Pirate's Cove!

Summer is quickly coming to an end so yesterday we decided to try something new.....

Pirate's Cove!

It's a drive but it was totally fun.  We have done the usual zoo, Blackberry Farm, Santa's Village, Arboretum, etc. but this was new to us.  It's perfect for the small kids.

 

For starters, they have a merry-go-round that the kids can get on and off by themselves and adults don't even have to ride with them.  Talk about making you feel old.

 

We went inside the pirate ship to make a craft. 

 

We made pirate flags!

 

Then we tried out these little trains that you pedal with your hands.

 

Super cute!

 

We played at this park too.

 

The kids couldnt' get enough of the dragon slide.

 

We also had to try out the pirate ship.  We actually ate our lunch on it but Bub wanted to drive it!

 

We waited in line to drive some really cool looking boats too.

 

You pedal with your hands.

 

Gracie and Presley loved these!

 

They had to go down the big slide too.

 

You think they had fun?

 

We watched a pirate show.

 

They had the kids get in a circle to do the hokey-pokey.  

 

Gracie and Evie had fun doing that. Presley sat this one out.

 

And then while these 2 bounced in the bouncy house,

 

my 6 year old was being brave and wanted so badly to climb the rock wall.

 

She didn't quite make it to the top but she did get pretty far.

 

I'm so proud of her.

 

And then she repelled herself down.

 

We rode the cutest little train.

 

Like 5 times.

 

We ran through the mister.

 

We went back to drive the pirate ship.

 

And we even got to raise the flag.

It was the cutest little place and is on our list to go to next year!  

Gracie's 6 Year Pictures!

Can you believe Gracie Girl is already 6??

My friend Jessica did it again. She took some amazing pictures of my beautiful daughter.

Thanks Jessica!

Grandma and Grandpa's New Park!

A few months ago Grandma and Grandpa purchased a new playset for their yard. They had one that had a small slide and 2 swings. The kids have outgrown it sadly. So they looked around for months to find just the perfect playset that would surely entertain their 3 grandchildren.

And well here is what they got!

This thing is loaded!  It has 2 swings, a glider, a slide, monkey bars, a fort, a crow's nest with a telescope, a rock wall, and even a picnic table and deck with sandbox on the bottom.

Grandpa hired some help to put this baby up and it took 12 hours but they got it done.  We wanted the kids to be surprised.  We tried to catch their faces when they first saw it.

 

They ran straight for it and played on it with huge smiles on their faces.  You think they thought this thing was cool?

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!  This playset was well worth the money and I know it will serve for hours and hours of fun!

Building a Dream!

Today we made some very big decisions for our family.....

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE BABY!!

(for those of you who don't know, we have been living in a townhome for the past 9 years and trying to sell it for the past 4.  We have 3 kids sharing 1 of our 2 bedrooms and it's squishy.  We need space.  We need room.)

 

Actually I signed the contract to build a house!  Yes, build!  Like a dream house!

 

Why are we building?  We have had several little dates with our realtor Jeff, who is so awesome.  We saw some good ones, we saw some not-so-good ones. We found some we really liked only to have them snagged up before we could take a second look.  The market is picking up my friends.  We would send our realtor 10 addresses at a time and he would come back with 2 that were still available.  Realtor.com was my BFF the last few weeks.  I'm actually sick of looking at it. SO many houses are selling.  We found some we like within our price range but of course needed some fixing up.  Then our realtor took us here...to Theodore's Ridge.  They have awesome floor plans for awesome prices. We looked at some that were built and kept looking.  We thought "why not build a brand spanking new house for the same price as some of these other ones?"  So that's what we did.  We crunched numbers. Well, Chuck crunched numbers.  Like every night.  We discussed our options.  Until midnight.  Every night.  We sat down and looked at the floor plans and upgrades.  We decided this is it! 

And here it is!

 

We are building a 2800 sq. ft. home with 5, yes 5 bedrooms!  That is 3 more bedrooms than we have now!  Some things that I LOVE about this house is that it comes with full basement and crawl space.  It has a 2nd floor laundry room!  I have to go up 3 flights of stairs now!  It has an awesome master bath with a soaker tub and separate shower!  And that comes standard!  There is a 7 foot island in the kitchen!  We will have a pantry!  We have no pantry now.  We didn't add a lot of upgrades yet since we figured we could slowly do things at our own pace. I mean we have to be able to afford this baby right?  We are getting white doors and trim. I hate the look of the cheapy wood. We added an extension to the garage for all of the kids toys. We added a laundry tub to the laundry room.  We added a rough-in for plumbing in the basement. We know someone who can help us out with that one!  We also are only getting it set up for an air conditioner, not having one installed.  We figure we can do that for cheaper than what they want.  We are upgrading our cabinets a bit and adding a bit more tile so it goes from the garage to the kitchen.  I know the floor plan is hard to see but we are moving the laundry room the loft area.  We don't need a loft with the 5th bedroom so we will use that space to make the front 2 bedrooms bigger. 

That's our house in a nutshell. Really, it is like a dream come true.  Ever since I found out I was pregnant with twins, we have been trying to get out of here.  And they are turning 4 in a couple of months. We need it and we deserve it.  The neighborhood is small and there is a park.  We will have a decent yard and it's still in our school and park district!  Everything we could want is here.  The house won't be done until January so we hang out here, save some more moola, and pack up some more. 

The Weiss's are moving on up!