It's a Bates Life: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Beach

We planned a last minute beach vacation to the beach for Memorial Day. (Had we looked at the weather report, we may not chosen the beach we ended up at.) We rented a three bedroom beach house at Jacksonville (Jax) Beach. It was a GREAT location! We had to just walk out the back door and there was the beach!! We decided to wait until Saturday morning to leave (it's only 2 hours from us). We figured that by the time we left Friday night we would hit a little traffic and we wouldn't have any beach time anyway. We hit the road by 930 Saturday morning. We figured we'd play the beach a little before naps.

WELL our plans changed just a little because we remembered one of our best friends from high schools parents moved to Jacksonville a few years ago. SO 11 am Saturday morning we were knocking on their door. I'm pretty sure they have only seen pictures of the boys, but they could have met Carson when he was a little baby. It was so nice to see them!! We spent an hour visiting then with the Swartz's and planned to meet them for dinner as well.

We spent the afternoon planning at the beach Saturday. It was BEAUTIFUL!! (It was the calm before the storm!!) When they napped mama laid out in peace!! It was great!!

Dinner was fun! It was great spending time with them! Carson LOVED Mrs. Susan and the spider man helicopter she gave him!!

Sunday was a bit more interesting!! We were up and out on the beach by 830. It was a beautiful morning!! But by 10 it started getting pretty gray and windy! We decided to head in to put Tyler down for his morning nap and Carson got to watch a movie. By the time Tyler woke up it was extremely windy and the rain started. So much for an afternoon on the beach! We went to explore in downtown Jacksonville. We went to their science museum and then headed back home for naps. Since Tropical Storm Beryl was making it's presence known we did family night at the bowling alley! I guess we should have left to come home that night but we didn't! It was extremely windy that night! Luckily the boys slept through it all even if Jason and I didn't.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend!! Even if the weather was not perfect spending time together as a family was priceless!!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Last day...

Carson's last day of preschool was Wednesday. I know he did not begin the school year with these teachers or this school but I am so glad we ended up here! Moving to Florida was hard... But finding this school was a true blessing! Carson started the week after we moved and never skipped a beat! The transition was a little hard, just learning new rules but overall he had a very successful year!!

In Charlotte he was in a younger class because he's an early September birthday. Although I understand sticking to the "rules" and having all the children placed into classes base on birthdays I do not feel this is always appropriate or the right choice for the individual. Carson was the only child potty trained in his Charlotte class and the only who was really speaking in sentences. He got into trouble a lot and loved school but always had a hard time when I was time to go in the morning. I realize now that he was not liking it because he was always getting into trouble and was sent out of the classroom at least once a week. Poor guy felt like he was 'bad!' fast forward to Orlando. They also have an end of August cut off date for kindergarten but the preschool place children based on the individual not just the birth date.. This worked out very well for Carson! He seems to thrive more around "older" children. He is a much better follower than he is a leader. :)

We will truly miss his teachers next year!! They always focused on the positives of each day. They didn't dwell on the mistakes that were made but they did use them as teachable moments.

As a class we got them several wonderful end of the year gifts but I also wanted to say thank you in our own way. Carson and I came up with three reasons why he loved each o his teachers. (thank you Maridith Fitts for the idea!) I found a cute picture of him and typed the reasons on. I printed out the picture and mod podged it onto the back of a special handprint picture we made. So on the front they would have his little hands made into butterfly wings and I wrote (thanks for helping me spread my wings) and then on the back I put the picture of him with the three things he loved about that teacher. We gave them the pictures along with some cookies on the last day of school.

Monday, May 21, 2012

And we're done...

So today starts a new chapter... I stopped nursing Tyler today. I started the transition a couple of weeks ago. I was nursing him in the morning and then before nap. I cut out his before nap nurse and this morning I cut his morning nurse. I'm not sure who it will be harder on... Him or me. :) BUT Jason and I are going to Italy at the beginning of July and Tyler needs to be weened by then! So we will be working on him becoming more independent over the next month so when he's with the grandparents for a week, he will be a-ok! :)

Friday, May 18, 2012

What to do....

Nothing is more exciting than having a vision and then seeing it come alive! Well I had a vision... (look at the picture below)

Source: kfddesigns.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

and my vision DID NOT come alive!! Thursday I saw this amazing post on Pinterest and it inspired me! We have been wanting a new dining room table for little while. We both really love farm tables and we LOVE two from Restoration Hardware. I would LOVE to just buy the table we want but we need to be practical, we don't REALLY need a new dining room table. A while ago, Jason suggested that I fix up our current table until we decide to buy a new one. Honestly I didn't like that idea because I LOVE the farm tables so much that I didn't think I could achieve the style I was really going for. Fast forward to Thursday morning...the post I saw on Pinterest was like a light bulb for me! Gray Washing blog WOW... "gray-washing." what a great idea! I had heard of white washing but not gray washing.

An hour after reading this blogTyler and I were on our way to Lowe's to get some paint. I bought sample size paints because I knew I didn't need a lot. While the boys napped I started gray washing my table (wish a BIG smile on my face because I kept picturing how great it was going to look)!! WELL... an hour after gray washing two table legs and half of the top and side of the table I just wasn't feeling it! I wouldn't say I hated it but it was definitely NOT the look I was going for! It was NOT gray, it looked very BLUE! UGH!! BLUE is not a color in the Restoration Hardware catalog. Double UGH!

So I had Jason help me move the table out to our patio and I started standing off the BLUE and the original stain. I tried gray washing the "naked' wood... UGH it still was a bit BLUE!! There was nothing about it that looked gray or at least the gray I was looking for! Stay tuned for updates on this "easy" project that has turned out to be a big challenge! :)

Can you see the BLUE legs?? I know the picture is not great because of the sun!!

Friday, May 4, 2012

pictures...a nap time project

I have been toying with the idea of making photo canvases for a while. I mean, how could it be really? I searched on pinterest (my not so secret obsession) for some ideas. I did a test run on some pictures for Tyler's birthday party and since doing my test runs I am completely hooked! It was so easy and I just love the way they turned out.

Step 1. Buy a white canvas (I bought mine from Michaels, on sale)
Step 2. Buy some Mod Podge (I bought the larder jar in matte finish)
Step 3. Pick out a picture and have it printed in LUSTER (or matte) finish
Step 4. Paint the canvas (using a sponge brush) with the mod podge
Step 5. Place the photo onto of the mod podge and rub/push down all the edges and sides
Step 6.Paint over the photo with the mod podge, making sure you get the edges really well.
Step 7. Wait... it take about a an hour for it to completely dry. You can do another coat if necessary.
Step 8. Hang and enjoy! :)

Step 5... the pictures were just places on the mod podge and pressed down

Step 6. painting over the pictures. YES it is ok that it is white, no worries because it dries clear.

This is what it looks like as it is drying... this is about 30 minutes after it was painted

All DRY. (I wanted to show you it was dry by placing my hand on it) It was about an hour after I started the project.

the rest of the pictures..

A few of the canvases that I did earlier this week. I found some unfinished frames, painted them and put 8 x10 canvases inside.

My other canvas project area! This is at the top of our stairs. I used 4-8x10 canvases, 2-12x12's, 1- 9x12, and 1-11x14. I just LOVE how it turned out!!

If you have ever been to our house you know how much we love pictures of our family. This is a great way to hang larger pictures with out spending a TON of money on frames or professionally printed photo canvas prints.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tyler's party

What a wonderful weekend!! The boys and I flew up to DC Thursday evening, Jason was in Texas on business. I was hoping by taking a later flight one if not both of the boys would sleep on the plane. NOPE! Carson did a wonderful job but Tyler was "that baby" most of the flight. (Which was a big surprise given Tyler is such a mellow child and he has flown several times before and never had any issues.) Jason flew in Friday night, just in time for the party on Saturday morning.

Since we didn't get in until 10ish on Thursday night I was not able to bake or start any party prep until Friday. I did do some prep work in Florida. For a craft I wanted to kids to make butterflies so I made all the butterfly bodies and glued them to the canvases and brought them with me. I also made caterpillars that said "happy birthday tyler," a caterpillar photo gallery, caterpillar and polka dot cookies for favors, caterpillar stickers, and table tent food cards.

Food Label Cards

Happy Birthday Tyler caterpillar...

0-12 month pictures in the shape of a caterpillar

Butterfly art project

We invited the children to make their own butterflies using their hand prints (or footprints).

Cookie Favors.

I made 45 cookies in Florida before leaving. I wrapped them very carefully and to my surprise they all made it! (I made extras just in case a few broke.)

We celebrated with family and some good friends in Virginia. It was a wonderful party! We even had some friend come up from Charlotte to celebrate with us! Thanks to everyone helped us celebrate!!

Nana and Tyler