Forts

The age-old pastime never fails.

The fire pit!

This has been a long time coming. Jason has talked for ages weeks about building a fire pit. After a few weekends of a lot of work, here it is!

Life in a house with boys

Will it help? Time will tell. Oh please, let it help!

Silly boys

At the end of a hot and sweaty afternoon in the back yard.

The sandbox

How does your garden grow?

Way too big! These pictures were taken a week ago when I harvested my first cucumber. Everything has grown even taller since then... corn stalks all have tassels, tomato plants had to be re-staked and the cucumber plant is out of control!

First harvest: butter lettuce and cucumber. Drizzle with oil & balsamic and serve!

New yard, take 2

Despite the fact that we laid sod in our back yard just a mere 3 years ago, we thought it would be fun to do it again. For a variety of reasons (we were backyard novices), our sod died. So this weekend, amid the rain and thunderstorms, we laid 5 new palettes of Bermuda grass. Up to this point, our back yard has been nothing but dirt and a scattering of weeds, Which means, every time we went outside, the boys would become so dirty that they required a deep clean scrub in the tub. So, the idea was that with new grass, like this:

the boys would play in the grass and not the dirt. Except, children will do what children want to do... which is play in the dirt-- even with 2,500 square feet of sod:

And so, we're back to taking baths immediately after playing in the back yard. This is going to be a long summer. (Until we get seed in the remaining dirt patch-- we were 1 palette short)

For those interested, a few more shots of the updates in the back yard:

Garden 2010

Last summer, I ventured into the world of gardening. I called it my "trial year" since I am not known for having a green thumb. I figured if I could keep a scattering of tomato plants and herbs alive, then I would allow myself a larger garden the following year. Enter spring, 2010. I'm calling it the "Year of the Garden."

Jason put in two days of back-breaking work to create my tiered, raised bed garden. We used nearly every inch of our compost pile to fill it with the dark, nutrient rich soil (with lots of little worms). I've been growing little seedlings indoor for the past few weeks. I was able to plant zucchini right away, but the others will have to wait a while. In the trellis planter are some green beans. Also on the menu for this year's garden: tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, sweet corn, basil, rosemary, red and green peppers and lettuce. I can't wait to harvest!

New uses for a vacant flower box

Too busy!

For those of you only looking for pictures, this won't be your favorite post. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but it's been busy 'round here! In a nutshell...

Pre-school for Evan and Morning Out for Grant, which means... making lunches, having clean (and presentable) clothes, bringing in snacks, filling out forms and Scholastic book orders (can't believe I get to do that again--love it!)

Kids are home with me (and only me) now three. full. days. per week, which means... activities, arranging naps, playing referee, art time, library time, park time, errands with kids-in-tow, lunches to make, snacks to hand out--and lots and lots of coffee.

Work, work and more freelance work, which means... late nights, early mornings and fading brain cells.

Training again for a 15K race, which means... struggling to fit in at least 3 runs a week.

Oh yeah, and then there's the boring day-to-day of dinners and house work (which lags waaay behind). But you get the general picture, right?

We did take the time this past weekend to take a nice trip to Hilton Head to see G&G Terreri and Uncle DJ, Aunt Heather and new baby Connor. It was a great weekend-- the weather was beautiful! Wish we could still be there! Pictures to come...

I CAN grow new life!

No, I'm not talking about my children; I'm talking about this:

A small improvement

From this...

To this!

And this!

I have said....

That this will be the year when we get our front yard looking nice... if it kills me. Well, I started the grueling work of raking, digging, planting... and then we called in the professionals. For anyone who's visited, you may well remember the front "pit," which looked something like this:




And now it looks like this:

More pics to come once the grass is in (it's starting to grow!) and we start the landscaping.

Winter wonderland and other photos

This is what we're looking at in our back yard today:

It's been snowing since 11:30am and still going strong!

The boys, pretending to play together.

Portrait of Baby Grant, entitled "Me & My Shadow."

Evan & friend Tai played their little hearts out last night (until 11pm!). At one point in the evening, they decided hats were a necessary accessory.

Don't let this innocent look fool you. He's sneaky.

Housekeeping 911

*Not pictured here is a load that is still in the dryer and another one yet to be washed.

Don't quit your day job

Jason and I will never go into the home remodeling business.

Today, FINALLY, we finished remodeling our guest bathroom. It only took us ONE YEAR. And one year isn't just a guesstimate. I looked on the label of our paint can and it read: 10/26/2007. So technically, we're under one year, but who's counting?

I'm not posting any pictures. Why? For a bathroom that took ONE YEAR to remodel, you might expect tiled walls, a garden tub, double sinks, maybe a bidet. Nope, not here! And unfortunately, I can't blame it on Jason. This was our project--we each had our respective tasks, and we each, respectively, procrastinated like hell! At this rate, we'll be finished with the house by the time Evan starts college.

The Dream Team

Last weekend my grandparents stopped into town to visit with us, and of course, help with any household projects. Their visit turned into an all-day-affair of installing doors. Jason and my grandpa installed new doors between the kitchen and garage and between the garage and back yard. No pics of the doors, but I can assure you they look great. Just a quick pic of Grant & Grandpa (I didn't get a chance to take any pics of Grandma or Evan).

Stuff we do at home

Just a few of the things that happen in the Terreri house when both boys are home...


Chillin' in the Bumbo


Snack time


Swinging


Tummy time


"Hangin" out in Mom & Dad's room

The coolest room EVER

After two weeks of hard work, Jason and I finished Evan's new "big-kid" room. We are so pleased with how it turned out. And despite my initial hesitation on painting the walls "Buzz Lightyear Blue" and the closet "Sonic Boom Green," I now love the colors! Below are some before and after shots.

Before:




After:

I'm no Michaelangelo, but I did paint the giant bug on the wall. This photo shows the leaf canopy over the bed and cool green bookshelves from Ikea.


Another view of the bed that shows his awesome bug lights and bright curtains. (Note to Grandpa Terreri: Don't worry, we are going to fix the exposed wires hanging from the lights.)


Bookshelf, desk (thanks Aunt Nellie!) and cool coat hangers--if you look closely, they are dog tails.


Quite possibly Evan's favorite part of the room--the kid is obsessed with lights and fans!


My construction paper bug art.


Bug art up close.


Sonic boom closet.

Extreme makeover

Having a second child doesn't mean we can stop working on our house! Our humble abode was in desperate need of a paint job, not only to update the 70s-style dark brown color, but to cover up areas on our siding that were completely bare. We're guessing the house hadn't been painted in at least 10-15 years. After deliberating over colors, we finally bit the bullet. The body paint color is a sage-grey/green and the trim remains a dark coffee brown. After the painting was done, I wasn't so sure we had made the right color decisions. But after living with it for a few days, it's growing on me. I think it was just such a drastic change that it took a while to get used to. Eventually we want to put shutters around the front windows to add some accents. The painter told me that his crew used over 70 tubes of caulk to repair patches and cracks in the siding--that was the most his company had ever used on a house before! Here are some before and after shots. Keep in mind that we still need to replace our very old and dirty roof and overhaul/landscape our front yard.... those are some of the next projects on our list.

Before:


During:

After!