Colin's 31st Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Colin's birthday. The weekend before that we took a trip to see the Perkins, who graciously kept the kids for an entire Saturday while I took Colin on a surprise getaway to Asheville, NC (Biltmore, massage, dinner at a brewery)!

Anyways, on his actual birthday I made french toast (per Colin's request) and he opened his oversized present. For years I've been eyeing the Star Wars LED Death Star Wall Art from Pottery Barn Kids. I knew Colin would enjoy having it. It's way cooler than any "kid" stuff. ;) This was the year!

Despite the fact this cake looks like it's for Halloween, it's actually Colin's requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting from a can, and because I insist on having some kind of decoration, this year he chose Reeses Pieces.

31 candles later...

Colin spent the day creating built-in shelves for our media closet:

Here's the end result:

And the Death Star in his office:

Pumpkins

Instead of doing a full blown pumpkin farm experience, this year we opted for the easy pop-up pumpkin patch that takes all of 5-7 minutes to enjoy. We've had a pretty busy October so while I'm a little disappointed, I'm not really. ;)

After the kids chose their pumpkins we went home and they drew the face they wanted carved...

Here's a "before" shot of the pumpkins. I carved them that night but didn't get around to photographing until the next day.

Will was still napping when Elana and Sam were playing outside the next day...

My grandma's house is for sale!

After LOTS of work by friends and family, my grandma's house in rural Waxhaw is about to hit the market! She lived in that house for over 20 years and has recently moved to a senior community closer to family. We updated all the flooring and paint as well as a number of light fixtures and mirrors. I desperately wanted to update the bathroom sinks but that has not yet happened. I did some staging over the weekend. Everything had to be small enough for me to manage by myself at 23 weeks pregnant, as well as fit in my van (air mattresses, single chairs, etc.). There is just enough to help folks identify what room they are in as they walk through. We were supposed to finish everything on Saturday but there was still more packing/decluttering to do AND the power went out for the entire afternoon so we didn't finish until Sunday! I like to use both natural light and electric light for real estate photos because it creates a cozy atmosphere, but I couldn't take pics with the power out! Plus, even though I took my tripod, I did not have the attachment on my camera to connect it (doh!). And it was cloudy and rainy. wamp wamp. Anyways, thanks to Joyce, Jill, and Colin--couldn't have made the staging happen without you!!

(bedroom)

(bedroom)