Monday, July 28, 2008

Hoosier Hospitality

This past weekend, with our new dining room [JUST] finished, we hosted a Student Sendoff for kids going to IU in the fall and their families. It was a great turnout with 11 families coming - 9 freshmen - which was almost 20% of the new students. We set up a little welcome table in the new dining room - a preview for those wanting chez johnahue reservations...just ignore the plethora of IU stuff!
For the festivities, I decorated some brownie bites Hoosier style - they were a huge hit!
Kids and parents enjoyed mingling on our back patio - Mikey hit the grill for the traditional burgers and dogs, while I stayed in with the sides playing greeter at the front door. We had a good thing going for sure!
A group picture at the end sealed the day - people were so appreciative and the kids were excited to meet others traveling "far away" to school. It was interesting to hear the diversity of what they were studying - from vocal performance, dance performance and fashion design to art history, marketing, political science and who knows what else! It makes me proud to be part of such a great alumni group that can offer such terrific opportunities for kids. Good luck Future Hoosiers!!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dinner anyone?

After a good months worth of work, our dining room is finally ready to see some ACTION! Check out the finished duds - then I'll tell the story (and pictures) of what it took to get here...
First, let me remind you what we started with - sheesh, this was REALLY bad. I mean this was when we *first* moved in so there are boxes everywhere, but this gives you a sense of the tiled mirrored wall (along the back) the loud wallpaper and the green carpet. What WERE they thinking??
We took down the tiled mirrors (anyone need any?? I've got about 60 x 12" square mirrors that didn't break!), scraped the wallpaper away, and got to the underbelly of the walls. It wasn't much prettier I tell ya!
The walls were skim coated with spackle (two layers I think!), sanded, and then we were ready for the big decision - color! I had gotten a few paint samples from Benjamin Moore so before we went any further, here's what it looked like: we had Polar Sky, Porcelein and Georgetown Pink Beige the blue looked like a baby boys room, and the "pink beige" turned out more orange. We both liked the porcelien purple, so that's what we picked!

Next we went to furniture. We had been given an antique set by some generous friends, but some of the wood had been stripped. Without the time to seal it, we decided to oil it with some orange oil to bring back some shine. We did it peice by piece in the living room - I had a flashback to dusting the dining room as a child. Wow, how things come full circle.
Once the color went on the walls, we were in good shape and it was just a matter of cleaning up.
And now - Voila! A dining room fit for...well... US! Reservations at chez johnahue now being accepted - weekends only please. :)

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Independence Day fun


Happy Birthday America! We celebrated the 4th on the Cape with family. I mean ALL the family! We spent time with Mikes fam celebrating neices Mari and Sarah's birthdays, Amy's family having lobstah and steaks, and our little family, just us and Sox.

Sox had a blast swimming in the pond in Falmouth. He even had company for the first time - Mari and Sarah swam with him! He enjoyed playing with his new toy - the Wubba - a red, tug, floaty, squeeky, kong strong ball of fun. Here's a few swimmin shots:


Sox also had fun with cousin Mocha. They got special 4th of July squeekys and played nicely together on the deck. This shot also shows the Wubba - a backup toy:
It got pretty hot so Uncle Jimmy let Mocha cool off in a kiddie pool:
But after a morning of swimming, Sox was content to lie in a cool place - under the deck. Silly Sox!!
We watched fireworks from Falmouth Heights beach - they were terrific. Unfortunately the wind was blowing our direction so the finale was kindof a dud, but still, it was nice to see the half-hour display set to music. We got ice cream on the way home with Sox and it was a pretty good birthday party. Yeah USA!