We were having a dramatic issue with Katie (OMG she can be such a drama queen) and I found this pile outside our bedroom.
These were the hearts we wrote for her and put on her door leading up to Valentine’s Day this year.
She loves these hearts.
I asked why she did it… “I DONT NEED LOVE.” I told her to throw them away and she refused, saying she still likes them.
Kids. Sigh.
Heading out for our anniversary dinner at — you guessed it — Primo!
With Anna and David of course! We can’t imagine celebrating big moments without these guys. They are the family we picked!
We ate Chinese for our first married meal so for a bunch of years after, we would eat Chinese on our anniversary—we even managed when he was deployed. Then we got out of the routine. We decided today was a good day to jump back in as we had to make an unexpected trip to Milwaukee so we had a lot of good options.
This was a definite winner as every single thing was DELICIOUS but our fave was the Sliced Pork Belly in Garlic Sauce.
I don’t always get the good Maggie cuddles so when it happens, I have to suck it up.
I could barely move by the time I went to bed last night (but I did remove my makeup!) and I literally fell into bed and didn’t move most of the night. So this day of relaxation is 100% necessary because we are DEAD exhausted. So I’m relaxing with my feet up (and wearing gel socks and Heel & Elbow cream because my heels are super cracked after wearing flip flops for multiple days all day long). We did a lot of cleanup last night and a little this morning but the rest of it can wait.
Maggie must even be exhausted—she hasn’t slept up here since the last house!
Y’ALL, IT’S TIME TO PARTY!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
Tom already had multiple racks of ribs smoked and in the sous vide for a day, but the butts are more last minute! This means we’re getting close to party day!
This yard is much smaller than the one we had at the rental so we were worried the waterslide wouldn’t fit…but it did!
We invited some kids over to use it and they had a blast!
We had a generic white ceiling fan in the living room but wanted something with a bit more pizzazz since we were redoing everything else…and with the high ceilings we also needed help! This is our electrician Jorge (he’s been doing jobs for us since we moved to Gurnee four years ago)!
We also got a new chandelier for the foyer…which also required Jorge.
So now I’ll take a minute and tell you some backstory: I found this chandelier on Facebook Marketplace back in May. It was expensive but was being offered at less than half price (I googled). But it was exactly what I wanted. Something I would have only dreamed of getting but never would because of the price.
So we discussed and decided yes. We offered $750 but she declined saying they paid full price. We still wanted it. But we had to borrow a truck and then we just couldn’t connect and then she was on vacation for six weeks… But we lucked out in that we were able to pick it up the day before Jorge was scheduled to come.
We went to pick it up and the lady was super nice. We chatted and told her we were military, this was my dream chandelier, etc. and she offered to buy the bulbs too thank us for our service! Wait, what? Seriously? We knew the bulbs were going to be a couple hundred dollars (we needed 36 and they are specialty bulbs) so we asked again to make sure. Yes, she was sure!
We chatted more and I ended up inviting her to our upcoming party, and she said she would order the bulbs ASAP and drop them off at the house!
We then shared a few texts picking out the bulbs we wanted (we had the same ones in both our carts) and then she even dropped off four bottles of Prosecco for our party! So the whole thing just went off perfectly.
Anyway. Back to the install.
Since it was so big and heavy, Tom and I even had to help!
Getting it to this point took two days and about four hours! It took a bunch of trips into the attic to reinforce the bracket and do the wiring and who knows what else.
And then it was time to install the lightbulbs!
And holy crap. It was just a little bright.
The light was obviously meant to be in just a bit bigger room. Or maybe a bigger non-enclosed space? Or less-bright lights? We all got a good laugh out of it regardless. And long story short, the bulbs are dimmable so we will eventually change one of the three switches to a dimmer.
But it’s perfect and I love it.
We had it rolled up while the fireplace was being worked on and the ceiling fan was installed. As soon as we put it back (adding the padded mat), she was all over it.
It’s also a good pic of the rug!
Stay tuned for final pics of everything!!
You guys. YOU GUYS. Here’s a look at the brand new Enchanted Forest Lip Duo! It’s AMAZEBALLS. Like seriously. And coming from a person who doesn’t love the lighter pink lip… that’s saying something.
Lunch and kid exchange, goodbye hugs, and proving that Owen is officially taller than Grannie now!
Or picking up the kids from two weeks of grandparent camp. Which happens today. In a few hours.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my children dearly. But I absolutely do not miss them while they’re gone for these two weeks. Aside from the fact I know they’re having a great time with their grandparents and making awesome memories…our house is soooo quiet and there’s no whining or arguing or drama or asking for snacks and I don’t have to do any parenting, which we all know is mentally exhausting.
FYI Tom says he misses them the whole time. I say it’s because he wasn’t the only one home with them for their entire lives (minus this past Covid timeline).
Owen got to drive for the first time!
Katie got a chance, too!
We Yelped to find a good restaurant for dinner, only to get there and it was closed. So on we went to our second choice—Tine & Cellar. We get there and get seated…then proceed to watch a bunch of other tables get seated—and get drinks and orders taken—while we hadn’t seen anyone. So Tom went to find a manager.
A waiter came up pretty quickly and apologized profusely—he said they hadn’t told him he had a table (which was believable since they didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason who served what table). He then said all our drinks that night were on the house. SCORE!
So you’re looking at a Smoked Manhattan and a pseudo margarita (I say pseudo because it was called Yolanda Be Cool and was just Blanco tequila, strawberry puree, lime juice, and habañero simple syrup). We were both VERY HAPPY and agreed that these free drinks made being temporarily forgotten about being seated totally worth it.
We went on to order the truffle fries which was about enough for four people (they really should say that on the menu)…but it was okay because they might have been some of the best fries I’ve ever had)
Tom had a fish and chips basket and I had JägerSchnitzel and both were really yummy. We were very happy with our meal!
Linda’s Aunt Carol’s house right across from Eagle Harbor. The kids have been there more than we have!
The little house for changing and showering.
Eagle Harbor Light House
What’s the story? We were meeting my dad and Linda in Wausau to make the exchange…and Tom decided he would rather drive up the night before and stay overnight instead of having to get up and on the road super early. I was fine with that.
Last time the kids went swimming at Mark’s!
Owen swimming under the dock.
Last time in Mark’s hot tub.
I know someone else who loved shoes…
I saw these ideas on Pinterest years ago and knew I wanted to do something similar at some time in some house in the future. Well, it turns out now is the time and this is the house! And I’ve been collecting trees and branches from my dad’s property in the upper peninsula on various trips so we were finally ready!
Tom built the box for the trees and screwed the individual trees/branches into pieces of wood which are then screwed down to the inner frame of the box itself! There’s 1-2 trees per piece—which is about the max weight Tom wanted to have to lift up the ladder!
Lined up waiting to be installed!
Done!
Our designer said we should add uplights. (I need to get a better pic — this was during installation.)
From Linda:
North point outer shore on the Big Lake (Lake Superior). The day before Owen and Grannie kayaked from south shore, around middle point, through the channel between outer point and the island. On to two more islands and between those on the Big Lake. A little fish was jumping out of the water around the bow of Owen’s kayak. Also saw two loons. Great ride. Owen is stronger than Grannie.
We pulled out two bags of garbage (sooooo much paper and candy wrappers and broken crayons), did about four loads of laundry, and removed two garbage bags of outgrown clothes. I cleaned the carpet TWICE (but alas it will never be clean because Katie loves to play with makeup and dye and markers and God knows what else and it has permanent stains).
She got a new ceiling fan, curtains, and princess netting, plus we finally hung her initials. Tom will eventually build a window seat with bookshelves IF she can keep it picked up. If not, the new rule is “If you don’t keep it picked up, I will remove the things so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Step 1: Demo
Step 2: Floor tiles
Step 3: wall tiles
Step 4: Done! It’s stunning! (Tom painted the brass doors black and put on new wrought iron handles.)
And a before and after — without a real before photo. I didn’t take one so had to hunt through random photos and this was the best I had!
