40th birthday bash

he is 40

We got invited to a good friend's 40th birthday bash on Saturday. They were having it at the new brewery in town, Blue Bloods, that also has a tour of the cave it sits on.  It was a cave I went to as a kid when it used to be open to the public.  We were super excited to see it again.  It was pretty cool but not at all like I remember.  It was nice and cool and was home to some bats that came out to greet us.  I wasn't a huge fan of their beer but Chad liked it.  Their food however was AMAZING!  Super good food. We had such a blast at this party.  We only knew our friends that had the party but met some super fun people that we will hopefully hang out with again sometime.  We seriously had an awesome night with tons of laughs.

inside the cave

a spiral staircase we were not allowed to go down

getting a little history on the cave

it was pretty cool in the cave

this is the area where the bats came out.  i was not a fan of the bats

i was watching carefully for bats

those are all the names carved in from when it was open to the public

the whole group

enjoying beer and dinner

jason with some friends

our dinner table

our meal. philly cheese steak and an assortment of fries. seasoned to perfection

we then headed to widlerness ridge for drinks and more laughs

the gang

another picture from the other side of the table

King Kong and DQ

One random Friday night we got a few of the neighbors to join us at King Kong for dinner.  It was completely spur of the moment and it is clear across town but two of them decided to join us.  It was a fun little gathering and the kids had a blast eating together.  Afterwards we headed across the street to the Dairy Queen to get dessert.  We are enjoying our last neighborhood get togethers since they won't technically be our neighbors any more (but we will still get together, just not as neighbors).

eating dinner at king kong

waiting for ice cream at king kong

emma, cohen, ava, callan, carter, ethan, camden, jackson and josh

Piano Makeover

I have been wanting to makeover my piano for a while now. It is an ugly 70's lighter oak color with high gloss.  All things I am not fond of. It is kind of an eye sore in the living room and I want it to be more of a center piece. I had a friend who used chalk paint and re-did hers. I loved the finish product and was looking into doing that.  Then I saw where someone used chalk paint and gel stain.  I had another friend using gel stain on her handrails and bannister at her house and it looked super good. So after watching several youtube videos I finally got the courage to take the plunge and do it.  I tried the top of the piano bench first and then just decided I like it so much I was just going to do it all.  I took the piano apart and got everything draped in an afternoon.  You have to wait a full 12-24 hours for the coats to dry so that made this a long process because I ended up doing 2 coats but something things I had to flip sides so it took longer.  I think put a rub on satin clear poly coat and I was finished.  I felt like it was hard to get used to at first but now I love it!  It was so fun to do and I was glad I took on the project.  Now, when our piano is front and center at our new house it will look nice.

the yucky golden oak color

taping off the keys was the worst part. since there is no sanding with gel stain it made this process so nice and I didn't have to worry about dust getting in all the keys

first coat going on

top of the bench and music stand. i also had pieces in the basement

hard at work one evening

taking a break from all the staining

I love the java color. It was General Finishes gel stain in Java 

the finished product

here is the before and after comparisons

Star City Shores

Chads work rented out Star City shores on the second day of school in the evening.  We weren't thrilled about them staying out a little late during the first week of school but this is a water park that has slides and we never take them there, so we thought it would be a good opportunity for them to swim there.  I went to a movie with my friend Kaci, so Chad took all the boys.  It wasn't busy at all so the boys pretty much had the place to themselves.  They funniest part was that the boys were not tall enough to ride all the slides but Callan kept pleading with them to let him go down and they let him. They really enjoyed themselves and it was nice that Chads work planned it.

Camden coming off the stripe slide

Carter giving some love to the camera on his way down

you can see callans little head barely over the edge of the slide

here he is sliding off the end after pleading with the lifeguard to let him go down

see how much shorter he was than the mark?

camden didn't quite make it either

playing in the waterfall

First day of school

The kids had a great first day at school.  It was the very first day that Wysong elementary was open!  They will all be able to say they were there on opening day! We had a successful walk to school and everyone found their place.  It was old hat to the two oldest and Callan was pretty excited, but he was overwhelmed by the amount of people around and started to look nervous.  He kept creeping toward me but stayed strong and walked in the school like a champ!  I can't believe my baby is in kindergarten!  After school we went to get ice cream with the neighbors to celebrate a great first day!

ready for the first day of school

showing off their new backpacks

waiting to walk to school

a quick picture with our neighbor Ethan

a quick pic of the kids by the school

camden and graham

camden graham and gus

callan with mrs. engle

he was starting to get a little nervous about walking in

I was hoping he didn't have to wait much longer. he kept creeping towards me

but he made it and had a great first day

ice cream with callan and ava

the big kids

even cohen got to come along