Project Life - May

What? It's July 1st and I'm just getting May posted? Yep. I was SOOOO close to being caught up! But then summer happened and kids were home all day and suddenly I'm still wondering where June went!

Needs Just a Little Practice

I saw the video below online and called the kids down to watch it. It's fun to listen to AND fun to watch! We were all smiling at the end.

Afterward we were in for a treat! Maddie decided that the pianist's part wouldn't be THAT difficult. So she sat laid down to play a little tune for us...





You can hardly tell a difference between the two performances, right??

They Just Needed a Little Push

We opened our pool about a month ago, but weren't able to swim until just a couple weeks ago. Maddie and Jake were excited to get the summer started and lined up together to jump in simultaneously.

This happens every year. It's like a tradition. They hold hands...count to three...

Then stand there.

Then they do it again.

This is SUCH a tradition that I knew I didn't even need to worry about taking pictures on the first "jump".

But, I did have my eye on Mike who was walking behind them. Knowing him so well (and knowing what my own dad did to us...and what I would have done...) I had my camera ready and my mouth shut and just waited...

It's moments like these that we walk away thinking, "Parenting is AWESOME!"

Kitchen Remodel Inspirations

About five or six years ago our neighbor, whom I had never met until that day, invited me into her house (which is exactly like ours) because we were discussing kitchens and they had just remodeled theirs - to the point of moving it to another room. I've never really loved our kitchen - I just haven't liked the layout or the size. When I got home I talked and talked and talked about this awesome kitchen to Mike and suggested we move our kitchen too...I think he replied with an eye roll.

I've continually "dropped this hint" on a regular basis ever since. I've even drawn up plans online and shown them to him. Over this same amount of time our kids have gotten bigger and both like to spend time in the kitchen. Maddie loves to bake and make smoothies. Jake loves to cook. We are discovering that four people in our kitchen does not work out well. Oh yeah...and when there's food out, the dog is SURE to be involved by just sitting at your feet looking up at you. She's a tripping hazard.

We took on the idea of updating our kitchen and picked out all new appliances with the intention of getting a new counter and floor. Then we just stopped and took no action. Neither of us was excited to spend that amount of money on a kitchen we both disliked more and more each day. Mike had drawn up some plans to move the kitchen and we liked it - but that's a huge step and we weren't completely sure it was best. Last week we finally decided to stop talking about it and get it done. We ordered all different appliances than originally planned and set the plans in motion. We are currently waiting on some bids for cabinets and we've started looking online (God Bless Pinterest!) for tile/counter/backsplash ideas.

Last night I was looking through Houzz.com which also has a handy app for my tablet. I was trying to find examples of a cabinet we were looking to order. It was a little late, it had been a long day of already looking at cabinets galore and I was getting a little punch drunk on cabinets. So...I buckled down and got serious on kitchen design...

First we have to decide on our style:

Versailles called - it wants it's kitchen back.

Traditional Kitchen by Lodi Kitchen & Bath Designers WL INTERIORS

A little too simple. (and that thing is a hood fan...)

Contemporary Kitchen by London Interior Designers & Decorators Celia James

We also have to decide on a color scheme:

Perhaps a lovely Blue...

Contemporary Kitchen by Burlingame Photographers Dennis Mayer, Photographer

Or Pink...

Eclectic Kitchen by New York Architects & Designers Cronos Design

Green??

Traditional Kitchen by Crosby Home Builders Copper Basin Custom Homes

Maybe just a little of everything to cover our bases:

Eclectic Kitchen by Hendersonville Artists & Artisans Monapaints.com


We will also have to decide on back splashes/wall coverings:

I've always wanted a garden...

Contemporary Kitchen

You have to admire the time and dedication it took to make this all fit together - but that asymmetrical hood really bothers me.

Eclectic Kitchen by Austin Architects & Designers Cornerstone Architects

Makes me want to pull out a Margarita. It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Tropical Kitchen by San Juan Capistrano Kitchen & Bath Designers THE KITCHEN LADY, Enriching Homes With Style


Next up is lighting - we'll be getting a couple pendants so this should be easy...

A microphone stand...calling everyone to dinner will be very easy!

Eclectic Kitchen by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

The Pièce de résistance...

Eclectic Kitchen by La Jolla Interior Designers & Decorators Andrea May Hunter/Gatherer


We have to make sure we put the details in:

Boar's head, anyone? (wait...is that a boar's head???)

Beach Style Kitchen by Atlanta Architects & Designers Historical Concepts

Too many details...and too much dusting.

Eclectic Kitchen by Santa Barbara General Contractors Giffin & Crane General Contractors, Inc.

We will be installing a big center island..

This would go AWESOME with the ship chandelier above!!

Beach Style Kitchen by Jamestown Architects & Designers Ronald F. DiMauro Architects, Inc.

Can you even imagine the intense hot dog Cook-offs the boys could have?!?

Contemporary Kitchen by San Francisco Architects & Designers Butler Armsden Architects

So, you can see where the next few weeks will be quite stressful for two people that aren't all that great at decorating in the first place. If we make the wrong choices - that could be a lot of therapy bills for our kids later in life!

April Project Life

I'm not keeping up with this nearly as well as last year. I have two weeks off starting today; my goal is to get caught up on this project and get it back into a regular schedule!

Catch-All Continued

To continue:

4. Outdoors...

Mike was in Chicago a week or so ago and Jake took over dinner and other duties one night. He really loves to use the grill which is fantastic because I really do not. He grilled us burgers which was happy for Maddie because burgers are not her favorite food and she was a track meet...

After dinner he and I also quickly planted some grass plants that our neighbors gave us when they split their large ones up. Thank you! They will hopefully grow big and block some of the ugly view under the deck! We were working quickly because the sun was going down.

5. Planning...

Neither Mike nor I are in love with our kitchen. The refrigerator has been steadily making louder noises for the past few months to the point that we've started to look at new appliances. While doing that we realized other things that needed to be updated. We did the whole "taping off" trick to decide if moving some cabinets would help with flow and layout. We decided in the end that what we would lose wasn't worth the extra work or cost. So, we'll do some aesthetic things and make a list for new ideas when we have a different house someday.

6. Rain...

The week that Mike was in Chicago this was our view Sunday through Thursday...

Every morning I texted him with, "Still. Raining." There have only been a couple of sunny days in the last couple weeks and we are treasuring those!

7. More Music...

Maddie had her last choir concert for Junior High! It was a Pops Concert and they did an amazing job on their songs; I truly think it was the best concert I had heard from them.

Her select choir sung the theme song from "Bond" movies complete with actions...

I also got to debut my mad African drum skillz.

And there you have it. Our spring in a nutshell.

Catch-All

I have had on my to-do list "Catch Up on Blog" for about the past three weeks. Clearly it isn't at the top of the list. I don't feel like we've really done anything that requires the world to be aware of - but at the same time we seem really busy every day and I don't know how we DON'T have stuff to report on.

So...here's a list of what's been happening here:

1. We celebrated Easter...

We were up early and at church. We helped prepare the Easter Breakfast that the youth host. Maddie, Jake, and I scrambled a bunch of eggs. Maddie and I left for choir and Jake stayed to represent the Murphy's in the kitchen. Mike is currently the president of the congregation and he usually gets pulled aside for various things at church now so he was handling other things. My parents attended the first service with everyone and we all enjoyed a breakfast together afterwards. That's when we noticed that Jake and my dad had matching outfits. Aren't they cute??

Later that afternoon we went to my parents' house for dinner with everyone. My parents always have an egg hunt for the kids. They each had to find 10 eggs (each kid was assigned a specific color of egg so they'd know which was theirs). That meant they had hidden 80 eggs and didn't write anything down as to WHERE they hid them. Somehow only one egg was not found which I think is actually a pretty good percentage. 

My dad's birthday was only a couple days later so we also celebrated his big day while we were all there. He had "helpers" to cheer him on in gift opening and then we had cupcakes to celebrate afterward.

2. Going Wild...

Mike had the opportunity to attend a Wild playoff game with some friends from church. They ended up right beside the rink. He had a ton of fun and was only a little hoarse the next day.

3.  Music to my Ears...

My students' recital was held in early April. There were about 20 kids that participated and Jake was one of them. I loved his piece (Gardens in the Mist by Dennis Alexander) and he did a fantastic job! Here's the video Mike was able to capture:

Maddie was set to play one of my all-time favorite pieces. She couldn't participate in the recital because her arm was still in a sling from her surgery the week before. Now that her sling is off I've asked her to start practicing it again so I can record it at home. Hopefully that will be coming to a desktop near you soon.

In order not to bore you with too many words I'll continue the rest of this catch-all series later in the week.