Carmen's Birthday Party

We waited and waited for our basement to be finished so we could have Carmen's "Late Over" birthday party. Finally, mid May we were able to break in the basement with a big group of 2nd graders. She invited all her friend over to movies, games and tons of junk food! It got pretty wild after a couple of hours, but the night was quickly over. And the basement didn't suffer any major damage.

Carmen's Field Trip

I went on the most fun field trip with Carmen's class to the Virginia Safari Park and Natural Bridge. I had been to the bridge several times, but never the safari park. It was a blast! They had a pretty large petting zoo area.

 We could walk right up to these kangaroos and pet them. This one even had a joey in her pouch!

 Carmen and her friend Nina... and a peacock! He had his feathers fluffed out, which I was trying to get in the picture as well, but I guess I timed it just right so that Carmen has a peacock hat!

 After the petting zoo area, we loaded up on some wagons with tons of buckets of food and headed out on the safari! The animals were so acclimated to humans, they just walked right up to us. It was so funny to have them that close to us. There were a lot of lamas, alpacas, some camels, bison, ostrich, zebra, pigs.... and I'm sure many others that I'm forgetting.

 Then we headed over to Natural Bridge, which is just so beautiful. We walked along the trails, visited an Indian village and then went to the butterfly habitat. We also saw a lot of snakes. And I didn't get a picture, but you can still see George Washington's initials on the side of the bridge!

This guy was my favorite! The bison would not eat out of the buckets, but you had to hold the food up above their heads and they would stick their tongues out and wiggle them around while you poured the food in. It was hilarious!!

Current Favorites

 A friend snapped this picture of Dallin at a swim party. I really loved his curly hair here.

 This was at the same swim party - one of my very favorites of them ever!

 Charlotte on the slide at the park. She rarely looks at the camera, so to capture her eyes like this was wonderful.

 Dallin loves his firetruck, or really anything with wheels that he can ride on.

 This was one Sunday after church, he had discovered the piano.

 My Mother's Day - David has to be out of town so we celebrated a day early. Then we spent the rest of the day at the park and a garden center. David gave me those beautiful flowers.

 The girls all gave me homemade gifts and cards. Then I got a much needed pedicure with my neighbor mommies.

 Up above, Dallin and his first stick! And below is Charlotte after a princess birthday party.

 My sweet angel boy

Spring school pictures! Aliza's class has made some "Earth Day" tshirts the day before. Her teacher requested that the kids wear those shirts the next day to school. I'm not sure if she intended for them to be wearing those shirts for picture day or if she just forgot it was actually picture day (like I did!). At any rate, those pictures weren't my favorites.

Home Remodling - Before and Afters

Get ready for some really great Before/after pictures!! 

The rest of the basement gets kind of confusing if you haven't seen it in person. So I'll just post after pictures. There are basically two sides of the basement - one became the family room/playroom side and the other side became office/bathroom/unfinished storage. Here is one before shot....

We had waiting SO LONG for the carpet to be installed. This picture doesn't even begin to capture the excitement we felt after the installers left. I was so thrilled I nearly kissed the guys!

 Office with the bathroom through that opened door

 Looking from the other side of office. That's the bathroom door on the left.

 Here's a good indication of how that side really looks. The opened door is our unfinished food storage area. The bathroom door is directly to the right of that door.

 The pedestal sink from upstairs was supposed to go in the bathroom here, but my parents didn't like that sink at all and surprised me with this lovely vanity for my birthday! I think they made a great decision!!  Below is the upstairs main bathroom that we removed the sink from and added the vanity. I truly think pedestal sinks are such a great waste of storage.

There is still another entire area that I haven't photographed yet because it's still getting it's finishing touches, but stay posted! 

I am so grateful for my amazingly talented father who has done all this work for us. It's been really fun having him at the house every day! While I am thrilled to have it all done, I will dearly miss seeing my dad every day.  And I am even more grateful for my dedicated husband who has worked so hard to pay for all of this!

Monticello - Home of Thomas Jefferson

Grandma Bean flew in the day of Carmen's baptism. She got in early, so we had an entire day to spend having fun before the evening baptism. We quickly decided on a trip to Monticello. I mean, who can escape a trip to Charlottesville without a visit to ol' TJ's house?! It was a beautiful day and the flowers were all just beginning to bloom. Even if you don't go inside the house, just walking around the grounds is a wonderful experience and you can still learn so much! We did go inside the house. It had been long time since I'd actually been inside. It was still the same old house.... ;) Despite everyone's lack of cooperation for any sort of pictures, I did manage to catch a few snapshots.

 It is so beautiful up there, I could seriously move right in. Thomas Jefferson definitely knew what he was doing when he picked this bit of real estate! These pictures don't even do it justice!

 I don't think many people realize that the image on the nickle is actually the back of the house. Here we are enjoying the lovely backyard of Monticello.