Fireplace Makeover

Home decorating is a passion of mine and can often get pushed to the back burner when the To Do list is miles long.  But, I have been trying to focus more on it in the past couple months which makes me happy. :o)

Sometimes you want to paint, but you don't want to paint the whole wall.  In those cases a little paint as an accent can go a long way.  A couple weeks ago I added some deep chocolate brown paint to the wall around our fireplace in an attempt to make it stand out more in the living room.  What do you think??
 

BEFORE

AFTER

The whole project took a little over an hour to do and the cost was minimal since I didn't need much paint.  The trick with getting clean lines on a textured wall is to use paintable caulk along the edge of the blue tape when you tape it off.  The caulk fills in the crevices along the edge that a textured wall creates, leaving crisp lines when you are done. 

First Grade Sock Hop

I've said it before, I will say it again - I LOVE our elementary school.  It is beyond refreshing to have a school go back to the philosophy that learning should be fun and interactive.  And it is such a relief to have a school that places importance on standardized testing, while not making it the most important thing they do.  We feel extremely blessed to have Joey attending this school and grateful that Logan was just enrolled for the 2013-2014 kindergarten year.  So many crappy things had to happen for us to move Joey to this school, and it is one of the many silver linings we have discovered through the ordeal of the past year.

Yet another example of a super fun way to teach was the 1st and 3rd grade 1950's Sock Hop they just held.  Want to teach kids about the history of music?  What better way than to bring in a live musician to sing Elvis songs and let the kids dance around the cafeteria in their socks?!  Complete chaos? Absolutely! Totally fun and memorable for the kids?  Absolutely! Is this lesson going to appear on the standardized test this spring? Nope!

Joey learned about the clothes and styles of the 50s, discovered the King of Rock and Roll, and heard Elvis songs for the first time.  Priceless.  We also learned that no matter how much hairspray and gel I put into Joey's hair it refused to stay slicked back!

It is so easy to forget to expose your kids to different genres of music, so easy to just have them listen to whatever is on your favorite radio station.  But we have the technology to allow them to listen to a virtual encyclopedia of music!  If anything, this Sock Hop opened my eyes to the wealth of history that can be taught through music.  I now plan to make a more conscious effort to broaden our children's musical horizons.  When will they get to hear Sinatra or Tony Bennet if we don't put it on from time to time? What a shame it would be to have them miss out on years of getting the lyrics "bye, bye Miss American Pie... " stuck in their heads! C'mon you know you are singing that darn song in your head right now!  To be fair, we are just transitioning out of John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt musical territory, but still I am inspired to start playing some jazz on the ride to school tomorrow!
  

I love that Joey wanted to dance with me.  Such a special memory I will forever cherish!

Sister Turns 7!

Emmie joined our family when she was 6 months old.  We had gone through the process to adopt through foster care, and once we were approved we got the call that they had a daughter for us a mere three weeks later.  As you can imagine, that is a story in and of itself! 

"Blessed" doesn't even begin to describe our feelings about our little princess, and one of the most unexpected blessings that came with Emmie was an entirely new arm of our family tree.  You see Emmie has a 7 year old sister and she was adopted by a different family.  We wanted the girls to grow up knowing each other and have found that the other family is on the exact same page.  We are so fortunate to have spent the last couple years getting to know this family and truly becoming one big happy family in so many ways.  We get together at least once a month, vacation with them, text and chat with them, etc.  We love all of them and are so grateful to have them all in our lives.   

That being said, this past weekend was Bella's 7th birthday.  Emmie was so excited to go to the party and picked out a pair of sunglasses for herself and a pair for Bella at Target.  The girls looked absolutely adorable of course!

Ready to party!

On our way to Bella's house - had to bring Lady the pink penguin too.

Bella rode with us to the party - shades compliments of sister Emmie!

Logan playing a the Bounce House place.

Cheri giving Emmie a lift to make a basket.

Joey concentrating on hitting the ball.

Emmie giving it a shot!

Logan - out for blood!