fall festival at the kids' school

the kids' school had a super fun fall festival tonight

$1 cotton candy, tons of games to play, bounce houses and crafts

we're pretty happy with their new school and

i'm surprised by how many friends noah and hazel have made already, too

we like it here

house progress

we've almost been in our house for three weeks

and we've been very busy trying to make it ours

here's how the girls' room looked 

that is a completely black wall back there

the first thing we did was switch out that light fixture for this ikea one we got off craigslist for $10

and then we started painting

it took 3 coats of a light pink paint/primer

 i knew it was a big room because of our rental house

but the dark colors made it feel tiny

much better

 i think i will switch out the pictures on the wall and put those elsewhere

but the girls love their pink room

 i literally never saw noah's room until the day before we moved in

they didn't take pictures of it to list it and the door was always closed because a roommate lived in it

so once we saw it, we saw it was a mustard color

which i didn't completely hate

but it was really beat up and needed holes patched (just like every other space in this house)

 so we painted it a soft gray

and i love it

we'll still need some more decor before his room is done

but it's looking much better

the next big project we've been working on is our kitchen

our plans for the kitchen are...

white cupboards, concrete overlay on the counters, new appliances, 

white subway tile backsplash, new knobs, take down the extra tall part of the island

and replace the counter of the island with a butcher block

so far we've replaced the refrigerator, microwave and oven

but not the dishwasher yet

michael ripped off the ugly dark tiles

 we did the concrete overlay on the counters

 and we love it

 then we started on the subway tile

 oh and we replaced the faucet

and i love our new one

 we still need to grout the tile and go a little higher with in in some spots 

but i LOVE it so much

my favorite was olive coming down in the morning and saying

that michael and i really outdid ourselves :) 

 there's still a lot to do but it's looking a thousand times better already

and since this post isn't already way too long....

here's what the living room and dining rooms looked like 

these are literally the pictures from the listing

can you believe we bought this house? 

i don't hate the sunken living room as much as i thought i would 

but i'll be happy to raise it when we replace the flooring

 luckily a guy bought the pool table

and came as we were moving in

he totally disassembled it, it was crazy

 so much better off the bat

 here's what it looks like right now

we have plans to update that wall and fill in the hole

but it's not going to happen quite yet because we need to finish the kitchen

  here's what the dining room looked like before

here's what it looks like with our stuff in it

we will redo the flooring when we have the money

and rip up the tile and definitely replace the lopsided chandelier

all one step at a time, right?

i'm really happy with the direction the house is going

the amount of changes/work it needs has been a little overwhelming

but every day it gets better

so that's something

and it's ours!

so that's really something

i guess soon we'll have to stop referring to our house as a "craphole" 

it's going to be amazing

this week

when i got home on sunday

michael had dressed henry and eleanor in their sailor outfits

it pretty much melted my heart

 aren't they the cutest?

eleanor loves to take pictures with henry

 this one makes me laugh

she's such a helper...

 i painted noah's room this week

and while i did, henry was playing at my feet

eating corn dog peelings dropped by his sister...

he really liked it...

 we think henry is going through a growth spurt

he is eating and sleeping a lot

one night he fell asleep mid bite of applesauce

cute kiddies ready for school

 the little girls love to go through noah's stuff while he's at school..

 all ready for ballet

 i thought eleanor would like to go watch the big girls

but she was way offended she didn't get to go in to class

luckily i had some chocolate in my purse to help ease her pain

 henry loves baths!

 and sleeping on his mom

 today was 'talk like a pirate day' so we dressed up for free donuts at krispy kreme

 the kids loved it

 how cute is henry in his thrifted baby gap skinny jeans and moccasins?

 noah came in and snuck onto the side of my bed

wearing his army helmet and using his binoculars

silly boy

the end