have i mentioned how much i love stephen colbert?

happy birthday oona bean!

Oona's middle name isn't bean, it's Amelia. But somehow I've been calling her Bean or Beanie ever since she was a baby and would arch her back, scrunching up her legs while sleeping and her shape would resemble an adorable little kidney bean. Apparently Google is having a birthday too, 13 to Oona's 6. She was very excited to see the Google banner today.
Brought pink and purple cupcakes to her classroom
The birthday girls this week. just fyi Oona is not petite (she's 75% percentile for height), I don't know what they're feeding these girls in Pittsburgh, there's fourth graders taller than me (I'm 5'6").

goodbye summer

I have only gotten around to having a summer banner on the last day of the kids summer vacation. Oh well, it will be up until I get around to the fall banner which might take awhile given I'll be in the last 8 week stretch of school. The last day before school was quite lovely, up until Oona's meltdown when we had to leave the park. But she quickly turned it around in the car, thank God. Hope the upcoming school year is healthy, happy and fun for any (and all) readers of my blog!


Oona with Nacho, a chihuahua Owen bought Oona with the $20 he found on the floor of a restaurant (he also got himself a basketball, trick handcuffs and a cap gun with caps and had twelve cents left, thanks to 5 below)


The comedy and tragedy of Panera

Owen's friend Patrick making like part of the creek and trying to trick the fish into his net.





Owen's cave. He spent most of his time at the park building it and I hung out with him and Patrick while Oona was with the other children and Moms. Patrick caught a big frog twice but I didn't have the camera with me at the time to commemorate the event.

thought the color of this mushroom was lovely. made sure to wash my hands thoroughly after handling.

floor update

These two pictures above show the worst area of my floors before and after, honestly I didn't think it would turn out as well as it did because this section of the dining room floor is very chewed up.




These pictures show before during and after the refinishing. I love the original light color of the red oak but the dining room floor had extensive water stains the turned the red oak a greyish brown which no amount of sanding could get rid of. So I had the floors stained a dark walnut and it blends the water stains in much better than had I just left the wood the original color. I was amazed to see all the different grains of the oak and am glad that shows up with the darker stain too. This is the bookcase redone and the sandpiper walls. I still need to polyurethane the bookcase and let it cure a bit. I think the bookcase will look better once books and baskets are on it. Hopefully then it won't read as overly distressed it will just sort of blend in to the background. And I'm going to paint the inside of the fireplace a darker grey because I'm that kind of anal. Meanwhile all my books are hiding out on the stairs to the third floor and in my room, which looks like I could qualify for a hoarding show right now, it's a disaster.