A trip to Madison and basement update

Kennon after having a chocolate pudding cup...so yummy!! 

Saturday morning cinnamon rolls.....!! 

So sugary.....so happy

Eric and I's fabulously inexpensive canvas art.....stay tuned to see where these end up being hung on the basement walls. 

Maddox made a cross on the basement floor with the trim carpenter's supplies.  

Swingset fun

Maddox and Carter downtown Madison 

Getting a free balloon from the Capital Kids rep

Pink for Maddox. Red for Carter. Tie them on tight!

The first hot dog of the season.  This was from one of the stands at the Farmer's Market. We sat down on the grass of the Capital downtown Madison to enjoy our feasts. 

Carter getting' in on some hot dog action too.  

The kids chased Aunt Brooke up and down the lawn of the Capital. It was an absolutely perfect afternoon....

rounded off with some great sprinkle snicker doodle cookies from one of the stands at the Farmer's Market.  I had a great brownie cookie.....had to get some chocolate.  Uncle Tyler picked up a bag of Wisconsin cheese curds and a bag of Stella's Hot Sweet and Spicy pretzel bread.   It was nice to sample some of Wisconsin's treasures. 

Maddox and Carter watching some street performers.  

Maddox LOVED Reid ( much like our last encounter with him at Easter).  She was constantly asking to hold him and actually did a great job with him.  He seemed to really like the contrast between her light skin and her dark hair and eyes. You can see the smiles he is giving her.  

Looking over at Dad for this one

Maddox and Kennon along the rail, at the bottom left getting a closer look at the baseball players. 

Maddox sportin' her Our Savior Lutheran Preschool shirt. I love the Centennial Bridge in the background. It was a beautiful day. 

Kennon was on the run for the entire time we were there ( he was soooo tired as it was his nap time so I think he just kept himself moving to avoid falling asleep).  He is sportin' Maddox's sunglasses here.  

Maddox and one of her classmates. 

This was the ONLY time Kennon sat down.  About 5 seconds after I snapped this photo the Quad City River Bandits scored a Triple Play.....it was super cool. The crowd erupted and KTK joined in and started clapping with everyone. Too cute. 

Carter taught Maddox a new trick he learned in gym class.....walking up the wall to achieve a handstand...... Maddox was quick to show KTK her new trick when she got home.  Thanks Carter :) 

So it has been awhile since I posted mainly because there was not a lot of action on the basement last week. We were kind of delayed by the lack of bar cabinets. Once those arrived last Wednesday we were back to full speed ahead and TODAY ( Monday!) it has been like a BEEHIVE around here....and I am not joking. But first, Maddox and I had an absolutely fabulous weekend.  She and I traveled up to Madison Friday afternoon to visit Uncle Tyler Aunt Brooke  and cousins Carter and Reid. Unfortunately KTK came down with a cough that we started treating with nebulizer breathing treatments. He didn't have a fever and was still pretty happy but we opted to NOT expose the Knowles family to those germs. That allowed Eric and he to have some great quality time together. They visited the zoo and spent some time at Lowe's and Home Depot ( that's what boys do eh??) . Then Sunday morning Uncle Scott and Aunt Sue ( Eric's brother from St. Paul) came over to spend some time with Eric and Kennon. They even brought donuts!! So despite not being together we each individually had a great time with each of the kids.  Maddox and Carter played sooooo well together. They are so dang cute and even did a great job sharing. They even shared coloring the walls, new couch, and Brooke and Tyler's new window coverings with CHALK!!  YEP.....!!  OOPS!! More info on that if you'd like the details.  Really a learning experience for the parents too...don't leave a 2 and 3.5 year old in the same room alone for a period of time with an open box of chalk....or makers for that matter.  :)  Maddox and I had a great drive up Friday afternoon stopping for dinner at the McDonald's in Dubuque.  Carter luckily took a late nap so he was ready to play when we arrived about 7.30pm.  Saturday morning the kiddos were up early which was fine because we had yummy homemade French toast compliments of Aunt Brooke, got dressed and headed to the park and sandbox.  We played for quite a while then loaded us all up in Sienna and headed for the Capital for the Madison Farmer's Market.  The kids again were sooo good. We found a hot dog stand and took up residence on the Capital lawn and enjoyed our goods.  It was such a nice experience....getting out to see the sights, people and to have the kids enjoy the fresh warm air....FINALLY SPRING has arrived.  We loaded up the kids after a little dancing and quick got home for everyone to take naps.  Reid slept the ENTIRE time we were down at the Capital and even continued to sleep when we got home so Aunt Brooke got a little down time!!  We finished off the night with burgers on the grill.  Thank you to Aunt Brooke Uncle Tyler Reid and Carter for such a nice weekend.  Maddox and I headed home Sunday morning to grab Eric and Kennon and head for the ballpark.  Maddox had earned a free ticket to the River Bandits Game. She got to parade onto the field for her accomplishments....reading several books per night with a parent. It is called the River Bandits Book Buddies Reading program I believe.  The game started at 2pm and we had to be there at 1pm so that was HIGH TIME for KTK's nap. He was a bit of a bear and wouldn't sit still but both kids enjoyed themselves each having a hot dog ( it was a hot dog type of weekend for Maddox). A good end to our Sunday.  

Just a quick 'what are the kids up to' update.  Kennon is LOVING any type of construction truck... scoops, bulldozers, dump trucks, cement mixers, and tractors. There is SO MUCH building in Bettendorf around us we can barely go a half mile before we see a piece of construction equipment. I hear this 'another scoop' voice from the backseat indicating he would like to go see another scoop. Luckily a lot of them are actually working right now with the warmer dryer weather.  We stop, pull over, and roll down the windows to see and hear the moving equipment. I have to admit it is kinda fun and something that we NEVER did with Maddox.  She is actually quite interested in them right now too.  Kennon is a talking fool...stringing together 3 and 4 words at a time. He loves to sing and dance and color. In fact he LOVES to color so much that he ate about 3/4 of a black crayon today while I was busy chatting with the trim carpenter. I swear he did it so fast. His little hands and mouth and teeth were just as black as can be.  I called the poison center and of course Crayola crayons are all non toxic but it was still a bit of a scare.  We had to use the tooth brush repeatedly to get it out of his little molars.  Other than his cough he is doing well. Pretty stubborn but doing well using the pacifier only at nighttime and nap time.  He knows all his colors and is getting good at recognizing numbers and letter as well.  

Maddox is nearing the end of the school year for Church School.  Her last day is May22nd.  She has a program on May 20th. They call it the Teddy Bear Tea Party and parents are invited. Not sure what all it entails but they are going to present a song to us.  Her classes' song is Jesus Loves Me including the sign language. She has been practicing at home and is actually doing quite well with it.  There is a meal involved and I"m not quite fully understanding the teddy bear part.  Don't know if they are supposed to bring their teddy bears or what.  She is loving being outdoors and has fully mastered the slide on the swing set both up and downwards.  She is still resistant to ride her red bike but I think once KTK starts wanting to ride it more then she will want to join in.  She is getting very good at drawing some letters and still loves to sing and dance.  I have her signed up for a few camps during the summer.  They have doing a lot of gardening activities at both of her schools...planting seeds, growing flowers and even watching eggs hatch into baby chicks.  She is a busy girl and we are happy that our new next door neighbor, Pria, and Maddox seem to get along well. 

The built-ins  minus their hardware.  These are  made of poplar and stained by hand.  Eric and I aren't 100% happy with the stain job and we are working with our project manager to get it rectified, is possible. 

So we had a lot of progress on the basement today.  Most of it you will be able to identify with the pictures but just to bring you up to speed.  The bar cabinets finally arrived last week and were set today.  We are just missing the fridge and the counter tops. They will likely come to take a final measurement for the granite tomorrow and then hopefully that will arrive before the end of the week along with the fridge. All the walls have a first coat of paint and all the doors and trim are completed, paint and hardware wise. The built ins just need their hardware and then they are pretty much done with the exception of any rectifying of the stain that gets done.  The locker system is nearly complete just getting a final coat of paint and then the hooks installed.  The ceramic tile guys were here today to rip out the old tile that was cut to fit the old closet and install 2 new tiles to fit the newly expanded locker system. That was quite the noise getting the tiles off the floor. I'm pretty sure at one point they had a jack hammer going.  So really all's that is left is the granite, built in hardware, towel bars/toilet paper holders mirror over the vanity, second coat of paint, and then the carpet.  We just ordered the vanity mirror today and it is not going to be here for 3 to 4 weeks :(  Unfortunately we couldn't find one at one of the Big Box stores so went with one from the Plumb Supply store....they had to order it.  Oh well...we can live without that for a while.  I think the project was originally slated to be done the end of this week but with the delay of the bar cabinets we are going to miss that by a week or so I believe but won't be too far off.  

Standing in the media room looking at the closet at the foot of the steps. Bathroom to the left and workout room to the right.  

Our new wet bar.  The space to the right on the floor is where the fridge will sit.  I am so excited to have those 2 big drawers on the bottom left....that is where I'm going to store all the kids art supplies...!! 

Standing in the media room looking south to the playroom french doors. 

Closet in the playroom. 

Bathroom vanity. Not overly happy with the color combo sink to wall. I think once we get the vanity mirror up and the accent colors in the bathroom it will be fine but looks odd right now.  We picked the wall color after we picked the counter top color.  I remember being focused on wall color to tile and not really discussing the counter top color with the designer.  Hmmmmmm...should have probably thought about that...but we will see once it all gets done. 

Unfinished exercise room. We just had the walls painted and the ceilings sprayed black.  This room will have no drywall and just carpet tiles on the floor.  However this is the room that houses our new super duper double pump sump pump with the battery back up. 

Exercise room. This is the only wall that is finished in the exercise room where the TV will be hung. 

Upper half of the locker system.  The hooks will be installed on that flat board about 1/3 of the way down.  

Full shot of the locker system. 

Bench seat with removable shoe shelves 

Bye Bye Pacifer ( kinda)....Hello Paint

So we have had a fun weekend!! There has been lots of progress on the basement as well as the locker system in the back entryway and the weather finally cooperated enough to allow us to go outside for the majority of the day Sunday.  Friday night we had our normal family pizza night at home. Then Saturday morning I met a co worker for coffee while Eric entertained the kids. Then I met him and the kids at the Bettendorf Library for a 'Preschool Dance Party'. The 2nd Saturday of every month they have a 45 minute preschool dance party where they read books, dance to music, shake rattlers, and do stretches and yoga poses.  SUPER fun. It is technically for ages 2-5 but we decided Kennon was 'advanced' enough to join in the fun :) and he did SO well!! He had a ball. We are definitely going to add this to our regular calendar. Too bad they take the summers off..... All of the pictures are from this event. I think some of them turned out pretty well. I was very camera happy as I am trying to get some good shots for a photography project for the basement.  I think I got a few ( a few a little blurry with the ol' iphone...but our camera is still outta commission so it will do for now) !! Enjoy...The black and white ones are contenders for the photography project. 

'Head shoulders knees and toes..... '

'The Freeze Dance'

'Freeze!!'

'The Bean Bag Dance'

So we KINDA said goodbye to the pacifier this past week. Kennon has been throwing these terribly bad tantrums for various reasons and sometimes unknown reasons. They started about 3 weeks ago....I think we are nearing the terrible 2's.  Nothing will calm him down.  He is physical and screams aloud. We try the paci but most of the time he grabs it from us/his mouth and then launches it in whichever direction he decides. Well, I was tired of getting hit in the head by the darn thing and tired of him hitting Maddox and he hit the bathroom mirror with it last Wednesday evening. The mirror was fine but my patience with this little attitude was up so I said 'that's it...no more paci'!! He did so well that night and Thursday night sleeping through the night with no issues and not really calling out for the paci and not using the paci at school for naps. But, we sorta made a turn for the worse this weekend. He was up in the night and not napping well so I finally gave in out of desperation for him to take a good nap as he was so tired. He just about went out cold when I gave it to him this afternoon and slept until after 5 when we finally woke him up. So we've decide to let him have it during nap and sleep time only which might be a nice happy medium.  He is definitely developing a personality and is getting fed up with his sister pestering him...so much that he up and bit her yesterday!!  after she kept getting in his personal space. It wasn't hard, just enough to let her know that he didn't like her touching him. She is so sneaky. She quietly edges down the couch getting closer and closer to him until she is practically on top of him and her appendages are touching his and then the bickering starts.  Tonight after his great nap he was a little funny guy...he has these cute grins and is talking in 3 word phrases.  Tonight he very plainly said 'hotdog please daddy'.  It was so cute. He is getting much better at asking for what he wants and he is very good at saying please, thank you, and your welcome... We took down the 2nd of 3 baby gates this weekend, the one at the bottom of the steps near the front door.  That just leaves the one at the top of the landing. I think we'll have that one for quite a while yet but it is nice to have the bottom of the steps open.  Tonight the 2 of them were playing in the office and they slammed the French doors ( but remember these have glass Jody:).  I was upstairs and roared down from the landing ' do not slam the doors, leave them open'  They both froze in their tracks below me, stood silent for like 2 seconds then looked at each other and GRINNED as big as the Grinch!! I swear  I could read their minds. They were both saying to each other...'let's ignore her and slam them anyhow!!'  I just know it.  Luckily they didn't....they moved on to something else destructive.  But I had to laugh. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of conniving in the future..... We've decided to switch up the theme of KTK's birthday party from Elmo to Construction Trucks.  The kids LIVES for big yellow construction trucks. Today we pulled over to watch a big crane lifting roof framing on to the top of a house for like 10 minutes. He would have sat longer but big sis was requesting to 'go home'.    He cries out from his carseat when I don't turn onto the road that has all the scoops running building a new CVS pharmacy. Luckily there is a lot of construction going on in Bettendorf so on most of our trips we encounter some sort of scoop or dozer.  Funny, Maddox never really cared much about construction trucks.....the difference between a girl and a boy I guess :)

Silly Kennon 

A little sit down quiet time while we listened to an audio recording of 'Pete the Cat'. Maddox and Kennon were mesmerized....as you can tell. I love MLK in this shot...KTK looks a little drugged up...

Look at their hands.... I'm sure Maddox was the first to do it and Kennon followed suit. He looks up to his big sis for direction. 

So the basement is really coming along.  Since I last posted the doors and door trim have been put up and the first coat of paint has been put on the walls behind the built ins, bathroom vanity, and wet bar. They do this of course before the cabinets are set. The cabinets for the built ins and the bar are delayed a bit ( our first sort of snag) but the trim carpenters have been keeping busy putting up the doors and trim.  I'm assuming this week will be baseboard and once the built in cabinets come in they will built out the rest of the built in shelves above the cabinets.  Vince the main trim carpenter has been busy on the locker system. He tore out the old back hallway closet with the bi-fold doors which was completely unusable since it was behind the door that opened from the garage.  We now have a new garage door ( that closes more tightly and is newer in style) that opens the opposite way into the hallway allowing access to the new locker area. The old closet was opened up vertically and horizontally to allow for more space. We have 6 cubbies with the bottom 3 cubbies each having an outlet to allow easy charging of the iphones ( and less clutter on my countertop  :).  We now have a bench seat with storage for shoes underneath with an adjustable shelf to accommodate boots in the winter.  We will have 4 new hooks and the light switches were moved to accommodate the oppositely swinging door. Vince has done a fabulous job on the locker project and I can't wait to see how the built ins in the basement turn out as he is the guy for this as well.  I am really happy with the paint colors. It is going to be cozy down there which is just the feel I was going for.  The colors are dark, admittedly,  but I think with all the can lights we have it will be just fine.  So the word is the built in cabinets will come today and the bar cabinets are still on order to be delivered hopefully next week.   Soon it will be time to paint the trim, doors, and baseboard white as well as paint the locker system white with the exception of the bench seat being stained cherry to match our kitchen cabinets.  I have to admit I am starting to get frustrated with all the debris, cardboard on the floor, dust etc. The drywall dust was nothing compared to what we have experienced in the kitchen since Vince started working on the locker system. UGH!!  He has set up shop cutting all the boards in the garage so if there is a nice west wind I think a lot of it is getting pushed into the house. But, I am trying to remain calm!!  It will be over soon and we will get such good use out of the basement and the locker system.  The locker system is too tall to really get a good photo so I opted for video...but of course the video upload process is awful. grrrrr....ok well. I was unable to get all 3 videos uploaded so this will have to do for now. I'll try again later this week. They did a lot of work on the built ins today so I"ll have more pictures anyhow!! 

Standing in the game area looking into the playroom. Closet doors in the background.  French doors to enter the playroom in the foreground.  Door to the far right to enter the storage area. 

'Intellectual gray' painted behind the bar.  The ceramic has now been covered up by paper to protect it from the paint. I LOVE this warm color.  It is more taupe color in person. 

Intellectual grey behind the built ins. 

Stamped concrete grey color in the bathroom. Again a nice warm dark color that I love!!  It looks perfect with the tile....again covered by paper to protect it.