Hall Bath - before and after

Is it weird to post pictures of my bathroom on my family blog? Yeah, it is.  Sorry.  You may already know I have a secret obsession with home decorating blogs and HGTV, so here's another little wanna-be post. :)
Before, in all it's Tuscan Glory:

 More orange.  So we went w/ my ever faithful neutral tan for starters.  It's called Galveston Dust.  Yes, I painted quite a lot of my house the color of Texas dirt.  Thank you 5 gallon bucket.

 Then I decided to replace the mirror and the light fixture.  Quick Saturday morning project, right?  Wrong - there was no junction box, just wires poking through several holes in the wall and a sewer vent pipe going straight through the center of the wall where the junction box SHOULD have been.  I cut a big square out of the drywall to the studs on either side, installed a junction box and rerouted the sewer vent pipe around it.  The sewer vent will still work, right?  I patched up the drywall, a couple coats of mud and some paint and days later I FINALLY installed the new light and mirror (mirror courtesy of bulky trash + spray paint!)  :)

 Then I decided to try out the board and batton goodness that's been everywhere the last few years.  I planned it all out and cut and painted the wood, then got scared and left it sitting in the garage for a month.  Then I finally tore out the old baseboards and forced myself to get going.  I like how it all turned out - that's a LOTTA CAULK in a little bathroom.  My fingers were raw smearing it into every nook and cranny.  A little more spray paint on all the original hardware got rid of that gold.  And a couple extra hooks instead of towel bars is way more functional for kids.

 I found that little ladder in the shed of our last rental.  I knew he'd come in handy.  :)

And last but not least a few printables copied from inspired by pinterest.

 And my sister made one like this for her bathroom, so after I finished copying pinterest I copied her.  :)  Shameless.  Now it's your turn - copy away!

Mini Vacation

We scheduled a few days off in September for us to have a little family time, booked a hotel and spent some time in the big city with just us and the kids.  Usually when we get up to KC it's to spend time w/ family or run errands or go to meetings.  But this time it was just about the kids and play time.  It was a nice change up!!!  We started out w/ lunch @ Costco 'cause we're weird like that, then went to the new Lego City downtown.  

 We had the place pretty much to ourselves - just the way I like it. :)  We built race cars, little models of the Plaza, towers, houses, even cupcakes.  The kids enjoyed trying out their race cars on the tracks...

 (Do you like Girly-A's game face??)

And we had a little fun w/ the karaoke a'la Glee...

(Joseph doesn't know I'm posting this....)  K-lady LOVED the karaoke.

We'd just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so we watched the Johnny Depp version that night at the hotel.  Gotta love a little crazy Tim Burton.

The next morning we headed to Union Station and Science City.

Then played @ an indoor water park for the afternoon.  And finally the last day we hit up Kaleidescope @ Crown Center and a Hallmark Employee craft fair.

Oklahoma Joes (our favorite BBQ) on the way out of town made it all complete.  Oh yum.
Joseph and I took turns reading a really interesting book while driving (in case you're in need of a good read....):  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  It's a fascinating story about the history of modern science, cell research and the evolution of ethics in medicine.


We had a great time just enjoying the city and each other - it was fun to have it all be about our little family.  These kids are a blast! :)