around the house

I picked up this bistro set at a second hand furniture store close to our house.

It was a pretty good deal - mostly because the wooden bottoms of the chairs were rotted out & the paint was chipped & rusty.

Yellow is cute & all, but not quite my style. Still, I could see the potential...

I sprayed the metal with hammered brown metallic paint & removed the seats & backs of the chairs. Kenton helped me cut new seats & backs out of some scraps of wood. I found some cute outdoor canvas fabric & covered the old cushions & new wood.

Voila! Good as new!
(Please ignore the ugly yellow hose. I need to get one in a less obnoxious color.) :)

Not sure how well the fabric will hold up compared to vinyl, but I had a coupon & it was much cuter than the vinyl options. So if I have to redo it all next year, I didn't spend much & it wasn't very hard either.

A few more new arrivals around the house - I found this little table on the side of the road. It was white & rusty, but sprayed black it's a perfect plant stand.

Another freebie on the side of the road: the wood framed window. Free! I sprayed it with Heirloom White paint (my spray painting muscles are a bit sore :P) but am really hoping it weathers quickly. I like the way old windows look when they are a bit more dirty & chippy. :)

White rhododendron in bloom.

Our baby broccoli is growing nicely.

Carrot sprouts...even though I misread the planting directions & planted a square of carrots 3 inches deep instead of 1/4" deep. Still growing...we'll see. :)

Strawberries!

Butter crunch & Romaine lettuces.

Lilac!

We had a great weekend filled with sun & 70 degree weather. It really felt like Spring! I could use a little more of that...but I'll take the rain too. :)

gretchen's birthday

We celebrated Gretchen's 32nd Birthday at her house with banana splits! :)

Cute expressions - they must be related. :P

The birthday girl!

Griffin stayed right next to his Mama & helped open presents.

Skirt from us. :)

Happy Birthday Gretchen! We had a lot of fun celebrating with you. We love you!

two weeks old

We brought the chickies out to the backyard for their 2 week birthday (4/7/10); it was their first time touching grass! :)

Before Kenton got home, Finn & I brought Stella & Opal to the backyard. I wasn't sure how hard it would be to keep them corralled so I didn't want to be chasing all 6.

Turns out, they stuck close to each other & didn't wander from us.

Once Kenton got home from work, he helped me bring all of the chickies out to the lawn. They really seemed to enjoy scratching in the grass! Still, they stuck close to each other & didn't cause too much trouble when it was time to go back in their "pen". :)

Cedar & Mama
He can't take his eyes off the chicks; I'm not sure what I'm doing with my hand. :P (Probably just trying to keep from touching Cedar after handling the chicks.)

easter brunch

After church, we went to Kevin & Outi's for brunch. She made yummy potatoes & ham, with fruit & cinnamon rolls. I brought sticky buns to share too!

Handsome Finn checking out the new Bakugan that came in his basket from Mummi & Pappa's Easter bunny. ;)

Our family. Serious Cedar.

Another with a sweet smile from Cedar. I was in mid-laugh, of course. :P

The whole Henry family
Brian, Outi, Kevin, Cedar, Katrina, Kenton & Finn

Cedar showing off some new skills. He's getting good at walking with a walking toy.

Handsome 11 month old!

Another sweet face.

We had a very fun & full Easter weekend to finish off our two weeks of Spring Break. After another quick visit from our friends, Carolyn & Jesse, we went for a LONG walk to burn some calories & get some fresh air. It was cold but didn't rain & Finn even took a little nap while we walked. A great way to end a great day/weekend/week. :) Now back to real life...

easter morning

We made Finn stay in our room til I was ready with the camera! He was more excited to search for eggs than to check out his basket. :) I filled the baskets with shredded bills...served two purposes & I kind of liked the look. :)

Found one right away!

Cedar doesn't look too sure of all the early morning activity. But he enjoyed his treat of freeze-dried fruits later on. :)

Matching shirts for the boys to wear to church.

Cool action shot taken by Kenton.

Another action shot by Kenton. :)

Cedar enjoyed watching his brother dart around the house!

After searching for eggs & having eggs & bacon for breakfast, we went to church in our new Easter clothes.

Finn's friends: Ethan, Macey & Emma. Looking so cute!

The Ruddick family.

Our family with Memaw & Papa
I took photos of the Chases with their camera, but didn't realize I didn't have any on my camera until later. Bummer. They looked great too! :)

progressive easter, continued

We followed my parent's house with our house! My assignment was to make "fresh" appetizers, like a salad course. Since we don't have a lot of sit-down space, I made bite sized salads...plus some tasty mini desserts. It was a lot of fun & I used premade fillo cups - so easy!


I borrowed the tiered serving plates from my mom - I think I might need one of those - to display the 3 choices: Pistachio Crusted Goat Cheese & Grape Salad bites (altered Cooking Light recipe), Caesar Salad bites, Raspberry & Mascarpone Cream bites. Kenton also made iced "Cuban" coffee & we had tea & some other snacks for the kids. :)

Brooke with Kara & Summer

Gathered in the living room.
We especially had fun sharing our baby chicks with everyone. :)

Next we moved on to the Ruddick's house for dinner & an egg hunt. We had pulled pork sandwiches, scalloped potatoes, asparagus & fresh veggies. Very tasty!

There were a few eggs hidden for the littlest kids & Cedar found one right away, but he threw it like a ball. :)

Summer was very quick to gather as many as she could & plopped down right on top to keep them safe. She looked like a little hen. :)

Kara tried to keep up but when she got up to look for more, Summer snatched her eggs too. :P

Finn had a great time looking for purple eggs - each of the older kids had a specific color of eggs to search for.

Cedar giving fishy kisses to the stuffed fish in his Easter basket.

We finished off the evening with dessert & coffee at the Chase's house. Mini cupcakes...

...& a mint chocolate ice cream torte! Yummy! It was so much fun to take turns hosting. We were all exhausted but thankful for so much time to visit with family.