Pictures From This Weekend

Aaron got some great shots of Ella's ballet recital Friday night, but I'm only going to share a couple (since I posted the video of the performance).

Contrary to what this picture may signify, Ella was very excited (and not the least bit nervous) to go on the big stage. She was constantly asking when it'll be her turn.

Watching some performances, with Grammy and Grampy in the background.

Grandpa + Ella = best buds for life!

All the girls lined up and ready to perform! Ella, Alyssa, Hailey, Thea, Londynn and Adelyn. :)

After the recital, we all had pizza and salad at our house. Good laughs, great conversation...perfect way to spend a Friday evening. Oh, and it looks like my dad has a really good idea in this picture. Hahaha! Okay, that was a lame joke, but I couldn't help it!

Ella has become quite the painting diva. There are a couple pieces (I'll have to take pictures of them later) that turned out surprisingly well! My girl's got some mad art skill!

Lately Ella has been refusing to wear hair ties. As you can see, her hair just flops in front of her face. I don't know how she stands all that hair in her face, but I gotta choose my battles with her, and her wearing a hair tie isn't going to be one of them.

Gotta love the black and white!

Cupboard update:

With Aaron letting me finish my project, I'm not getting as much done as I'd like, but I did have a very productive weekend!

I painted two coats on the backside of all the cupboard doors and cut all the trim work I will need for the frontside of the cupboard doors (and even glued and nail-gunned trim onto half of the doors). So, while cutting all the 45-degree angles, I ended up with a ton of wooden triangles. Ella took it upon herself to paint some of them.

And once the triangles dried, she organized them by color. She truly is a mini version of me. I love it!

The front of the cupboards don't look that great yet. They only have a coat of primer and then the trim was already white. I plan on filling any cracks or holes (from the nail gun) with wood filler and then paint two coats. It's going to look SWEET once it's all done...whenever that will be. :)

To see pictures of the old cabinets, click HERE. That'll give you some perspective as to what I'm trying to achieve. Even though Aaron thought just painting the doors white would be fine, I didn't think painting over the black indented designs would turn out good. I wanted the doors to be more 3-dimensional, giving them a more updated look. Even though our cabinets will no way look like the ones you find in brand new homes, the new door and drawer faces will brighten up our kitchen with a fresher look.

Aaron tells me, "Hey, if it's that important to you, then all this work isn't for nothing." I put in seven hours today and my back is absolutely killing me, but I feel great otherwise. A proud sense of accomplishment! I never thought I'd be patient enough to deal with tedious woodworking, but I guess I do have some of my dad in me. :)

Most of the day, Aaron and Ella enjoyed the air-conditioned indoors, so it was just Zoe and me hanging out on the back patio. Poor Zo Zo got sawdust all over her. That's what she gets for laying under the table saw!

Happy Zoe!

Later in the afternoon, Aaron and Ella decided to take a dip. And, of course, there's no possible way they can take a dip without Bob joining in. :)

And there's also no possible way they can swim without some extreme throwing! Is it just me, or is Aaron throwing Ella higher each time? Oh my!

Oh Roberto!

Bob casually enjoying the cool water with Ella.

Okay, that's it! Hope you all had a great weekend. It's August already...can you believe it?!?