Louie's Room

Louie's room has been a work in progress for almost a year.
It started last fall, we were at our last Twins' game of the season at Target Field and I rented a wide angle lens to take some photos.  Knowing that Louie wanted to ultimately have a baseball themed bedroom, I wanted to get a good shot of the whole ball park to print on a canvas for his wall.
Then, I found this super cute bedding at Home Goods, one of my all time favorite stores.  They also had those fun baseball pillows.  (picked one up for cousin Lorenzo, because he would surely end up with a baseball bedroom someday too.)
On a recent trip to Home Goods, Louie found the cute sports themed lamp.  He's been asking for a lamp so he can read in bed at night.  Score!  Then, we had that cute little table that I picked up at an estate sale for $5 many years ago.  So, after finding a super easy tutorial on refinishing furniture, he and I set out yesterday to paint it red.  Louie's favorite color is red.....

When I couldn't sleep last night, I got up at 2am and painted on the glaze and wiped it off with a rag.  Voila, we now have a super cute red table for his bedside lamp.....
The cute little school desk is a craigslist find this fall for $10.  I picked one up for each of the kids to have a desk in their room.  
and here it is, Louie's sports themed bedroom:

the good and the not so good

Ordinary Day

I found this video on a blog that I read pretty regularly.  She shares some pretty fun things to read and watch.  I also really admire Erin Cobb's photography.  It's beautiful and inspirational. 
Earlier this week, Erin posted this video and I finally watched it today. 
It is lovely! 


and if this doesn't inspire me to take more ordinary day pictures of our little family, I don't know what will!

Closet

I am in the process of cleaning out the closets in the kids bedrooms.  I'm so bad at keeping up with the task....
Anyhow, as we move closer to the start of school, I have to make room and get things organized!
It is CRAZY! how much stuff these two accumulate.
I wish I was the garage sale kind of gal!  There would be a gold mine in here!
Why do old homes have such small closets?
My goal is to find homes for the things that have to go and find them pronto!   

July 4th

This is the 4th of July for Emily....every year.....
my favorite from this year. 

Summer fun!

We've had a really busy summer so far and it seems that it isn't going to slow down until the middle of August.
It's been HOT, HOT, HOT (and humid, humid, humid) which is no fun! Sunday it was so hot and humid, I couldn't stand to be outside. So, E & L put on their swim suits and cooled off in the swimming pool. Really cold water fresh from the hose didn't even phase them.
We improvised and made our own diving board.

practicing his belly flop

and catching some air

ahhh good times!
This one tried her own version of a belly flop

or was it a somersault? I can't tell, Miss Cautious wasn't having any part of jumping, I know that for sure.

Popsicles!

We've got a popsicle addict at our house...and since we can't keep up with the consumption of them, this might not be a bad idea! 
Simple Summer Popsicles
Now, I need to find a nice popsicle mold.

Watch this, please!

It is a very powerful video and a reminder to me of the summer that my own Dad was diagnosed with Melanoma.  He survived and lived another 30 years!
Just a friendly reminder to make that annual appointment with the dermatologist!

Charlie

My nephew, Charlie, is graduating this spring....my sister asked if I wanted to take a shot at his senior photos. I like how they turned out, I think Charlie does too. Our first attempt at pictures, we ran all over Nicollet Island and took photos. When I got home and took a peak at the results, I knew that we had to go again....AFTER he followed my directions and got a haircut!

So, we headed back to Nicollet Island on a Sunday afternoon. We walked, drove and snapped pictures. Then, I noticed that DeLaSalle has their OWN school bus....Charlie thought this idea was so "gay" (spoken like a true 17 year old), but it turns out, this is his favorite shot of the day. It is mine too!

Cocoa Beach 2011

Dan, Louie, Emily, Auntie M and me, drove to Cocoa Beach last week for a week in the sun with Grandma and we were lucky to spend a couple days with the Florida Jansens. It was great to spend three short days with them.....it was hard to leave them. The kids had so much fun together.

More on our trip later this week.