Another Update on Everyday Life...

Here is another one of my jumbled updates, seems to be becoming a normal occurence!

Friday evening after swim lessons, dropping off the older two at a lock in and Matt's Date with Joslyn, Matt and i sat down to do some brainstorming on the ever present struggle of space for us to get everyone around the dinner table. We dreamed about building into the garage for a dining space, adding a 3 season porch were we could eat all of our meals, and thought about closing off the pantry in our kitchen to have a wall to put a table at, but then we decided to think about solutions that we could actually make happen;). We decided it would be best to start looking for a bench or plans for building a bench that would slide back in the corner and eliminate having to pull the table out every meal or having to gather chairs from around the house. So, I was finally a bit content with the fact the=at we at least had a plan and some direction! Well-guess what I found the next day-yep-a bench at the thrift store! I was actually there to find a dress for a wedding we are leaving for this weekend. But in the process was able to solve some of our meal time dilemma! So I sent Matt back later that day-pretty sure the bench would already be gone. I always let him do the inspecting of structure, quality, etc-and of course to do the heavy lifting! But he called and said he could not find it anywhere-I was heartbroken. I had worked everything out in my mind already-I know-I shouldn't do that-but I just couldn't help myself. So, awhile after he had returned home, he called me out to the garage to look at something. THE LITTLE SNEAK HAD FOUND THE BENCH AND THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY TO TRICK ME-HOW MEAN! Thanks hun!! So here is the before. I just needed to prime and paint it white. With the space in our house being small, light colors are more and more important to me!

Here is the after. I weathered it a bit and covered the cushion on it as well. And oh! There is lots of storage underneath!!! I will try and get a picture soon of the two little ones sitting at the bench-it is pretty sweet. Now, all seven of us are around the table, no chairs have to be pulled from other places in the house, no highchair has to be dragged in from the garage every time we eat, and we are finding more and more meal times to sit and laugh around the table again.

We are so very excited about this upcoming weekend! And actually, for us, it begins tomorrow! Matter of fact, I should be packing right now(I hate packing). Anyways-our friend Monika is getting married! She is a precious friend to us, and was one of Matt and I's first students when we began in ministry. So this is a pretty special occasion for us! Monika was here a few months back for a visit and while she was here we worked on picking out some fabric for me to make a bunting for her wedding. But what we ended up doing was making napkins in her wedding colors that could be used as a bunting. That way, after the wedding, she would have all these fun cloth napkins for her home. I am just in love with this idea! So earlier this week, this is the fun package I sent to her. I will have to post some pics after the wedding of them. And I think it appropriate to add-yes, they were made from reclaimed linens as well as dress shirts.

I unfortunately did get to spend much time on sharing about Noah's 3rd birthday, so i thought I would share a few little things today. Noah is absolutely enamored with Thomas, or any train for that matter-we are also a fan of chuggington around here. Well, I have probably sold a countless number of the vintage Thomas sheets but as his birthday was approaching I actually had to do some tracking down of them myself. So, a few months ago I found one and began planning out just how to it for his birthday. I used a large portion of the sheet for a quilt that I am actually still working on, Noah does not like me taking it out of his playroom where his trains are, so it is coming along quite slowly, but i was able to finish a pillow for him.

I was also able to take two of the panels and add them to some pj pants I made for him.

Here is another look at those pants. Somehow the stripes just said train conductor to me.

Summer is coming and we thought we would give Noah a buzz-I felt pretty reluctant-but it is pretty tough to keep up with everyone's haircuts around here, so for the summer, we gave it a try. It was quite to event around her, everyone wanted to watch this!! Noah laughed through most of it, the girls moaned, and Cole wrinkled his nose as each long lock fell to the floor. Taking pictures of the event helped me to not cry.

Once Noah starting itching, it wasn't too fun anymore! But I just love those cheeks!!!

Here is the lovely little man with his new doo. He laughed when he saw himself in the mirror. Whew!

I felt like I was running a race this past week. We had tilled up the garden awhile back, but I had not gotten a chance to get them planted until a few days ago. Fortunately, two of the girls were happy to help out.
There are still a few things to get in the ground, but they will have to wait until we are home from the wedding.
The flowers are starting to fill out, and how fun it is to see all the color coming to life!