Happy 3rd Birthday Svea!

Annika and her family came last night to celebrate Svea's birthday and to drop their girls off for the weekend! Clearly the whole family was so excited to be here that no one had time to close the doors on the van after they got out. We had chili on a borderline chilly night. And chocolate cupcakes with purple frosting that Svea had made with her mama.

Svea got a sleeping bag to match her sisters' and a baby doll. She was super excited about both.

We've been very busy already today: went for a walk with three strollers, built a fort, played with play dough, colored, made pancakes and sausage with helpers, watched Clifford and played in the rock box. And now it's quiet time. Which isn't actually that quiet and seems to involve a lot of tape, string, muffin liners and crayons.

home renovation: a sunny room

Well, it has been a very exciting two weeks here at the grovestead. We are basically living in an HGTV episode, though the only cameras are my own. We are putting in a front door on our house, and a big window to overlook our yard. If this were an actual HG episode it would be called: Let there be Light.

And oh, it is so good.

Our front room at one time was the kitchen in this 1890's farm house. It also used to be in the back of the house. It's a bit confusing, and I've mentioned it before, but the front door to our farm house is on the back side of our house. What was once the front yard is now the back yard after the land around us was developed and two new lots popped up on the land that used to have the lane that drove to our front door. (This was years ago...either the 70's or the 90's...can't remember at the moment).

Anyway, we needed a front door that didn't lead guests through our garage and we needed more natural light in this house. We toyed with adding a sun room onto our house, and then decided this room that we didn't know what to do with could become the sun room if given a big enough window. 

So here are a whole lot of pictures of the progress for anyone who cares. I LOVE a good home renovation (and have spent much of my life watching Sarah Richardson, Candice Olson and that Scott guy on Property Ladder) so to be living out a home renovation is really exciting to me. Which is good, because we have spent much of the last two weeks (and will this next week too) walking outside and around our house anytime we want to get from the kitchen to the bedrooms. So far it feels like an adventure, although today is the first day we've had rain...which tends to make the run with children around the house a bit more adventurous. 

Alright! Here are the pics! This will be overkill if you don't care. Just fair warning...

petting zoo

We went to visit our neighbor's goats again today and I was thinking about how I will sometimes lament how far we live from the zoo.  But then we have experiences like this and I realize the trade off is quite fair. 

I actually just jumped on here to record two quick Ivar quotes from the day.

Today during nap I was singing The B, I, B, L, E to Ivar. I sang, "I stand alone on the word of God..." And he interrupted, "That will be so owie to stand on Jesus."

And then later this afternoon I walked past his door where he was playing alone and heard him say, "Okay. I'll tell you a little choice. You can sit there or there." And then his voice raised and he said, "No, I said there or there!"

The boy has picked up on my choice centered parenting. And my raised voice when he doesn't pick one of my choices!

all together: Sara Groves, Andrew Peterson and Bebo Norman

Listen up. If you live  in Texas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virgnia, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Virginia, Michigan, South Carolina, North Carolina or Kentucky then you're going to want to get this one on your calendar.

Sara is going on tour this fall with Andrew Peterson and Bebo Norman. Bebo basically sang me through my four years of college, my constant soundtrack for that season of life. And ever since Sara when out with Andrew on his Christmas tour I have been a huge fan. Huuugge. A funny thing happens when I listen to Andrew's music: I see little homemade music videos with each song. He paints pictures with his lyrics and it's awesome. These three are the real deal. And they're going to be on stage all together. Which will most certainly to lead to one thoughtful, inspired, amazing concert.

Click here to see the exact location for each concert  (and to see one of the goofiest concert posters ever...)

And then mark your calendars! Rory and I will be at the Excelsior show in Minnesota. Nebraska friends, try to get to Lincoln the night they are there.

Here's one of my favorite Andrew Peterson songs to convince you to come:
And here's one of my very favorites of Sara singing a hymn I have always loved:
Hope you can get to a show! Get a sitter! Grab a friend! Make plans for dinner and a concert! And then enjoy a night of awesome, thoughtful music.

rainbow tomatoes

Did you know tomatoes ripen in rainbow order? Rory brought in this bunch of baby tomatoes to show me and I was so amazed. Sort of a different kind of color spectrum...

And then, later I walked out the garden to get a tomato for BLT's and found this one that was bigger than the bread. How awesome is that?!!