A labor of love!

Labor Day weekend has come and gone, all in a poof of paint fumes! As you can guess, I spent a great deal of my time repainting and revamping Kdee's room. It turned out really well--it's so much cuter now than before. Kdee LOVES it, and all of her super enthusiastic "thank yous!!!!, big hugs and "I LOVE it's!!!" made all the time and effort more than worth it. I don't know that I've seen that much gratitude from her before, and it was so sweet. She now officially has a pink & purple room (I even painted her bed purple to match the 2 purple walls; it was my old bed and looking pretty sad before!), complete with canopy. In other words, this room is all girl!

Besides painting, our weekend included:
Friday: Retrieving Kdee from Grandma/pa R and having a beautiful lakeside dinner together. When little B saw Kdee for the first time, he started running, pulling ribB along, and was waving wildly saying "hello!!!". He also gave her a HUGE hug, which had her grinning from ear to ear.

Saturday: ribB went up north for the day on Saturday to set his stands for deer hunting. He got a lot of time with his Uncle Bart, which was very meaningful for him. Back at the Fort, Kdee's friend Kirsten came over for lunch (along with her mom and brother) and then stayed to play, which Kdee loved. Later that night, Grandma Honey & Paul came over for late dinner and dessert. Paul was pretty wiped out from a big week of moving his store's inventory, so it was pretty low key.

Sunday: Paint, paint and more paint. We took a break for the kid's favorite Chinese buffet, so they were thrilled about that. I was thrilled to be outside the four walls of Kdee's room and ribB was glad to have another set of hands to help with the kids.

Monday: More painting. ribB and Kdee did some bow shooting together and had fun. Kdee reported that she got to use a bush for a bathroom--always a big hit with the under 8 crowd. Later, we enjoyed a family boat ride out on the river. Kdee caught a "Moon Eye" fish--something we don't see much of around here. Later, little B had great fun touching it and swinging it around...complete with scales flying everywhere. Needless to say, it was gross to me, but both kids were laughing wildly and were in Heaven. A nice family time! Next came preparations for the first day of school and putting together Kdee's room for her first night of sleep in the renovated room. Before we knew it, the day was done!

Tuesday: First day of school! Hurrah! Lots of enthusiasm. Kdee endured the annual first day photo and the morning started off without a hitch. Once she caught sight of her best friend, Ally, Kdee was gone in a flash....and I was but a memory :-)! Later we got to hear all about her big day and she & I went out for a DQ treat for the first day back. She is very excited about her school year!

Wednesday: Happy birthday, (Great) Grandma L! We shared soup and ice cream cake with family at (Great) Grandma's apartment. It was a nice get together and the kids did well with the late night (for them) activity. The kids had fun in (Great) Grandma's room--playing with her bed (how fun when it moves up/down/etc.) and with the couple of stuffed animals she had on hand. Of course, they loved how (Great) Grandma kept sneaking them cookies...who doesn't love that?

Today: Tonight ribB & I have a date! Well, it's to the first grade parent/teacher meeting, but since it's our first outing since our anniversary, I'm counting it as a date (besides, we're paying a babysitter--that's a date!). I'll be gearing up for my weekend away to see 2 of my closest friends down in southern WI. I'm really looking forward to the time with both of them. Is it Friday yet???

On a side-note, last Thursday myself and 2 coworkers went to our client's restauant for 9 courses of garlic (right down to the ice cream with the dessert!). It was so, so fabulous--really great. The only after-affect we found was that the next morning our mouth's tasted like we'd been chewing on garlic cloves. I don't even know how much garlic we consumed that night, but it was usually used in a very subtle manner. Amazing the difference food has when prepared by a skilled chef!

I have lots of pictures to share, which will probably take up a couple of posts:
1) Kdee's room before
2) Kdee's room after--just the pink walls (keep in mind we haven't put up the artwork yet; also, notice her long-living blanket that she lovingly wrapped around the purple pillow...)
3) Kdee's room after--pink & purple walls so you get the idea
4) Kdee on the first day of school