Elle's Dance Party at the Gap

Yesterday we went to the mall.  We actually had a very kid-enriching morning of Arts and Crafts scheduled, but it got cancelled at the last minute.  So instead, we went to the mall where I bought some cute gold wedges and Ellie scored some new clothes.  It's still 45 degrees here, but we leave on Saturday for two weeks in FLORIDA.  So we're busting out the spring clothes and sandals a few weeks early and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Here's Elle contemplating the mannequins at Old Navy:

Also, this little impromptu dance party happened at The Gap:

I swear, the girl's never met a patch of ground she can't turn into a stage, but this really took the cake.

"I'll Catch You!"

Elle, waiting at the bottom of the slide for me.  She's so helpful.

Dining Room Wainscoting Reveal

So my oldest friend, Jeremy, is an incredibly talented contractor/builder/jack of all awesomeness.  I mentioned several months ago that I wanted to install wainscoting in our dining room and his reaction was "Great, I'll come down and help you do it for your birthday."  Well, hot damn.  I am a seriously lucky gal.  Ashley and I spent most of the past weekend keeping four (yes FOUR) kids out of the way while Jeremy and Brian measured, cut, and installed (sometimes in that order) our fantastic new dining room.  I seriously love it.

As a reminder, this is the dining room shortly after we moved in:

And here is where we are today:

I honestly can't overstate how much I love it.  To recap, we got the table through a friend who knew it needed a new home and brilliantly thought of us.  I love the mismatched chairs and how farmhouse-y it is.  Plus we can easily have eight people for dinner.  The chandelier was a housewarming present from my in-laws.  I could sit and stare at it's shiny sparkleness for hours.  We still need a rug for under the dining table, though I'm seriously considering waiting until the kids are slightly less messy when eating.  Maybe by the time they go to college?  The wall color is Benjamin Moore's "Wolf Gray."  It's so pretty in person, a deep dark gray with just a hint of blue.  And the wainscoting is "White."  Just white.  We did our best to match the existing molding color and it's fairly close.  Honestly the molding needs to be redone soon anyway, but that's a project for another day.  The bunting in the windows is left over from Gabe's birthday.  It's so cheerful I can't bring myself to take it down.  And that's pretty much it.  We still have the kid's Ikea Kitchen and their little arts and crafts table in the room, so eventually those will probably be replaced with a nice hutch.  And I'm thinking I might want to replace the sheer curtain panels with something a little more substantial.  Brian thinks a color might be nice, but I'm inclined to stay neutral, maybe something with a little more texture and heft...But until I get up the motivation to finish things?  I'm calling it done.  And we just love it.

Future Perfect

Don't they look like bored teenagers already?  I can't even take it.