he did it!!

Well...after patiently waiting and waiting and waiting...
The day has finally arrived.
The day that Kaden has learned the art...of rolling over.

So, it's probably my own fault that it took Kaden 4 1/2 months to get to this point.
I've slacked with the whole "tummy time" exercises with this child, so it took a bit longer than the girls. But, in his defense, he DOES have a tad more weight to heft over, so that could play a factor as well.
BUT, either way, he did it!
And I managed to get it on film!
Albeit, grainy since it was on my phone...but you know, better than nothing, eh?

(oh, and don't mind the loud background noise...Anna was right next to me getting waaay too excited. As was I.)

some new shades

When we moved into our house over a year and a half ago, these curtains came with the house.
As did ALL the curtains in the house.
To be honest, I can't stand them...but was too busy and then, too lazy to change them up.
Plus, do you know how expensive drapery is?
So, as the months came and went, I just left them as is...
Until now!

Here is our living room window.
With the nondescript panels that accompanied our house.
Notice the horribly cheapy curtain rods?
Yeah, more than the ugly curtains, I wanted to get rid of those horrid contraptions ASAP!

After my sister, Elika, made the suggestion of sewing some roman shades , I decided to do a little research online, and give it a go!
(Are you seeing a pattern here? She recommends something, then I jump on the idea!
Pretty soon, Mitch is going to ban me from speaking to my sister, I just know it!)

It took me a few weeks to find time to invest in the project, but 4 weeks, 20 or so finger pricks and just under $50 later, I have me some brand new, custom made roman shades!

Ta~Da~!!
So, they're not perfect...but I like them!
And you have to admit, they're definitely a pleasant sight compared to what we had before, right?!

And just so you know, originally, I was going to bolt them into the widow frame...but since we don't HAVE a decent window frame...plus, we didn't want them to be permanently bolted into our walls (in case we move...you never know!) we decided to simply hang them from a curtain rod.
A NEW curtain rod, thank you very much!

And for the heck of it, I made a small valance panel for our kitchen window as well.
Now...onto the other 2 windows downstairs...

this week, we...

Went to my new nephew, Caleb Kurihara's baby blessing.
And, of course, I didn't snap a close-up photo of baby Caleb.
Although, for the record, I DID take plenty of close-ups with AIRI's camera...sorry you don't get to see those.
They were pretty darn good pictures, too.

Then, for FHE, we busted out Anna's new Blizzard Maker (courtesy of the Sakuma boys...Thanks, Kiyomi!).

After the ice and salt goes into the outer rim,
In goes the ice cream mixture.

And after 10 minutes or so of stirring...

Ta-Da~!
Out comes some soft serve ice cream!!

Which surprisingly, tasted EXACTLY like a DQ Soft Serve!

The girls apparently approved!
It was yummy!

We also danced around like a fairy / princess/ ballerina....I think?

AND, on May 5th, Kaden turned 4 months old.
He is now:
26.2" tall (89%)
16.9 lbs (82%)

With a head size of 16" (28%)
...does that mean he's disproportionate?

OH, Well

• He's our biggest baby (considering our girls didn't hit the 16# mark until well past 6-7 months)
• He smiles all the time (though, obviously NOT in this picture)
• Still eats a TON (like it isn't obvious, eh?)
• Still spits up a TON (probably a little less obvious, by the looks of him, eh?)
  
• And still needs Mom and Dad to swat away his big sisters excessive hugs and kisses from time to time.

kitchen reno, phase I

Several weeks ago, I had the brilliant idea to paint our kitchen cabinets.

Okay, so that's not quite true.
My sister Elika suggested it....and the very next day, we went out and bought paint.
I give all credit to her.
Okay, so that's not quite true either.

Mitch and I did pick out the paint color.
And did A LOT of work.

SO-here's the original kitchen.
Pre-ANYTHING.
It's not ugly, per se...but not very pretty either.
Just a whole lot of oak goin' on.

(ahem, don't mind the mess...that's pretty much a usual occurrence in our household.)

SO, the first step was to remove the cabinet doors.
And then prime them.

I know what you're thinking...
"You forgot sanding!"
To which I say, "NO. We didn't forget to sand."

We opted for a high quality primer and paint from Sherwin-Williams...which allowed us to forgo the dreaded task of sanding the cabinets.
Sure we paid a bit more for the paint, but let me tell ya'.
It was worth EVERY PENNY!

We enlisted the help of our girls in the dirty work.
Here's Anna priming the doors.

As you can see...NO Seavey is exempt from helping out!

After the priming it was time to paint.

3 coats of paint, that is.

And then, we reattached the doors...
Now, I say "WE" but what I really mean is MITCH reattached the doors.

Voila!
Our semi-finished kitchen.
Which really turned out to be a much easier job than I had originally thought!
Granted, I wasn't the one who had to remove all the cabinet doors and hardware.
And then replace and rehang them once the painting was done.

But all in all...it was fairly pain free! The most difficult part was waiting for each individual coat of paint to dry...hence the rather long time frame in getting the work done!

And...I called our kitchen, "semi finished" because next on our "TO DO" list is to paint the walls and then add a tile backsplash. Hopefully in the Summer sometime.

Until then, we can relax and enjoy a much brighter kitchen!
Yay!

anna's bday bash

I can't believe it!
My little Anna-Banana has turned 5!
In just a short few months, she's going to be a Kindergartner!!

Usually, for birthdays, we get together with family and cousins to have a boisterous dinner accompanied by dessert. Which, when you consider how many cousins they have, is generally sufficient for them.
However, this year for our Anna, I decided to break from the normal fare, and give her a big party.
With cousins AND friends.

At Gymboree.

Anna takes 2 classes here a week in lieu of preschool...doing art, music, alphabet learning, and just plain playing around.
She loves it here!
So, for her birthday party, we rented out the place for an hour and half or so...and let all the kids run amok in the indoor playpen.
Now, there's wood toys everywhere...but since most surfaces are padded, it's generally good for all ages. You'd think Anna's a bit old for the play area, but she absolutely loves it here.
As does Kela and Jolee who gets to play here from time to time as well.

Anyway, there's lots of stuff to do, like...

See-Sawing with a buddy on a little boat...

...and climbing a top one of the many corrugated structures....



...not to mention plenty of places to play "Hide-n-go-seek"

(Although here, considering how many "seekers" there are...I wonder who's actually doing the "hiding" ...?)

And then, after the "running amok" phase of the party came to a close, it was time for bubbles.
Jolee LOVES Bubbles.
I'm not joking.
L-O-V-E-S them.

Have you ever blown Gymboree bubbles?

Let me just say, all bubbles are NOT created equal.
Real high-quality bubbles here....
Go check 'em out.

Bucket O' Friends!

After play time was some lunch.
Pizza, of course.

And did I mention I made Rainbow cupcakes?
Yup.
Found the idea here.
Didn't follow the directions precisely (hence the not-so-uniform layering...) but I think it still turned out funky and neat-o!
Seriously took FOREVER, but well worth the work.
(...in my humble opinion...)

Jolee...right before licking the frosting off the cupcake.
And then throwing the cupcake away.
Can't say I blame her, since it was home-made buttercream frosting!

---always ONE clown in the bunch, eh?


Wishing my 5 year old a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Oh, and these are the "thank you" notes I attached to her party favors.
Got this idea from a friend's blog.
She did them for her daughter's Valentine's Day cards...and I was itching for an excuse to borrow the idea.

Happy Birthday, Anna Banana!

the easter post 2011

Easter!
This year, we didn't do the usual Egg Hunting at the local library.
Call me lazy but I just didn't have the energy to drag 3 kiddos to the library in the heat sans extra hands (aka. Mitch) to help.
So...we had *only* two Easter Celebrations.

I know, such deprivation!

This is their first.
Anna and Jolee's preschool class with Mrs. Neill the retired teacher.

Mrs. Neill brought each child a boiled egg to color with crayons...

While Kaden watched and cheered on.

And then it was time to dye the boiled eggs...

Here they are!
Each with their boiled eggs!


Which turned out to *NOT* be boiled after all!

She apparently grabbed the wrong carton of eggs from her fridge...thank goodness we found out this fact outside...AFTER all the coloring and decorating had taken place indoors.

Then it was back indoors for some painting of eggs of a safer nature.
Paper ones, that is.

And then on Friday, it was the BIG gathering with the cousins.
At our tiny little townhouse.
Mitch, Dean and Jonas ran outside our backyard and beyond to hide the eggs...which turned out to be plenty of space for the kids to run around and go a-hunting.

Here's Kela with her loot.
She grabbed these eggs within the first minute or so of the hunt.
And then went inside having filled her basket to overflowing.
The littler ones, however, took a bit longer.
We did it a bit backwards this year...and by the time the little ones got out there, the older ones had already gotten a hefty head start.
Next year, we're gonna monitor and stagger the hunters by age.
Duh, right?
Yes, lesson learned.

But anyway, the kids still enjoyed the day and got plenty of candy.
Here's Jolee's basket of eggs.
And her tummy, I guess.

Dinner time was a crowded, but yummy affair.
We may have a small living / dining room, but with these little fold-out tables for the kiddos, we somehow managed to cram 6 adults and 17 kids into our little 1200 sq ft townhouse!

In the end, it was a success!!
The kids had fun, the food was yummy, and everyone went home with more candy than necessary.

And just for kicks...here's Kaden today!
On Easter Sunday.
With Mr. Teddy.

Happy Easter, everyone!