First Bikes

We play outside in our front driveway all the time. Caden and Caroline love riding their big wheels and scooters down the slight slope of our driveway.

One day, I decided to teach them how to use their balance bike (which had previously been mostly ignored). Caden took to it extremely quickly. All he wanted to do was practice on the balance bike. Caroline liked riding it as well...whenever Caden wasn't on it.

After a couple weeks, they had completely mastered the balance bike. They could ride it in circles and figure eights with ease. Amy and I decided it was time to get them real bikes...without training wheels. We'd hope to wait until their birthday, but we didn't want to miss the boat with their high interest level.

One day, I went to Walmart and bought a couple bikes. The kids had ridden these at Walmart numerous times before.

We made the kids back out of the house and not turn around until I told them to.

 Caden and Caroline were very excited to see their new bikes.

 

 They immediately took their bikes to the top of our driveway.

Caroline with her super girly princess bike.

Caden on his Lightning McQueen bike.

It took less than five minutes before they got to riding the first time.

By the third time we went outside to ride their bikes, the kids were pros. I was AMAZED how quickly they picked it up. I'm definitely a believe in the balance bike!

Caroline's First Haircut

Last month, my little girl got her first haircut. I think it was more traumatic for me than it was anyone. I thought we should only get a half inch cut off, but Amy and the hair dresser said that was not enough. :)

Caroline preparing for her first haircut, just a couple months before her forth birthday. (She was bald until two and her hair finally started growing right around her third birthday.)

It took awhile to comb out all the tangles, but the hair dresser got it done. Caroline did an awesome job and never complained. At home, she'd cry any time we brushed her hair saying we were pulling it! Go figure?

 The first cut! Caden was very interested.

 Caden was very proud of Caroline. He has had quite a few haircuts.

 Check out Caroline! She even got a nice little braid and bow.

Her reward for doing so well was to pick out some nail polish and getting her toes done for the first Time.

Caroline loved her mommy manicure.

First Day of Preschool 2013

The kids summer vacation is over and they returned to preschool. This will be the first year where Caden and Caroline are not in the same class. Amy and I are sad about that but we know it is best. They will need to be used to this when kindergarten comes around.

 

Both kids had a hard time when we dropped them off in separate rooms but they ended up having good days. Hopefully, they will grow accustom to being in different rooms and will be even more excited to see one another when they get home.

 

Here are some pictures from our first day photo shoot.

 

Kitchen Cabinets

Amy has wanted a bench seat in our kitchen since we moved into this house. I was worried it just wouldn't work with the layout of our kitchen when one day, I thought out loud, "maybe we could build some cabinets on both sides of this window and put a bench seat in between." Amy loved the idea and I was on the hook! Me and my big mouth!

Here is our before picture. The cabinets and bench seat were destined for the back wall.

Home Depot had a great sale on in-stock cabinets the weeks following the 4th of July so we bought a bunch of unfinished ones. I would have loved to have gotten finished, but they would not work out for a variety of reasons.

After purchasing the cabinets, I was really on the hook.

I turned the third stall of our garage into a painting room and borrowed the father in-laws air compressor and spray gun.

Here are the cabinet doors ready for paint. To get to this point, I needed to sand each with 100 grit paper, clean, sand again with 220 grit paper, clean with a tack cloth, and move into my paint room.

It was a ton of fun painting in my plastic enclosed room. It was over a hundred outside, the room was filled with a cloud of paint fumes, and I had a mask and goggles on. I'm lucky I didn't pass out!

After a quick primer, sand, clean, primer, sand, clean, paint, sand, clean, paint, sand, clean, paint sand, clean, polycrylic (clear plastic finish), sand, clean, polycrylic, sand, clean, polycrlic, sand, clean I was done. Yup eight coats! Oh, actually, I needed to perform all those steps on both sides. This was way more work than I expected. With required paint dry time, this took a long time and was the most work.

I had to repeat the sanding process for the cabinet bodies as well. Thankfully, the hand sander worked better on the flat cabinet bodies.

While I was painting the cabinet doors outside, I started the build inside. One of my first steps was to cut the edge pieces so they could fit tight up against some of the window trim.

After getting a level base on each side, the cabinets went up fairly quickly. I used my clamps to get the cabinets as flush as possible. The problem was these cabinets were not designed to stack but instead should fit side by side. There were some gaps and uneven areas that were not noticeable until they were put together. I filled all of gaps with wood filler to make it all look nice.

 With the cabinets starting to go up, I turned my attention to the bench seat base.

 The kids thought the base was really cool.

 Here is a picture of the finished build, minus trim.

 The crown molding is now up and I was getting ready to paint.

 Just like the cabinet doors, eight coats were needed for everything inside.

 Here is the trim and baseboards I installed.

And after a ton of work, here is the finished project. We actually had to cut and modify the curtains so they fit well enough without hindering the cabinet doors.

 A view of the other side.

This project took a lot longer than I expected, but it was well worth it. I made a few mistakes along the way but was able to fix or work through all of them. I think it turned out nicely. We will love all the extra space in the kitchen. Amy is already looking around the house to find the next place for me to build a cabinet wall!