Aidan's 5 years old!!

A few pictures from Aidan's 5th Birthday party with his friends!

The birthday boy








Anyone for cake?








(somewhere in there, there's some present-opening going on)








Bryce loves McKenna

"Bye Bye, House"

Well, after days and days of slinging boxes and bags full of stuff we probably ought to have thrown out weeks ago, I think we've finally done it. The last touches were put on cleaning the old house out, scrubbing it down and getting it ready for the buyers to take over after closing tomorrow.

We're trying not to be too sad about it. We've spent a lot of good years there. Of course, it's where we started this little family of ours, it's the house we brought both our boys home to-- it's where Grandma Irene stood in the backyard, hatchet lifted high above her head preparing to take another whack at a tenacious old shrub we had spent most of a day trying to dig out of the yard (what eventually became the round flowerbed). We bring those with us, the pictures and memories of the times we spent there. But still, there's something about the place, itself, something we're quietly honoring tonight, on the eve of handing the old place over.

The boys, of course, are not so sentimental. Mama took them by there this afternoon during the cleaning process. They each ran from room to room and exclaimed about how clean and nice everything looked. Then, as they drove away, Aidan and Bryce both waved and said "Bye bye, House." And now they've moved on, thoroughly.

"Bye bye, House."

For us, though-- and maybe we're just being sappy-- we're spending a little time reflecting on the last 8 years and the family, the life we started building within the sheltering embrace of that house.

G'night, Olivia.

Done Deal!

We closed on the new house today, and the boys FINALLY got to see the inside of it for themselves!
They both instantly fell in love and had a great time running around all the rooms, trying out all the doors, practicing going from each room to the bathroom. We'll get to firedrills later, but for now, we need to make sure everyone knows how to get to the potty in the middle of the night!

We brought a few boxes over today after the closing, but we'll be back there most of the day tomorrow to start moving stuff in earnest. The POD people will be coming tomorrow morning as well to take the POD over.. looking ahead, the movers will be coming on Wednesday to move our furniture, so Wednesday night will be our first night in the new house.

Between now and then, we've got a refrigerator and at least one mattress to buy!

Here are a few pictures from this afternoon's visit.

Aidan and Bryce see the inside for the first time (really, it was all we could do to get them to look at the camera).

















Aidan shows us the closet in his new room.












Aidan and Bryce examine the view out Bryce's window. Bryce said, over and over, "I can see the pool."
















Oh! Those of you who've been following the house- hunting project closely knew that this day would come. Aidan finally gets to meet the garage in the new house.
Aidan has been obsessed with the number of garages the prospective houses have had. Was determined that we should have "two garages".
While this house has only one big, two-car garage, Aidan was happy to discover that the window in his new room affords him a view of the neighbor's house across the street-- and their TWO garages! All things work out in the end, I guess.

Happy 4th of July