Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day! We piled into the van on Sunday morning and headed down to the city. Our plan was to find the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. Unfortunately, we only heard squawks from afar but had a wonderful time nonetheless. After exploring Coit Tower, we headed to Chinatown to have lunch. We all enjoyed tasty dim sum and pearl teas.







Lego Boy

Ethan is most certainly his father's child. Not only is he handsome, smart, and has a laid-back, friendly demeanor just like Justin, he also shares the same affinity for Legos. If he is not playing cars, reading a book, or kicking around a soccer ball, Ethan is most likely sitting at the Lego box creating a new vehicle.

Ethan's gas station and a car ready for a "fill-up"

Yoga

Ethan's teacher, Debby, has taught the 3's class a bit of yoga this year. He is always excited to share and teach us his "yoga moves." Dragon is by far my favorite. I finally remembered to pull out the camera and get it on video.

Homework

It is hard to believe that Alanna will be completing first grade in a few weeks. I snapped this picture while she was doing her homework last week. She just looks so cute and happy. Hooray for a happy student!

 

Kitchen Remodel

Our house was built in late '70s. Therefore, I can imagine that the kitchen was very trendy back in the day with its dark cabinets, pink/taupe tile and backsplash with large grout lines, flowery wallpaper, and a huge florescent light fixture. Although the actual layout of the kitchen was and still is perfect for our family, we recently decided it could use some updating. We started last July by removing the wallpaper and painting the kitchen. In January it was time to say good-bye to the light fixture. Our electrician put in recessed lighting and then we had the dry wall repaired. A few months ago we began shopping for counter tops and tile, found a painter to do the cabinets, bought white appliances (the old ones were ivory), and a new stainless steel sink. After five trips to the stone and tile store, we chose our granite slab (there are so many choices!) and white subway tiles. In the beginning of April, the kitchen was measured and the templates for the counters were created. On the 16th, the demolition began! By the end of the week, we had granite counters, a new tile backsplash, and a working sink. On the 23rd, the painting crew came in and prepped and primed the cabinets. The crew completed painting on Thursday. The cabinet doors were installed last Monday. Justin sealed the tile and installed white GFCI outlets and white switches last week. Yesterday, we put up a new pendant light over the sink. The remodel is now complete and we are really happy with it.

Before: flowery wallpaper, dark cabinets, and pinkish tile

 

Removing the wallpaper

The light fixture...eek!

Good-bye light fixture -- so much brighter without you!

Before: another view with the new lights

Good-bye microwave from the '80s. You took 4-minutes to boil a cup of water.

Demo time!

All ready to install the counters, sink, and cook-top

After: our bright, lovely kitchen

After: our new sink, faucet, and pendant light

After: the ceiling