Wednesday, March 28, 2012

welcome to our new home

front

entry
(glass doors to left lead to living room;
2-story brick fireplace is in family room)

family room

family room
(big windows and big skylights (not pictured))

family room from 2nd-floor landing

view from above
(family room and dinette)

dinette and deck

kitchen
(note: most of these pictures were taken
with lights off; lots of natural light)

dining room
(off dinette; separated by double doors;
also accessible from main entry)

dining room

matching wall sconce in dining room
(found it and a companion in basement)

coordinating chandelier

library (aka, ground floor office)

living room
(attached to library, but separable
via a pocket door)

living room

view from living room down hall
(notice you can see into dinette, kitchen;
very open floor plan)

basement play area

basement media area
(some day; still missing:
furniture, TV, etc.)

basement office
(on other side of basement
from play area and future media area)

basement walk-out
(may turn into guest quarters;
basement has full BA adjacent)

 

entrance to master suite
(NB, all BRs are on 2nd floor;
master on one side; 3 additional BRs on other)

master BR

master BR
(rather sparse at the moment;
we've yet to put up wall hangings of any kind;
so hard to drill those first holes in the wall)

master shower

master tub
(this and the living room, 
both in the SE corner of the house,
tie for brightness)

toby's BR
 

view of deck from toby's BR
(his room has nicest view of all 4 BRs)

deck and creek

simon's BR

the boys' shared BA

our spare bedroom
(right now, has full bed plus 
all of toby's nursery furniture;
will probably move full bed into basement;
interesting decorating choice;
makes me think of the "sound of music" 
play clothes fashioned from drapes)


deck and creek

rick, toby and creek

rick, simon and creek
(can you say "dirty dancing?")

kids on deck


kids on deck acting goofy
(so what else is new?)
  
back

back
(do you see someone lurking in our woods?)
thanks for virtually visiting.
now come do it in person!


















kids in summer duds

like much of the country,
we've been on a weather roller coaster here.
we had 80-degree weather which,
in days, changed to 30-degree weather.
these were taken before the precipitous drop in temps.
it's already 50 degrees today at 8 am,
and we hear - and hope - it will stay that way.
"cold, cold, go away..."
 simon sports shorts for the 
first time all season.
(better for showing off his cool leg!)
toby models the super awesome
old navy hawaiian shirt we picked up
at once upon a child over the weekend.
his favorite part?
it has a pocket!
what good is that?
he can bring a small toy to school.
(or so he thinks!)


Thursday, March 22, 2012

the only thing that beats a bike...

...is a school bus.
at least, that's true if you're simon!
here he is, walking toward the driveway
to meet the bus when it arrives.
 here he is posing with "flat kaya,"
who stayed home (she's not on same bus route).
 here he is, safely strapped in
and raring to go!
simon loves school *almost* as much as
he loves school buses.


BICYCLE, BICYCLE, BICYCLE

it has been absolutely gorgeous here.
tuesday, i bought a bike pump so we could all have a ride.
(yes, even mom got on her bike!)
 (incidentally, toby - pictured here with "flat kaya," 
a 2D version of our cousin -
knows to wear a helmet on his bike.
he's without one while he poses, still, for this photo.)
 simon was thrilled to get on the back of daddy's bike.
we haven't figured out how to enable simon to ride a bike on his own,
so for the time being, this is a great alternative.
(other options we plan to explore: hand propelled bikes,
a la plasma car, flying turtle, krazy kar)
 toby was happy to see his bike again.
he honestly hadn't ridden it much since receiving it 
as a present in winter 2010.
this summer, we plan to teach him to ride it
without training wheels.
stay tuned....
(i'm sure there will be video of it one of these days!)
this was actually simon's very first bike ride.
small though he is in the picture,
you can probably tell how excited he was.
i foresee a lot of bike riding this spring/summer.
this morning, i jogged the dogs in the direction of a horse farm.
the roads were flat, well paved and low-traffic...
perfect for learning to ride!
(though perhaps not as perfect as our own very private cul de sac!!)


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Thursday, March 15, 2012

housewarming gift

our friends erin, dan, finn and liam
sent us a lovely housewarming present 
of mrs. fields cookies and brownies.
 the packaging was utterly adorable.
can you read "The Rizzos" above the front door?
 we enjoyed some of the cookies yesterday
outside on our deck.
 the kids were immediately transformed into
cookie monsters!
 toby definitely looks like he thinks
he got away with something,
though he had just his share of cookies.
 i guess the boys were just feeling silly.
could it have been the sugar so soon?
(doubtful!)
 thank you to our very sweet friends
for the sweet welcome to
our new home!