Spring Break, Here we Come!!

Wishin it was summer weather!

(I've been going through all the archives of old pictures and found this one, so I had to use it!)

Here's to hoping we have some good weather out at the ocean for Spring Break!

Siblings

I just came across this sweet photo from a few years ago and it’s one I want to blow up and frame. I always pray that these two will have a close relationship, but sometimes the evidence of that doesn’t make itself known. And then, every once in a while, I’ll get a glimpse and think they really do love each other after all.

It's early release all week here for parent teacher conferences, but Kindergarten doesn't have school at all, so Maddie is home.  Next week is Spring Break, so she's really getting a lot of time off.  She and Tyler are having to get used to being together more during the day and sharing the t.v./toy room all afternoon, which at times has been real interesting. 

But funny thing, she had some friends over today, and at one point I hear her say, "my brother is so annoying," but then later as he was practicing his trumpet, she yelled down right in front of her friends, "Good job, Tyler!"  Well, maybe there is hope....

Spring Popcorn and Sunny Days

Such a beautiful sunny spring day

we had to run up to the school and take pictures

of the "popcorn" trees

that we see everyday!

Maddie was really excited

and even helped take some pictures of

the "popcorn" blossoms!

All Things Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

1. flikr, 2. maddie, 3. country living, 4.martha stewart , 5. momtog, 6. flikr, 7. flythroughmywindow, 8. flikr, 9. martha stewart

Little Miss Maddie is Getting a Room Makeover!

Well, this little miss is FINALLY getting her room done and it's about time!! We've been in this house for over 4 years and still haven't painted her room.  I think we were always wondering whether she would someday need to share that room, so I kept waiting before painting it.  (That's a topic for another time!)  Well, when I asked Mr. Incredible (Jeff), what project he wanted to work on this weekend and he said let's paint Maddie's room, I jumped right on it! She's always wanted a pink, or yellow room, so we decided to do both, with the pink on the bottom.  I think she'd get tired of an all pink room real quick. 

Pink is a challenge because it always gets darker after painted.  But with the help of the guy at the Benjamin Moore paint store , (I love their paint, it goes on soooo well!), I was able to find the perfect pink.  Not too PINK, and not too pastelly, just perfect, and one with warm tones that would go with the yellow. 

We spent ALL day, literally, doing it together.  (Doing a project like this the day before daylight savings, is NOT a good idea because we all went to bed super LATE, as is!)  But it's all painted ready to be set back up again. 

Here's what it looks like now, still needs to be put back together. (I didn't get a before pic taken, shoot!)  (Yes, in case you're wondering, that's a sequiny belt over the lamp shade, an added "Fancy Nancy-like" feature that Maddie added.)

We're planning on putting chair rail molding up to cover the line between the two colors.  (The yellow really isn't green looking, it's just the lighting in the picture!)  We're really happy with how both colors turned out.

The plans are to:

• Get a new white bed and end table- (I'm on the search on Craigslist again!!)
• Paint the dresser, rocking chair and lamp table white
• Install chair rail
• Hang the shelves with new, updated pictures
• Hang new curtains
• and last but not least, Decorate with lots of cute hanging flowers (seen above), and butterflies (Maddie didn't want me to forget this!)

The flower Maddie is holding in the above picture is from a cute little gift shop and she and I picked out a few of them in different colors to hang from the ceiling.  To Jeff and Tyler's dismay and rolling eyes, I'm afraid she's turning out just like me in wanting to decorate.  We have some, alot of PB kids catalogs to use for inspiration, and you should see how many pages she has dog-eared, just like me!  It will be fun to plan this room with her, if I can get over my decorating "ADDness" and focus on getting the room finished before I start cooking up ideas for other areas of the house.  (I went to bed Saturday night dreaming of paint colors for the rest of the house!)  Hopefully Mr. Incredible won't get too sick of painting with me over the next few months.

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You have to check out the great inspiration board that my creative sister put together for Maddie's room here.

And She Danced

Maddie has been having so much fun in ballet

and really loves her teacher, Miss Sarah!

Student of the Month!

This is Tyler being recognized by the Vice Principal, Mr. Abels.

He even had to give his own acceptance speech in front of the school board, scary!

We're so proud of Tyler to be recognized as the 7th Grade Student of the Month at North Lake Middle School for February.  It's been a year with lots of homework and challenging work in his honors Math and Language Arts classes, along with lots of help from dad and prodding from mom!  But we're so happy and thrilled for Tyler to be recognized for all his hard work. 

We've been trying to figure out which one of his teachers nominated him, and ironically we're pretty sure it's his Math teacher, who isn't really his favorite, because she's tough! 

Here's what a few of his teachers had to say about him:

"Tyler is an outstanding student in his Advanced Mathematics class.  He constantly produces high-quality work and is quick to help other students during class.  His courtesy and positive attitude is a joy in the classroom!"

"Tyler is an excellent student in PE/Health.  He is hardworking and self-disciplined.  He has a great attitude and spirit, and he always contributes 100 positive percent!"

"Tyler's work in Honors Language Arts is consistently creative and completed with excellence.  He has successfully attacked the challenging vocabulary program with a vengeance envied by his classmates!"

"Tyler's sense of humor and willingness to help others makes him an AWESOME North Lake Bulldog!"

Way to go Ty!  We're so proud of you!

(Bummer, we didn't get the infamous bumper sticker! J/K)

Private with a new way to Update

It would seem that my problem is not spam and is not going away, so I am making our blog private for now, unfortunately.  I really enjoy the connections made with other bloggers and don't want it this way, but it is the best for our family right now with so much information on this blog. 

The problem with private blogs is that you can't follow them on your dashboard or through google reader, and I always forget to check them, so I've created an update blog that you can follow which will link you directly to our blog.  So if you want to continue following us, which I hope you do, go to www.laperleupdates.blogspot.com and click on "follow" on the top of the page and then you will automatically see any new posts we have through your dashboard or google reader.  Or add www.laperleupdates.blogspot.com to your feed.

I'm sad to have to make changes this way, but hopefully it will work out.  Please leave me a comment with your email address below, or email me at (jhlaperle@gmail.com) so I can send you an invite to view our blog.  I know I mentioned before, if you follow this blog anonymously and would like to continue doing so (which I do a lot), don't hesitate to leave me your blog address and email.
Thanks,
Heidi

Just what the doctor ordered - Blue skies and a ferry ride

(Warning: long post ahead :)

Well here I am back, public again, hoping it was all just spam.  I really do enjoy connecting with people through blogging.  I've taken a little blogging break though due to a minor surgery I had last Thursday.  Everything's fine, just a little something to help those times of the month not be so painful :)  Hopefully it works!  The fam, Mr. Incredible, and the kids were to great to me and I enjoyed lots of meals in bed.

Nice little gestures like this post here. 

Actually it was fun for them the first couple of days, but then it started to get old.  I also realized I definitely need a makeover in our bedroom.  You lay in bed long enough and start to really not like it.  Don't take me wrong, I love to sleep and would a lot more if I could, but enough was enough.

So yesterday we had an opportunity to get out and actually do something very different.  It all started with my addiction to Craigslist and looking for new chairs for our kitchen.  Well all the weeks of looking led me to a beautiful buffet that I knew when I saw it would look so great in our dining room.  (I know, different room, and not the furniture I set out looking for, but still a smokin hot deal!)  The lady lived in Kingston though, across the water, so I decided to pull Maddie out of school early, hop on a ferry and meet my sister-in-law Denise, who just happens to live over there. I loved the look of the buffet when I saw it and all the wheels starting spinning in my head with ideas of how to fix it up and repaint it.  More on that later.

So after getting it loaded in our car (amazing it even fit!), we went to a fun place called "The Grub Hub" near the ferry dock for lunch and then hopped back on the ferry again.

Now on to the fun pictures I took.  Maddie was such an enjoyable companion!  She thoroughly loved going on the ferry, since we hadn't done it for awhile, and was so excited to see Aunt Denise.  It's amazing the difference it makes when you break up your mundane routine and go do something completely spur of the moment which is what this was.  I had so many moments traveling in the car with her, which were pure "just enjoying being with your child" moments.  It was just fun!

She wanted to go out on the front bow, but realized it was way too windy there! 

So we went back inside and I had to take lots more pictures. 

I'm grateful Maddie obliged.

The clouds in the sky were absolutely gorgeous yesterday!!  Just the rejuvenation I needed!

(most of these were taken inside the ferry through the window, thus turning out a bit gray)

Maddie even insisted on taking one, or a few, of me and I'm only including it to be fair. (I don't like pictures of myself very often)

(and no, that isn't a patch of grey showing up in my hair in the front, but too much blond put there by the new hairdresser I went to.  Ergg!  I went back to have it fixed today!)

Couldn't get enough of the beautiful clouds!

What a fun day!

Now I'm sure you want to see the buffet. That's the main reason why we went, right?  It's antique, vintage French provincial, which is a style I really want to incorporate more in our living and dining rooms, if I can convince Mr. Incredible that it really will work.  I love mixing antique items full of character with newer furniture, and the dining room is the one room where I really can do it.  I've succumbed my passion for the shabby chic, vintage look in all the other areas of our house, to keep it in balance - (it's too girly and fancy I'm told by the boys in our home). 

Isn't it beautiful?  I think so anyway!  It has so much character. 

 (Mr. Incredible, needless to say, isn't too thrilled and thinks it came from someone's grandmas house, which it did.)  But it reminds me of something my grandma, affectionately known as Nana, would have had.  She had incredible taste in using antiques and beautiful art from around the world.  I know I get this passion from her.  More of that in a later post as well.

I love all the beautiful hardware, the curves on the drawers and the scalloped edge along the bottom.  Can you imagine what I want to do with it? (and hopefully not ruin it!)  Btw, we just set it here between the living and dining rooms to get it out of the garage.  This is not the final place.  I had to put something on the top for now, because it looked so plain without it.  Here's what I have in mind to do with Heirloom White paint:

(I've tried to remember where I snagged most of these inspiration pics, but can't remember all of them.)

Look at the piece showing in the reflection of the mirror. That's exactly what I'm thinking.  What do ya think?

Just like this but with Heirloom White. 

savvy southern style

With beautiful distressing. 

(Flea Market Trixie)

My Pink Life

(Life in the Fun Lane)

(Haley's Cottage)

(Southern Hospitality)

(Me)

Can't wait to get things going for the dining room!

Private

For some reasons, I won't explain here, I am making our blog private, right here, right now.  I know -- no notice to anyone who follows.  Don't worry, I will send you an invite and let you know of any changes that transpire.  I just feel I need to close the blog for viewing quickly right now, until I can get everything figured out.  If anyone follows this blog anonymously, and would like to continue, (I do that too), just drop me an email at jhlaperle@gmail.com and I will send you an invite. 
Thanks,
Heidi