Table and Chairs

This is probably the most anticipated post for me ever. It has taken a lot to get to this point because I started this project when I sold our old kitchen table and bought a crappy new one. (I don't think Ryan will ever let me live that down.) I spent several months trying to decide what color to paint it and how I wanted to do it. My main inspiration was from these chairs at Anthropologie that my sister-in-law has. It took many many nap times, lots of trial and error, and tons of patience trying to ignore my kids to finish the table and four chairs. (I have four more chairs in the garage.)

Here are the chairs from Anthropologie. FYI: I did the whole project (table, chairs, paint..etc.) for less than what ONE of these chairs cost.



Some of my yellow inspiration.


And finally, my table and chairs.




I'd just like to thank a few people: Ryan's aunt for giving me tons of tips on painting, my dad for loaning me his sander (which I burned out the motor), my dad again for gluing and replacing broken dowels and spindles, and Ryan for putting up with having nothing to eat at for weeks. (The girls loved it though, lots of space to ride their bikes around.)

Here's the before picture.

More random quotes

We were trying to get Lola to give "uncle so and so" a hug and she said "in a minute". Way to dodge that bullet!

I think every kid says, "hey, look at me...watch me do this". The girls just started doing this and whenever we go to the park they always say "look what I can do!!". Today Lola said "I can do a lot of stuff".

Lola: "My monkey can't talk yet...he's just learning."

At the park Ava saw two guys walking by without shirts on. The girls kept saying (very loudly) "they're naked!"...and "they don't have no clothes on".

At the park (same day), Ava said "hey, that duck is eating its body". (You had to be there....Ryan and I were laughing so hard.)

Here's the girls' morning conversation as they walked into our bedroom:
Ava:"You're a spatula."
Lola: "I'm NOT a spatula...wahhhh!!"
Repeat those two lines a couple more times.
Me: "Lola, are you seriously crying because Ava called you a spatula?"

Lola must have been paying attention when we mentioned that Ava has wavy hair...kind of like Brent's. A little while later, Lola said, "Ava has Brent hair".

Ava definitely knows that "A" is her letter. She turns other letters into "A's" by crossing "M's" and "V's".



The girls are such good fake sleepers. They just looked so cute that I had to get a picture, but our loud camera woke them up... so I told them to pretend.

Tired Dad

When Ryan gets home from work (if he comes home) this is what it looks like.

SOP

And who said Lola and Ava didn't have any Anderson in them? Lola requested Sop for breakfast this morning. There's gotta be some proud Anderson's out there now!! (For those of you who don't know...Sop is bread, peanut butter, jelly, and milk.)


*Please excuse these blurry shots again. I can't seem to focus right lately.

Songs

This performance was not rehearsed, in fact, the girls made up those lyrics right on the spot. Yes, Ava is beat-boxing and Lola loves Ava.

Our 7th Anniversary

I love our anniversary not only because we get to celebrate being one year older in marriage years, but I also get an excuse to scan in some old pictures. These random, poor quality pictures just made me smile today.

More Random Quotes

There are a ton of TV references in this post. Please don't think I let my kids sit and watch TV all day long.

Ava kept saying she wanted to watch "Cookie Monster", but she got mad every time I put on Sesame street. I finally asked her if she wanted to watch "Monsters inc". That was what she wanted the whole time except that now she thinks it's called "Cookie Monsters Inc".

Lola: "Lets watch The Wiggles". Ava: "That show is pretty dumb."

Ava said: "Grandpa, you have stripes". Grandpa looked at himself in the mirror and didn't see any stripes until he realized Ava was referring to the creases on his forehead.

The girls know all the names in a drum kit thanks to "Yo Gabba Gabba".

Lola and Ava think the world is their napkin. The other day I witnessed Lola drag her snotty nose about six inches directly across the futon. I also watched Ava wipe her muddy hands on our stucco house. I recently cleaned up a "Cheeto" wall by the stairs. I'm sure these are the things I will miss when they move away some day.

More Random Quotes

During tax season we would often see people dressed up as the Statue of Liberty waving signs in front of the tax place. The girls loved to see them and always wanted to see them again and again. The other day the girls saw one of those big vertical windsock sign things blowing around in front of a cell phone store. They both ran towards it saying, "The Statue of Liberty!!".

Before Ryan left for a business trip the other week, we tried to explain to Lola and Ava that dad was going on a trip to California. After Ryan was gone for a while I asked the girls if they remembered where dad went. They answered, "Costco?".

Ava had a fever and I asked her if she felt sick, she said "My belly button hurts.".

Lola: "edgie"= wedgie

Below are three random pictures of Lola and Ava. (One is a little inappropriate, but I couldn't resist...as usual.)

Tulip Festival

My girls look way sweeter in these pictures than they are in real life...just kidding. But I'm not kidding that Ava is a rock-star and that they are the only two-year olds I know that can chew gum without swallowing it.

Creepy Unicorn

If anyone saw a unicorn post on here complete with a 3 minute unicorn montage and description about how much I love unicorns, it was NOT posted by me. I just figured out who did it. This person also used to do prank calls with me (a long time ago..haha) that consisted of this: call a pizza place, ask them how much a large pizza is, say "WHAT A RIP OFF", and then hang up. If anyone wonders, I have no interest in unicorns. Nice april fools NATALIE.

Putting the beds to use

Please don't judge me because my kids are never wearing pants. I swear that they wear pants most of the time (just not in pictures..haha).

Little Girls Room

Since one quilt is finished (yay! thanks to ryan's mom!), I really wanted to do a picture tour of the girls' room. (I know I'm going to take another year to finish the next quilt.) I think I'm so proud of this room because I made, designed and/or picked everything in it. We painted the walls a pale pink, I picked and sewed the curtains and the quilt, I painted the green shelf, I made the name boards above their beds, I put together the wall collage, and of course painted the little table and chairs. All I have left to do is get bed skirts and finish the other quilt.