Rainy Day Fort Fun

We've had a lot of rainy days here lately, and I've been planning for a rainy weekend like the one we had a few weeks back. The school where I work ordered several new chairs this school year, and I had the plant engineer save the rather large boxes for me. After collecting several, I brought them home, stored them in the garage, and waited for the perfect rainy day to bring them out.

Well, that rainy day finally came. I told Lil Girl about my plan to build a huge fort, and she was in! Lil Man quickly agreed he was in too! We picked the place and surveyed the space...

Relocated the materials...

Assembled each box...

Added some colorful quilts for a nice finishing touch.

The kids really enjoyed themselves. Lil Girl started coloring before we were even finished, but we quickly learned that chalk wasn't the best idea. We'll do markers next time. All in all, it was a pretty fun rainy day project. Lil Girl even spent a few nights inside the fort.

We're Still Here/Summer 2012 Update

It has been awhile, but we have not left. We really wanted to write a blog to keep up with family and friends, but most importantly to have a way to remember good times together and things we've done. Our absence here is not for a lack of quality times or events. I can't nail down exactly why we haven't written until now. We are always on the run, but who isn't? There is a possible link between the date we last wrote and when Lil' Man became mobile on two feet. Still exploring that one. 

Summer has been a blur and full of fun. I was able to quit one of my draining side jobs and spend more weekend time with Erin and the kids. Looking back, that decision has definitely paid off big time. We've had a ton of fun with the extra time. 

One thing we've been really able to enjoy lately is cycling. Erin and I realized we wanted to do more with the kids as a family while enjoying the outdoors. We had done some hiking/backpacking during pre-children times, but our kids aren't quite ready for those physical demands. Or at least we weren't with kids. We settled on cycling as there is a super nice bike trail here in Greenville that has a ton to offer. I immediatly started seaching Craigslist for what we needed. In a matter of a couple weeks we were able to obtain two sweet Peugeot touring bikes (his & hers) for the early 80's decked out with chrome fenders, lights, etc.. We also happened upon a four bike Yakima hitch rack and a Schwinn bike trailer for the kids. Scored all of the above for $200 bucks. Yes, we are definitely big fans of Craigslist. Since then we've racked up tons of miles on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The kids have loved the stops and destinations more than anything and we love the exercise, so it's a win-win. 

Lil' girl also got a taste of ballet this summer. She participated in a week long summer camp. It was a ton of fun to watch her little concert at the end of the week. She rocked out with the bluebirds. 

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary this summer stopping in at one of our local favorites, Lazy Goat. We followed dinner with Soby's for dessert. Yum! It was a nice evening out and a time for me to reflect on how blessed I truly am to have such an amazing and loving wife. 

We celebrated lil' Girl's 5th birthday this summer as well...a birthday so long and so filled with fun that she'll probably have a distorted view of what her birthday should look like for awhile. To start we let her have her first sleepover with her best bud and cousin Lil' M. Erin took the girls out to the mall for lunch, let them get their nails done, had them pick out their favorite Disney princess movie, and let them pick out their favorite cupcake at Gigi's. It was a sugar filled night of princess fun over here. 

 

Lil' Girls actual birthday just so happened to fall on the same week that we would be at the beach, so that ended up being part of her birthday as well. We celebrated in the morning with an amazing birthday waffle cake made by her Uncle Alex and another birthday cake and presents in the evening. 

 
To conclude the birthday events, we took Lil' Girl to Build-a-Bear and let her have a good run of the place. She did a pretty super job picking out the "bestest" bear ever.

Our beach trip to Harbor Island, SC was a lot of fun. We were able to ride our bikes around a ton, while hitting the beach and the pool pretty much everyday. Neighboring Hunting Island was beautiful. Lil' Girl enjoyed the beach more than ever. Some of the highlights were catching a beached shark, finding sharks teeth, cooking and eating amazing meals made by Uncle Alex, building sand castles, and seeing the kids have a ton of fun swimming everyday. We also got to explore the beautiful town of Beaufort and make a stop in downtown Charleston on the way home. 

 
This summer also afforded us our biggest sale to date on Etsy. Erin spotted this amazing mid century wall unit/room divider in Asheville, NC. We didn't have to think twice. Picked it up, put it up, and sold it in a couple weeks. To complete the deal, we personally delivered it to Raleigh, NC to a nice couple who appreciate this era of design. 

A few other things worth mentioning were trips to the park, Lil' Girl's first trip to the dentist, a day trip to Asheville, NC and just hanging out at the house building super cool train tracks and castles.

I know I'm leaving out something, but these were probably the biggest highlights of the summer.  All in all it has been an amazing past few months. I am so thankful for the family God has blessed me with. Hope to do a little better at sharing more in the future. 

Gerald

Etsy Update

A lot of cool things are happening right now with our Etsy shop, Grade A Fresh, and we thought we would take a minute to share. Grade A Fresh will be at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe this Saturday, December 10th from 11 to 5. We are participating in the Swamp Rabbit Flea along with several other amazing venders. Please come out, grab a coffee or a bite to eat, and do a little Christmas shopping with us. We are looking forward to meeting new people, letting people know a little more about what we do, and sharing our latest finds and treasures.

Grade A Fresh is also now on twitter @gradeafreshblog and Instagram at gradeafresh. We will be using these tools to share new items before they are posted to our shop. Look out for promos, sales, updates, and what we're up to as well.

Hope to see you guys this weekend!

Lil Man's Birthday Party!

My baby turned one at the end of last month. We celebrated his birthday with family and close friends here at our house.  I decided on a balloon theme after I saw how great the pictures I took of Lil man with balloons turned out. I found a picture of a cake that went perfectly with this theme, and I asked my friend Mikey to make it for me since she had made Lil girl's first birthday cake. As always, I was blown away by how talented she is. Not only do her cakes look good, but they taste amazing as well.

 

The day before the party, I asked my sister Lindsey if she could make a balloon banner for the party. She showed up a few hours before the party with 3 banners (can you say overachiever...ha-ha). One to hang on the mantle over the fireplace, one to hang on the china cabinet, and a cute paper garland cut into individual balloons that said "Happy 1st Birthday" to hang over the highchair. I was so thankful she did this for me as I literally had no time to do it myself. She definitely saved the party from looking boring. The morning of the party, I went and got 16 colorful helium balloons to use around the house for decor. I didn't think about how crazy it would be to try to get to the car with the balloons or how impossible it would be to drive home with that many balloons in the car. Lots of prayers were said on that ride home =)

You can't tell from this picture, but Gerald figured out how to get the pictures I took of Lil man at the park and the monthly pictures I took of him beside the owl to work as a slide show on the TV.

He had a great time making a huge mess and eating tons of sugar. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the inevitable sugar crash. Trust me, it wasn't pretty! Happy 1st birthday, Lil man. We love you so much!