Old House, New House

We are finished! Whew! We are finished with our latest round of home improvements, adding to our list of previously-completed projects (1st bedroom, living room/dining room, new floors, 2nd bedroom) since we moved in 2.5 years ago. It's time for a nice long break and many freed-up weekends before we start on the next round of renovations (kitchen, basement, attic...gulp!). Steve did all the work and has learned so much in the process.




The Brown Room, formerly known as "The Room on the Way to the Attic", is a miscellaneous room: part TV room, part sewing room, part guest room when we need it, or perhaps someday a home office.


Bedroom


Foyer






We didn't have any good "before" pictures of the stairwell, but you can kinda-sorta see the change. If anything, you can see how much A has grown in a year. :-)

September Stuff

A's 1st day of preschool. He loves it, esp because they have Thomas & Friends trains at school.


Off to pick tomatoes out of our garden with Nana


C is 10 months old.




New raincoats, although C has a couple of months before she'll fit into her coat.

Misc August

We're up to our necks in construction dust as we renovate the last two bedrooms upstairs and replace carpeting on the stairwell. Pictures of that to come. Meanwhile, the kids are adjusting well to our torn-apart house.



C is 9 months old.



With some of the cousins at Grandparents Kretzing's 50th anniversary celebration


C's Latest Tricks: Wrist-shaking maraca-playing and mimicking "uh-oh" (Perhaps, I say that too much.) :)

Penn State

We took a trip to visit S's alma mater and met up with one of his landscape architecture classmates and his family. What a scenic drive to State College, PA and what a beautiful campus!


Kristi, Matt and Molly (5 months) on the lawn in front of Old Main




The new architecture/landscape architecture building at Penn State. Too bad the l.arch. building didn't look anything like this when S and Matt were earning their degrees.


The kids before their morning coffee


Nit(tany Lion)-picking






C's first PSU duds


They were drowsy heading to bed, but then giggles and a second wind came about once A and C realized they were going to sleep in the same bed together. A sleepover? Hooray!!!




Finally. It was peaceful for the first few hours until the baby-toddler 90-degree-turn-kick-mom-in-the-back-all-night began.

Here a Hole, There a Hole, Everywhere a Hole Hole...

S has started renovating the last two remaining rooms on the 2nd floor, and there's no hiding the dust this time. He is running new electric, cutting out the old electric, etc., which means holes had to be cut in walls, ceilings and floorboards on both the 1st and 2nd floors. It seems we've timed it perfectly (sarcasm!) as C has now started to crawl.


The smallest room upstairs known as the-room-on-the-way-to-the-attic




1st floor hallway


1st floor hallway ceiling


2nd floor landing




C is 8 months old.


Our little architect

Zucchini Ad Nauseam

Thanks to S's super-freak garden (it's actually a very wonderful garden, which is producing lots of nice things), we've had more than our fair share of zucchini this year. I think we're going for the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Consecutive Days of Eating Zucchini". Blech.

Here is the latest monster from the garden.

Dutch Wonderland: A Kingdom for Kids

We took the kids to Dutch Wonderland, which is an amusement park geared towards younger children. We had a lot of fun.


A's 1st solo amusement park ride




The G-force was with him, and he did not like it.






Some rides, such as Crazy Plane, were a little too long and too stomach-turning for a 2-yr old novice rider.




After a refreshing romp in the adjacent waterpark "Duke's Lagoon", we headed home. Dutch Wonderland worked its magic.


Despite an exhausting day at DW, A rallied and enjoyed the 4th of July parade back home


A has become quite the mulberry connoisseur.

June Jubilee

Our dainty little flower and her latest voice


C tolerates a lot.




M is 415 months old; C is 7 months old.


Climbing the rocks on the grounds of Dickinson College


Not sure how it made it into our house in the first place, but A found this umbrella hat...


...and didn't want to take it off.


A is in early training for the drum circle at Eeyore's Birthday Party in Austin thanks to S's musical talent with a potty chair cover and a Little Tikes piano.