So after a whole summer of preparing to paint, we finally have a painted house!!!
Our friend Craig brought his sprayer over and helped out a ton.
It's crazy how much work goes into prepping and the painting portion lasts only a few hours.
Before:
Old/new:
The finished product:
We love it so much!
This makes our door look orange but it's definitley red.
I just wanted to show you guys our awesome exterior fixture:
(Our fancy new light up doorbell is awesome too but you can barely see it.)
While they were painting, the boys and I went to the zoo with Chris' mom.
Bennett decided that instead of stopping to look at each animal, he'd like to just run past them all.
This was our view the entire time:
Except that he stopped to sit on the animal statues:
and to watch the tractor bring sand into the elephant area:
(Buck wasn't too into it either)
Saturday afternoon we went to Bennett's friend Lucy's 3rd birthday party.
He had never seen one of these cars before and he thought that it was broken because it wouldn't go.
He kept getting out to push it then quickly hopped back in as if he were giving it a push start.
"This car doesn't work guys":
I also did a lot of cooking and baking this weekend!
I feel like I haven't baked in a long time, so it was nice to get back to it.
(I've tested a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes trying to find the perfect one, this the the one I always go back to.
I love to eat them frozen!)
I tried recreating Portobello's Beet Tartare:
(We agreed that I got pretty close! I made the whole thing in my vitamix...it was fun seeing what it could do. It's a vegan recipe but is so full of flavor. It's cashew cheese on the bottom with chopped beets mixed with a carrot aioli. It's incredibly filling, we both split this for a late dinner.)
I also made
this cashew pesto veggie pizza, which was also SO good:
(I don't think I'll ever make pesto with those expensive pine nuts again!)
and we made lots of smoothies with the vitamix.
Best purchase ever:
mmm smoothies:
Happy Wednesday Friends!
Bennett has had his fair share of sleep difficulties.
He's never been the best sleeper, but when he sleeps, he sleeps hard.
Before Buckly was born, there was a period of time where B had a rough time getting down to sleep so he would play or cry himself to sleep.
I was always interested to see how/where he had fallen asleep that night as I went in to turn off his light.
I took pictures (not very good ones) but they are still funny to look at:
Planking:
The wood floor doesn't seem so comfy:
Much better:
Graceful:
He apparentlly tried to booby trap me while he was crying at the door:
Did he fall asleep as he was getting out of bed?:
Where's Bennett?:
He really liked that rug:
For a couple of days he would bring toys onto the bed and play with them til he fell asleep:
Tush in the air:
Sometimes he was blocking the door so I would have to stick my phone in to see where he was at:
Passed out:
Bennett: You were such a stinker about going to sleep when you were two (for almost the entire year). You gave us more than a couple of sleepless nights because you were constantly getting out of bed (though it did help us adjust to having no sleep once Buckley got here). I have no doubt that your kids will do this to you...but no worries, because their kids will do it to them!
Thursday we went to the zoo with some friends:
Me: "Hey Bennett are you driving a tractor?!"
B: "No mom I can't. It's broken."
He really wanted to see the elephants:
B got his first big haircut:
(he was getting mistaken for a girl daily, but don't worry it's still cute and shaggy)
Friday night Chris and I celebrated my birthday a little early.
We went to a new
(to us) restaurant called
Portobello.
It's actually a vegan restaurant and we were pleasantly surprised at how tasty everything was.
For an appetizer we got the Beet Tartare:
(this was amazing and I'm going to attempt to recreate it at home soon!)
For dinner we split the Deep Dish Pie with arugala salad and the Potato Gnocchi:
and for dessert we got Tirimisu:
On Saturday we just hung around the house and played:
(I got to sneak out during nap time for a pedicure!)
On Sunday we celebrated my birthday with Chris' side of the family.
We grabbed lunch at a fun little burger place and then got fro yo.
Afterwards, Chris, the boys and I swung by Costco on our way home to pick up my birthday present:
(!!!!)
I can honestly say that we are obsessed with this machine and have probably used it ten times in the last two days!
Last night I got together with some friends to celebrate a couple of our birthdays.
Love my friends!
And today I turned 29.
Weird.
Also, we are painting the house this weekend!!!
I can't wait to see how it turns out!
This weekend we celebrated Bennett's third birthday.
(this was actually his second party...one with friends and one with family; though I am sharing pictures from both)
Before his party we went and took his 3-year photobooth picture, and also one as a family:
I love having a little decor out front:
Bennett's photostrip on the door:
I didn't have much time to plan decor wise.
Other than buying a couple balloons, a
happy birthday banner, and making a garland for the dining room, I just kind of grabbed some colorful things from around the house:
Favors:
I originally wanted to make chocolate dipped frozen bananas with fun sprinkles,
but decided to go with funfetti cupcakes instead:
(who doesn't like funfetti?!)
BBQ spread with the best Hermiston watermelon ever:
On the deck:
(please excuse the ghetto-looking siding...we are still in the process of painting!)
Bennett and his friends:
(I'm so glad I ended up having another boy so he has at least one to play with!)
Pool time:
Water Beads with Fern:
Presents:
Testing out the balance bike we got him:
Blowing out the candle:
Prom pose with his best friend Avery:
All worn out in his new Lightning McQueen slippers:
I love planning cheap and simple parties and I think B had a lot of fun.
Crazy to think that I have a 3 year old!
