Ethan's First Day of Preschool

Ethan started at his 3 year old preschool last week. How I remember taking Olivia to her 3 year old preschool in Iowa City when Ethan was just 3 months old! Time flies.... He is very excited to be going to school just like a big kid. Ethan has had no adjustment problems thus far (unlike Olivia who cried for 3 months!). He already has a "best buddy" in his classroom, and he seems to like his teacher. However, I have noticed that every time I pick him up, one of the teachers will make a comment on his playground antics - namely that he doesn't seem to show much fear on the slide pole and monkey bars! Yep, that is Ethan!

His backpack is Buzz Lightyear, complete with a purple hood like Buzz's. He loves to zoom around like this!

Ethan in his classroom with his nametag showing him where to sit. His animal symbol is the snake, which he is not too thrilled about - he wanted a camel.

Two additional random pictures...Ethan wanted to be just like his daddy one day with baseball hat, glasses, and Illini shirt. We are working on both kids following in our footsteps of attending U of I!

Olivia is now jumping off the diving board! At the beginning of summer she had absolutely no interest in doing this. Then after her second round of swim lessons she was willing to jump off the side and completely immerse herself. By the end of summer she was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder completely by herself. I'm not too sure if I'm ready for this - it seems like such a big girl activity!

"New" Kitchen

Our latest redecorating project was our kitchen. Overall, the kitchen was great - we didn't have any need to redo the cabinets or countertops as they are brand new. However, it definitely needed a "finished" look. Slowly but surely we have been redecorating the house...the kitchen, study, Olivia and Ethan's bedrooms and kids' bathroom are all DONE. Next up will be the master bedroom.

Here are some before pictures...bland color, oak dining set, no barstools or window treatments.

And the finished product! We warmed up the walls with "Au Lait Ole" paint color (I love the silly names of paint), iron barstools with sunbrella fabric on them (whew!), window treatments, and a perfect new dining table. We will wait for more artwork to find us to fill the walls and countertops.

As mentioned in the posts about the kids' closets - The Closet Guy is a miracle worker! I LOVE my new pantry - only way it could be better is if it was an actual walk in, but that was not possible.