Peacock Turns ONE

I can't make this stuff up...this legit happened.  And I just so happened to grab a few pictures to prove it.

Here we go....Maggie has been begging to have a 1st birthday party for her fish, Peacock.  I'm not even sure if you knew she had a fish, but now you do.  I entertained the idea thinking it would be a family affair.  A little song, a homemade cake, and it would be over.

Maggie had much bigger plans.

So much so, that she had a complete agenda prepared along with lots of shopping lists.  And this is where you might think I'm a little off my rocker.  I gave in.  However, in my defense, she talked about this for two months and I knew it wasn't going to stop until it was executed.

So, one day, Maggie and I loaded up and hit all her stops....Michaels, Dollar Tree, and Publix.  We had a car full of birthday supplies for a F...I...S...H.... and I am for real.

From there, I let Maggie take the reins.  She planned and prepared and even sent out invitations.  Come party day, she had 12 guests, crafts, snacks, games, and even favors.  

Yes, people actually came...and brought gifts none the less!

Please take note, those are fish sprinkles that Maggie managed to find on our shopping outing.

The crafts included Under The Sea bracelets made with blue beads and pipe cleaners.

And foam door hangers to decorate with fish foam stickers.

Maggie, bossily, ran a game in the back yard to the demise of her guests.

And even led a round of Happy Birthday with her solely gathering the guests and counting them down to start singing.  {that's a big deal for Maggie}

I'd like to say I'm not sure where this idea came from and partly I don't.  But, if I'm being honest with myself, I might have had something to do with the party planning obsession.   Now the bossy hostess part, well, that was all her.

Kind of fun to see that side of my sweet Mags sometimes...and only sometimes.

Happy 1st Peacock!  Hope it was great!

A Few Of My Faves

Hi folks!  I'm back...well kind of.  It feels like FOREVER since I've sat down to my little online  journal.  And although it's really only actually been about two weeks, I've missed it.

So, I say "kind of" because the painting aspect is complete.  Yippee!  Some days were painless others were miserable.  Especially when I lost the kitchen for a good 5 days.  My poor kids were eating some hodge podge meals.  And, oh man, you have seen their lunches...eeek!  But we all survived and have a very white kitchen because of it.

Sadly, I didn't take any before pictures and I haven't really taken any afters.  And there is good reason for that.  I'm just not 100% settled...shocker, huh?

Mission completely accomplished on brightening up the house.  I went from Greenbriar Beige {which was way popular, oh, say about 10 years ago} to Pale Oak and Simply White.  

However, I found this little update has snowballed.  Doesn't that just always happen with house projects?  

I have been replacing lighting, rugs, wall art, decor, and very soon kitchen counter tops.  Ugh...the messes I get myself into.

So until, I feel complete enough to share some "after" pictures, I thought I would pop in with a few of my fave additions. 

Here we go... 

I have two new pendants over my island in the kitchen.  This desperately needed to be done and involved a lot of light removal, location moves, ceiling patches, and finally these beauties.  Now all I need is countertops...they can't get the quartzite cut and installed fast enough....trust me it's an eye sore in the interim.

I changed out our old chandelier for this lovely piece over my dining room table.  The style is so unlike me that a lot tweaking had to take place in that room, but now I am loving it.

One of those tweaks in the dining room...reminds me of home.
{And by the way, those walls are Simply White, just to show you how off the coloring is.}

A new rug in the formal living room, which I find myself laying on and drooling over it's stunning blue.

The foyer is undergoing some major re-vamps.  With the new wall color, I knew it was time to change out the existing light fixture.  I have pretty low ceilings so I went for a flush mount.  I couldn't be happier.  The area looks so much brighter and bigger.  Amazing what a coat of paint and a new light can do.

I also moved the piece of furniture that was in the foyer into another room and added this lovely thing.  I'm still waiting on a mirror, a lamp, and something to fill my new pot with.  But, I tell you, that console table makes me giddy.  I am really enjoying being able to add some grays to my house with the new paint colors.

Although, this doesn't look like too much, I promise it has been consuming my days.  I'm looking forward to getting the kitchen under control, finishing up a few details and enjoying my Fall.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention...we are adding a screened in porch all the while...enjoying Fall may just be a long shot.

Something to Cheer About

All three of my kids are extremely happy with their teachers, friends, and the start of the school year.  And {on a slightly more important note}, so am I.

I'm telling you we ROCKED the teacher placement this year.  If you ask me that is something to CHEER about.  Perfect matches for all three kiddos.  I love when that happens.

I'm such a sucker for teachers {especially elementary ones}, that I just had to let them know how happy the Cibula fam is with the start of 1st and 3rd grade.  

On one of my Target errand days, I grabbed the teachers their fave beverage and added a little note.  I hope it brings lots of sunshine and gratitude their way this first month of school.  

There's nothing like a teacher's throat after the first few weeks of school.

And on a slightly unrelated note, I might as well explain my sporadic blogging here lately.  We are getting the entire interior of the house painted....eeek....and so exciting!

I'm actually lucky I have a computer right not...it was covered with a  drop cloth earlier today.

I'll be back when this house returns to some normalcy.  Ta-ta for now.