New cabinets!!!

The new kitchen cabinets are going in! Tonight when we got home we found the upper bank of cabinets and shelves have been put up. The lights are in and working in the upper shelves, and it looks REALLY nice. Tomorrow and Friday they are supposed to finish the lower cabinets, the island, and all the doors, drawers, etc. I'm not going to put a picture up yet because that would spoil the surprise... check back this weekend!

More photos by Caroline

Here are a couple more of Caroline's latest pictures--a portrait of Daddy at the computer, and a shot of one of her stuffed animals dressed up by Margaret.

My mirroree picture

The person that you see mostly is Margaret, holding up a mirror. And I am taking a picture of the mirror. And I can see the Barbie camera. And so it looks like I took a picture of my camera, but that would be impossible if we didn't do it in the mirror. Bye! --Caroline

Next installment...

The girls got into the remodeling act tonight--each of them taking a turn helping Jeff paint the ceiling of the kitchen. He's trying to get it done before the new cabinets are installed this week. We've been surviving pretty well without a kitchen, but it will be nice to have the new appliances and cabinets in by the end of this week. We won't have a countertop for a few more weeks, so we'll still be using our makeshift kitchen in the laundry room for awhile.

House projects aren't all we did this weekend... Friday night was St. Mike's family night at Skateland. We got there late and only had a short time to skate, but both girls had a ball. Margaret had another b'day party on Saturday--this one for her "best" friend at school, Monica, and Monica's twin Christina. Seemed like a really nice bunch of kids. During the party, Caroline and I went and got her some new roller skates ("REAL ones this time, not those little plastic little kid ones that you use with your shoes...") and practiced at a park in the beautiful sunshine. Caroline came with me to pick Margaret up at the end of the party and scored one of the extra treat packs (a cool metal "lunch box" type purse with High School Musical stuff all over it...). Saturday night we went out for Mexican food. Sunday was a children's theater performance of Rapunzel that was really good. My Mom joined us, and we went with Margaret's Brownie Girl Scout group while Jeff continued to slave away on the house project. It's a good thing he likes this stuff!

We LOVE long weekends!

What a treat it is to get three days in a row, home together! Throw in a little sunshine and life is REALLY good! We had a great one just hanging around the house, getting things ready for the kitchen demolition, which happened on Monday.



The girls had a lot of fun "staking their claim" to a fort across the street in the park. They built a tee-pee under the big evergreen trees, staked it with a sign claiming it for themselves and their friends Peter and Anne, and decorated it with all kinds of stuff from the park.



By Monday night, the demolition crew was done taking out the kitchen cabinets and wood floors. We had dinner in the great big empty room. This week the new cabinets arrive!

Phantom of the Opera

Somehow the girls got it into their heads to perform the "Phantom of the Opera" for us. I didn't even know where they'd heard of it, but apparently someone did a piece from it at the school talent show. It made quite an impression on Margaret & Caroline, I guess. They came home from school last week, made their own masks, and rehearsed all afternoon. They made tickets for me and Jeff, and after dinner we descended into the darkness below... With lights out, flashlights glowing, and spiders hung from the ceiling above the couch, they sang and performed mock battle scenes for us. Quite entertaining...

"Me Stew"

Take a listen to Caroline reciting the Shel Silverstein poem "Me-Stew" for Grammy & Grampy Doyle tonight. This is a poem she memorized for school a few weeks ago. She was much more animated before the cameras were rolling. Believe it or not, I think she might have been just a bit camera shy.

Disco party!

Margaret reached a major milestone this weekend when she went to her first ever slumber party. A friend from last year's first grade class invited her to a Disco birthday party. She got decked out in her groovy outfit and had a blast at the glo golf in the mall, then dancing with a disco strobe light, make up, and a late night of movies at Shannon's house. Not a lot of slumbering going on at this party--turns out they stayed up past midnight! When Caroline and I went to pick her up this morning the girls were bouncing like crazy in an indoor bouncy house set up in the family room. Needless to say she was a bit pooped out by the end of today. Caroline certainly missed her big sister but got the consolation prize of having a friend over for a playdate and dinner last night. This is a picture of the girls saying their farewells before the big outing.

Next remodel installment

I got home Wednesday night from my work trip to Chelan and found the front door and porch of our house had moved! It's quite exciting! The kitchen cabinets around the fridge are gone too. Not sure how much you can tell from these pictures, but it looks VERY different!

Yummmmmm...

Here are a couple shots of the girls making and enjoying their chocolate covered cherry desserts. Margaret found the "recipe" in one of her kid's tea party cookbooks so we had them for dessert a couple weeks ago. I'm sitting in a hotel over in Chelan right now with nothing to do but update our blog while waiting for a hearing to start tomorrow morning... Thankfully I brought the computer!

Party girls...

Yesterday after school the girls had a playdate with a neighbor girl from up the street (Maggie). Melissa and Maggie's mom Rebecca gave them the full beauty treatment, with french braids and make up. They dressed up and had a little dance party. This was just the final cap to what has been a very big week at school for them.

I don't have many pictures, but it was festival week at school where the girls had dress-up days and lots of activities, including "wacky clothes" day and "culture" day. There was BBQ picnic in the gym one day at lunch, a talent show one afternoon, a cultural fair one evening, and a mardi gras party yesterday. I'm afraid next week is going to feel like a let down, although I'm sure the teachers will be happy to get back on track with regular lessons.

One more remodel shot

I forgot to include a picture of the new opening between the kitchen and dining room. This is one of the parts I'm loving the most--it makes the top of the stairs feel much better--less crowded. I also really like how it makes the dining room feel more connected to the rest of the house, but we're definitely glad we didn't take the other wall out between the stairway and the dining room...

Remodel update

Well, we've completed week one of the upstairs remodel. So far the crew has removed the old fireplace and framed in the new one on the opposite side of the living room; replaced the windows next to the old fireplace; removed the studs around the living room side of the stairway wall; removed the desk and opened the wall between the kitchen and dining room; and started preparing to move the front entrance out a few feet onto the porch. Miracle of miracles I have also figured out how to post video on the blog, so you can get a brief tour of the work in progress! I'm told we have one more week with a functioning kitchen and then it will be out of commission for "awhile" (2-3 weeks???) while the flooring, cabinets, and appliances are replaced...