Cake Pictures

Happy Birthday Gus!

Big Boy Bed

 Happy Birthday Gussy!  Presents!

 A bedskirt!  Just what you wanted!

 Matching sheet set!  Awesome!

 I'm totally serious.  Your very own mattress pad.  What? You're speechless?  You love it that much?

 Mock-up of last morning in the crib.

 Time to take it down!

 Claire:  "Mom! This is kinda like a cage!"

Mom:  "That's kinda, like, the whole point."

 Big boy bed all set up.

I am not ready for my baby to be two.  I am double not ready for him to be out of his crib.  I am always so emotional about this transition from crib to bed because je ne sais quoi.  I'm weird (and hormonal).  I'll just go cry now.

Home Tour - Living Room, Dining Room and Front Hallway

The study and the kitchen are in the two east corners of the house, the living and dining rooms are in the two west corners of the house.  Can you picture this?  I didn't think so.  The floor plan creates this perfect circle of rooms that my children run laps around everyday around 4:30pm.  I am told by previous inhabitants of our home that this childhood craziness has occurred for generations.  It is comforting to know that my children are not the only wild ones.

 Front Hallway

 Front Hallway from the opposite corner, study to left, front door straight ahead.

 Living room.

 The bookcase my dad made for us, stuffed full of books.

Sitting on the couch looking towards the front hall, stairs to go upstairs on the left, door into study on right.

 Dining room complete with lovely built-ins.  The middle section of cabinets we call the "homeschool cabinet".  I love that our materials are so accessible, yet have doors to hide the paper explosion.

A detail of the family tree I made last winter, which was inspired by the project I found on the Mor-mom blog here.  It hangs in the front hallway.  I love it!

On Top of the Piano

On top of our piano I have placed a number of photographs of our family.  The collection is mostly wedding portraits, but the photo above is placed among them.  This photo is a picture of Christopher's great-grandfather and his string quartet.  Can you guess which one is my husband's relative?  He is the only one seated, and I think that his great grandson looks just like him.

Pewabic Pottery and Hamtramck

We stopped at Pewabic Pottery after the museum.  While it is of historical importance, mostly it remains a working shop, gallery and store.  We walked around, looked at the kilns and read what was available.  When Chris and I fall into some serious money, I plan to tile my kitchen with their tiles. 

I'll take one of these kilns in the garage of the parsonage please!  Right next to my husband's hot box of course.  Kind of like his-and-hers.

 Then we drove through a ghetto of Detroit because Google Maps does not have a non-ghetto option for driving directions (very scary...please, no stop signs) to get to the Polish neighborhood of Hamtramck.  My husband's father's boss recommended a restaurant called the Polish Village Cafe.  The place was bustling, and we had to wait for a table, but it was worth it!  Awesomeness on a plate.  Cheers!

 Borscht.

Detroit Institute of Arts

Chris and I had planned to go to the special Rembrandt exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts on the Faces of Jesus.  Turns out the exhibit doesn't open until November of 2011.  No fear, we were still able to enjoy the museum.  What a collection of artwork!  The docent (my dream job) told us that at any given time the museum only displays 10% of their collection.  We could have stayed much longer browsing the galleries, but alas, we had food to eat.

 Baptismal font from Sweden.

 Claire's favorite: Cupid and Psyche.

 Want some pearls with that Mrs. Medici?

 Christopher's favorite:  Lucas Cranach the Elder.

 Lily's favorite:  St. George and the dragon (albeit missing the beautiful princess).

 Fra anyone?  Raise your hand if you got this Annunciation image on a Christmas card. (I did! Thanks CTSFW!)

 My favorite: Modigliani.

 I really love art.  If I could go back, I would go to school for a studio art degree with an emphasis in ceramics.  If time and money would allow, I would also double minor in chemistry (to better understand glazes) and art history (because I love it).  My education didn't work out that way, and I probably will not have an opportunity to study again in the future, but to have a husband who appreciates art as much as I do is a very, very good thing.