8 is great

Our Fun-Time Charlie is 8. It's hard to believe, but all those well meaning "mature" ladies in the grocery store were right. 

Luke will be 12 soon enough and I've learned that kids grow up too fast. Before you know it, they are hanging out in their  bedrooms and saying things like "oooo-kaaaay Mom" when you ask them to unload the dishwasher.

So with Charlie and his younger brother, Jack, I hold onto these years all the more tightly for they are sacred.

I try to not wish time to speed up or dream of a few years ahead as I find myself now looking back and longing for a repeat of those early years.

For Charlie's 8th birthday, we celebrated at Get Air. The lucky guy even had his birthday party on his real birthday. That's one benefit of having a summer birthday.

He enjoyed every single minute of it!

That's just his nature. He's also a sensitive guy, with a great sense of humor. He's adventurous and always up for fun.

Love you always, Charlie. Always.

Happy 8th Birthday!

Much love,
Mom

just say Om...ombre diy canvas art

Sit down.

Cross your legs.

Close your eyes.

Breath deeply and say Om....

And then finish it with -bre because Kevin and I got our Picasso on this weekend and made a crazy awesome DIY ombre canvas art piece for our dining room wall.

After obsessively searching over the last year for the just right art and arguing the pros and cons of a funky gallery wall vs. a statement piece, I finally searched "DIY ombre canvas art" on Pinterest and used this blog post as our inspiration.

Not only will we save major cash, but perhaps this final decision will cure me of my insomnia.

We wanted the same color scheme as our inspiration piece, but changed our lines to horizontal. I also wanted the color to extend all the way to the edge of the canvas.

Just personal taste.

Fortunately for me, my software sales by day husband is a repressed artist by night. However, this really can be done by someone with stick figure expertise, such as myself.

Case in point: my recent artistic chalk rendition of Kevin getting tubed:

Now let's show off Kevin's abilities, shall we?

Measure your canvas with your brush to plan how many shades you need. We used a  2" brush on a 36x48 canvas. Our wall is 13 feet long and we wanted to have one large focal piece.

The most complicated step is making sure that you mix your colors carefully so you get the right gradation of color.

We followed the directions on the blog and started with the dark color, which was a deep forest green and then added white on each plate, starting with one drop on the next, two drops after that, three on the following, etc. However we now think we'd do it backwards. Start with white and add green. We had to go back to a few plates and add more white as the colors were not showing enough difference.

Kevin did a simple sweep for each row. Because we needed thicker rows, we used the same color on two rows.

 

 When we found that two colors were too similar, Kevin simply went over the row that needed to be lighter with some white streaks of paint.

I am so thrilled with the end result. I just may have done my happy dance and clapped with glee. And I'm just saying for the record, that having a guitar playing, paintbrush swaying husband is pretty dang cool.

Here's the final reveal...my house is always this orderly by the way.

Or not.

This room is half way there. Home decorating is a marathon. Now we're planning for the wainscoting, painting all the trim in the house white, and window treatments. 

Like all things in life; one step at a time.

Much love,
Katie

better late than never

Hello, Friends.

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Life seems to grip you like the current of a swiftly moving river. You just do your best to wade in the water and grab the closest floating object to keep you afloat.

Since we are such level headed folks, we thought it would be a sane idea to adopt a second rescue dog. I know, we are so smart. He's been a handful, but our trainer has helped us to see that there is hope. I'll cling tightly to that hope because this big boy, Ben, is testing my patience. Love him, though...just not when he darts to our neighbors pool or throws up multiple times on my new rug.

We also had a chance to catch up with my college roommate and fellow mom of boys. Isn't it amazing how we don't look a day over twenty??? It's okay, I give you permission to laugh at that one. Andrea and Art speak our language: skateboarding, bodily functions, and high energy. Enough said.

In the midst of end of the school year activities, we found an opportunity to catch our breath at our annual Memorial Day celebration at the beach. Dipping my toes in hot sand and watching the boys crash in the waves is all I need.

Then the reality of June hit us.

This year was bittersweet as Luke celebrated his 5th grade promotion. He won't drive to school with us and hang out in my 1st grade classroom before and after school next year. I was a hot mess the entire week leading up to promotion. I was obsessively reminiscing and scanning through old  photos and videos. By the time Jack, our 3rd son moves on, I'm sure I'll pull myself together from this whole "you can never ever grow up" affliction I seem to have.

Well, we'll see about that. This mom gig is rough on the heart.

Jack celebrated his last day of kindergarten. Both sets of grandparents were there with Kevin and I to see him receive his elaborate memory book his teacher made for him.

Charlie was pumped about the last week of second grade. We don't call him Fun-Time Charlie for nothing. They had a water day and awards ceremony during the last week of school. His teacher gave him a massive chapter book to read over the summer. Yeah, he's got to get on that.

Now we are settling into summer mode. We're enjoying sleeping in...till 6:00 a.m. (thanks, Jack!) and hanging out at the beach. It is our go-to place where everyone is happy. Do you have such a place? Do tell...

And with that, I hope you are each having a fun-filled summer.

Much love,
Katie