warm spring weather will inspire me! I do think that I am going with painted white cabinetry, but am not totlally sold on that either...the only given is the vanity top - a black granite with green undertones. So the walls and towels will be where the color comes in. Any suggestions??? I'm open!

Eric's Latest Writing Project

Eric just recently finished a writing project where he had to write an advertisement. He, of course, chose to advertise a lego! He spent a week writing up the script and planning out how he wanted the ad to go. When it was time to video tape it, we had some friends here and so they helped him, which was lots of fun. Dennis & I spent much time editing and rearranging the clips to make a good commercial. Although we did all of that work, all of the planning, acting, writing and setting up was Eric's doing. It was lots of fun. Gives a whole new appreciation to making TV and movies.

Surprise!!! New Friends!

Heather's parents have had some missionary friends of the family visiting this past week with them, and they have 3 girls...the boys have had a blast having friends next door all week...but I wasn't so sure about this in the beginning. Not because they are girls playing with our boys, but because I wasn't so sure how Eric and Bay would feel about the children being girls and NOT boys. Quote from Eric when I told him that the family had 3 girls, "Mom, I'm okay with girls". So there you have it, in 4 more years I will take that in a totally different way, if you know what i mean, but for now, it's great! They have made fast friends and have had a blast playing outside or in, and will miss each other. I am amazed at how quickly children of this age can connect. Pretty neat!

Banana Crunch Muffins....mmmmm.if you could only smell these as I pulled them out of the oven! A friend of mine told me that I need to make a separate cooking blog. Good idea, maybe someday I'll do that, but for now, it's just going to be part of this one :) If you like bananas at all, then you need to try this banana muffin recipe. They are by far the very best muffins I have ever had, even way better than those gourmet muffins that are impossible to duplicate. This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe, one of my favorite cooks. Are these good for you? No way, but man are they good :)

Makes 2 dozen large muffins.
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar (this is reduced from the original recipe already!)
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 t. vanilla extract
1 cup mashed RIPE bananas (2-3 bananas)
1 cup medium diced RIPE bananas (1-2)
1 cup granola (any flavor)
1 cup grated or shredded coconut ( I do not use sweetened coconut, but if you did, I would pulse it in the food processor first to make it into ground pieces of flake, the whole flakes would be too much)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and blend. Combine eggs, milk vanilla and mashed bananas; add them to the flour mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well...DON"T OVERMIX.
Fold the diced bananas, granola and coconut into the batter. Spoon the batter into the paper cups, filling the cups to the top. You will have PLENTY of batter. Bake for 25-30 min. or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from pan and let me know how you like them!


What????!!!! Is that Heather with a vaccuum???? Yes, Dennis thought he was being funny in catching me with the camera actually vaccuuming. If you know me, cleaning is not my forte, and so I think it is pretty funny that he actually had to prove that every once in awhile I will get that dreadful invention out and use it :) Please ignore the Christmas garland still up on my curtains!

Leah's 3rd Birthday!

Leah recently celebrated her 3rd birthday. We just can't believe how time has flown by. Our little baby is no longer a baby anymore. She loves to fill her 3year old shoes with plenty of 3 yr. old attitude! This birthday was all about ponies...the biggest thing was figuring out how to make a pony cake, that is all she has asked for for weeks! I found a cake shop in Annapolis that rents the shaped cake pans ( a much better deal than buying them, especially when you only use them typically once). So I made her "pinkie pie" from my little pony. She had a great time, and has just now (a week later) realized that it is no longer her birthday.

The flowers are from our good friends Genia, Ray and kids Grace and Elliott. They came over and had lunch, cupcakes, and played on Leah's actual birthday. The day after (when Dennis could be home) we had her presents, pony cake and family birthday celebration with both sets of grandparents.

Here she is with her new tea set.
And with Granni & Gramps