Kitchen Update!

After 3 years in our house, the walls in the kitchen are finally closed! Yipppee! (take note of the old door)The old door and frame have been replaced!
And, it is so much bigger! So excited about the new space and possibilities!
Oh, yes, and I have a new 36' dual fuel convection range! Isn't she gorgeous! We weren't planning on buying the larger oven yet, but, we ran into a deal that we couldn't pass up.
More to come... for now, I have lots of painting to do!

Kitchen changes

I am not calling this post "Kitchen Renovations" lest anyone get the wrong idea. We are not getting all new cabinets and appliances but simply doing some rearranging and making minor additions to the kitchen. It will be in several phases and the first began when we moved the washer and dryer. Again... no before pics were taken. We always seem to skip that somehow. So here are some random photos that will hopefully give you an idea of the before. The washer and dryer are in the background.

And from the other side.

Bye Bye, Wall!

Stay tuned...more to come.

My new nephew!

Isn't he just adorable! Such a sweet little guy!

I have a laundry room!

I isn't totally finished, but it is up and running. Here are a few pics of the transformation ( Yes, like always, we forgot to take a before pic, so I will be looking for an old photo of what it looked like before).

Here is what I came up with for "before" shots:

One from the dining room side...
...and one from the office side.

Now on to the transformation!

The built in bookcase coming out!

Justin walking through what used to be a closet!

Yuck... what a mess! This is looking from the hall through my hall closet into the office closet (a.k.a my new laundry room). The hall closet got new walls also.

And... drum roll please....

My new laundry room! This is the washer side:

and the dryer side.

Still to come: bi-fold doors on the other side (this will give us access from both sides and allow us to open it up and use it as a pass through to the office if we need to- think extra room for parties... I know, it is always about parties with us ;o what can I say, we like parties!), Flor tiles on the floor ( if you don't know what they are, look them up! They are awesome!), shelves on the dryer side, and a fold down ironing board on one of the office doors.

Drama Camp

Justin and Grace attended a week long drama camp at Jr. Theatre in June. They were grouped by age and ability into color groups. This picture is from Thursday, Team Spirit Day. Each group dressed in their color and performed their team cheers at lunch for all the other groups. Grace had an easy time with finding attire in her group's color, black. Justin had a bit more of a challenge with his color, purple! I think his outfit turned out quite well! His team's cheer was a take off of Lady Gaga's Poker Face ( "I love my, I love my... purple team"). It was quite a hit. I will try to upload the video of it at some point.At the end of the week the kids put on a 45 minute presentation. Each group performed 2 of the 3 pieces that they had put together: song, dance, and original skit. We were very impressed with all their hard work and creativity!

Jared's 8th grade promotion

Yup, that's right!... another high schooler in the house!

Got the Lei...

Found his seat...

and received his certificate!

Class Picture (he is over on the left in the front row).

and one of the whole family

Congratulations, Jared!!! Great job! Now on to High School!!!!

We celebrated our new high schooler with some fabulous grilled pizzas! This was a first for us and we were so pleased with the results of pizza on the grill, that we have already eaten it again! It is lots of fun and easier than we expected! The dough grills up nicely and the toppings melt right on the grill!

Jon manned the grill...

Yum!!!

We had 4 varieties: chunky marinara sauce with fresh mozzarella and basil, mozzarella and pepperoni, ricotta and lemon zest with asparagus, and caramelized onion with fontina and fresh arugula (everyone's favorite). Uh, oh...I am starting to drool on my keyboard just thinking about it!

Try out pizzas on the grill sometime this summer. You won't be disappointed and you won't heat up the kitchen baking the pizza in the oven!