Our First Guests! Our Family!

Brian's parents flew in on April 30th to spend the weekend with us...and also to give us motivation to get our house TOGETHER.

Michael woke up at 6:30am both mornings because he was so excited they were there! Every weekend with Grammy and Grandpa begins with pancakes...this time with aprons to remind them of their rank in the family:
Grammy made Michael a cross stitched blanket that was very similar to one that Brian has from when he was little:

Then, we jumped in the car, drove an hour and met up with Thomas the Tank for the day:

Michael also got to see his Aunt AK and Uncle Bill:

And Grandpa took Michael to the only kind of tattoo parlor that he would willingly take his grandson: a temporary oneMeet Thomas the Tank was held at the B&O Railroad. Who knew it existed outside of the Monopoly board?? Don't answer that.

Here we are on the platform to get our ride on Thomas the Tank. It was a bit anticlimactic as it went about 2mph with tons of kids on it.

Michael LOVED it though! Here he is looking out the window:

And father and son with Thomas in the background:

Overall, Michael was a bit overwhelmed at Thomas the Tank. He definitely enjoyed himself there! But I was surprised that after only 2.5 hours, he was done!

That was F-I-N-E by us because we took a quick detour to Ft. McHenry thanks to The Mom's suggestion!

Here is why Ft. McHenry is important according to Wikipedia:

"Ft. McHenry is a star shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812 when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in the Chesapeake Bay. It was during this bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," the poem that would eventually be set to the tune of the The Anacreontic Song, to become the national anthem of the United States."

Much better than what I could have said!

Brian was a good sport while I made him stand against this red brick wall and between the green shutters that makes the green man on his shirt stand out:

And this is straight out of the camera...I just loved the greens/oranges and the way the light hit this and the black scrolly thing.
And we stayed to see the changing of the flag. The flag with the 13 stars come down and was replaced by our current one.
On Sunday, we went to church and hung around the house! Michael put together his blue adirondack chair and went mowing with Dad. It was a relaxing Sunday after our full Saturday, and we loved every minute of our fun weekend!

I leave you with this picture. It was way too dark, so I lightened it up in photoshop and it's still bizarre with the blownout areas, but I just like the way it looks. Kind of futuristic like from Iron Man or something...

You Vote: Sofa or Sectional?

Decorating, furniture shopping/etc.

Should we go for the sectional in our living room:
Or the sofa?

Post your opinion in comments.

Wilmington Flower Market

Yesterday, we visited the Wilmington Flower Market!

Wilmington Flower Market = Carnival = FUNNEL CAKE:
Michael had his first funnel cake and he LOVED it. What is the Wilmington Flower Market not like? It's not like a flower market. I think they had like 3 booths TOTAL that sold plants. It was an excuse to have a carnival.

Michael rode every ride. And of course, the carousel. Where did my little baby go? The event was held at Rockdale Park in Wilmington. We drove through the windy backroads of PA and DE to see the tented park near this tourist attraction:
That's right. A tower in a park. Can't say things are THAT much different than in Europe. :)

Here's Michael with my parents and the fish he won. My parents bought him enough tickets to ride every ride. TWICE. Grandparents...gotta love 'em:And this is what I did while my mom rode the ferris wheel with Michael. Which pic do you like better? The one where the wheel looks bright and cheery? Or the one where the sky has a gloomy look? Or neither? It's ok if it's neither. You can put that in the comments. Something to the effect of: "I don't like either of these pictures because I don't want to see you practicing with your camera." That is fine too.

And where are the pictures of meeting Thomas and Brian's grandparents? I am excited to post those...but to be honest...they need a bunch of post processing because it was the 1st time I took pictures in months. So some of them need cropping because the composition isn't great or they need some tweaking for color/brightness in photoshop because I didn't expose the frame right. SO there is a slight delay...but THEY ARE COMING! Here's one that I like right now:


Also, am going to post pics of Michael with the farm animals too from the Wilmington Flower Market. Just had to get this POSTED.

Thor's Hammer

So it's kind of hard to see from the pic, but Michael is wearing a shirt with a cartoon figure on it called, "The Mighty THOR."

For those of you who knew Michael in the womb, "Thor" was his womb name. So it was absolutely awesome that Brent/Tracy brought Michael this shirt when they came to visit.

And this is his mighty thunderbolt-wielding muscle pose:
Hope you enjoyed your late afternoon walk as much as we did.

What do you do when grandparents leave?

You give out haircuts. First up, Brian. Take a look at our before and after pics:

B - reminiscent of Sasquatch (or however you spell that):
Post haircut and beard trim:

Pre haircut side view 1:

Post haircut - still a bit of mushroom effect from middle school, but not half bad for my 1st time giving a haircut since college days:
Pre:

Post:

And the back pre haircut:

Post:

Artfully avoided his wild and wooly cowlick.

Pretty proud of myself. My last attempt at a homemade haircut resulted in 2 small slanted lines in the back/center of his head that caused a little girl sitting behind us in church to stare at the back of Brian's head in fear.

Next up: Michael.

Pics of meeting Thomas and grandparents visit up next once I proof them!

Love,
P

THAT'S IT

I need to vent. I am going to pay someone to take pictures of Michael and I. I just can't 1) remember to do it or ask someone to do it for me, 2) Make Michael smile for it, 3)Take the picture right.

There were 440 pictures taken this weekend. I have 5 of just Michael and I. Of these 5, there are none of Michael looking at the camera.

The last picture I have with Michael, was in December 2009 at Au Petit Margeury. That makes it nearly 5 months that I have had a good picture with my one and only son.

And I have to take matters into my own hands now. Because I think there are more pictures of Michael with his aunts/uncles/grandparents than with his own mother.

That being said...we got a ton of great pictures of Michael with Brian and his Dad this weekend. And lots of great ones with Thomas. But now, I can totally understand why both my mom and Brian's mom have both approached me with the camera and said, "Please take a picture of Michael and I. I just really need it."

Us moms...we just have to fend for ourselves!

Poll

So I was looking out my window today in our house and I thought to myself:

"Eating on my deck, overlooking the forest on our peaceful 2 acres of land...or eating on a rooftop, overlooking Sevilla."

Which would you choose?

One other thing that HAS to make the blog for me:
Today, Michael climbed into my lap, gave me a huge hug and kiss, and said:
"Mommy, I love you so much. We will always be friends."

I hope that will always be true. I'll remind him of this day when he's 13.

Photos...finally right?

So I'm sure you're sick and tired of all my wordy posts. I sure am! But I have not picked up my camera in weeks (if not months). But thank GOD for my iphone! That thing exposes surprisingly well.

Anyways...here is a recap filled with pics of random instances in our last 4 months here in the NE.

Our apartment used to be within walking distance of a Dairy Queen. One day when Brian had the car at work (we were sharing 1), Michael and I decided to take advantage:
Here's our house covered in the huge snowfall this year:
A little out of order, but last Tuesday, Michael and I ventured into Amish country to see the outlet malls in Lancaster. To be honest, it was my excuse to go to Cracker Barrel, and Michael and I shared this strawberry shortcake dessert:

As you can see, that dessert is much closer to Michael than me. He got a brain freeze though and I got the rest!!

Had to get a tractor for our life in the country. Here's Michael's first ride on a tractor at Home Depot:

Little did I know that Brian would take another 3 weeks to decide on which tractor he would actually buy (it was a John Deere).

Michael and I have done a lot of shopping in the last 3 months. I was in search of a cheap mattress set so I ended up at this REALLY cheapo furniture store to see what they had.

To get a feel for the place, let's start out with their kid's recliners circa 1970:

Michael was super impressed with their baseball chair. And honestly, who wouldn't be?

Here's a picture of Michael sitting at the desk under a bunk bed. He made me pretend he was the cashier and I was supposed to pay for things with my $1. This is him banging on the table demanding money:
Check out that sweet baseball ottoman in the background. It goes with the also sweet baseball chair.

We ended up at Kohl's back in February some time. Michael got one of their pseudo shopping carts and announced to me that they had shopping carts for kids here! He took it over to some necklaces, inspected them, and put them back on the rack. After this, I was not allowed to touch the shopping cart.

Here's Michael looking at some guest bedroom bedding I was considering but did not buy. Chk out his Zoolander-ish hand in the pocket pose:For entertainment, I let Michael play with my iphone. This is the picture Michael took in the bedding department:

Bet that's not something you see everyday.

So 2 Thursdays ago, The Besancons found themselves doing this to save a buck (or rather $150)...
That's right. Ghetto stylin' it by transporting our mattresses home via the roof of our car. This avoids PA sales tax and a delivery fee. And the guy gave us over 50% off on the mattress set because we were taking it that day!! The only thing missing was us with our hands out the window holding it down.

Another sales day...Michael at Pottery Barn. Here he is posing at a possible night stand:

We didn't buy it because the top was attached crooked on the top. It hung about an inch more on the right than on the left.

Michael going crazy on the right. This is my inspiration for my bathroom. I've got these warm-ish light gray walls and I bought these light blue/turqouise towels for my bathroom:Michael LOVES these decorative wheelbarrows at Pottery Barn. He thinks they are for him:

Makes me want to buy the kids sized wheelbarrow from Land of Nod for him. I was told NO. By guess who...

Last Thursday, I took Michael to something called "Chinese Boogie." It was semi-hokey, but something to do. This is the dragon they had the kids do:

Don't look hard, Michael's not in that picture. He wanted nothing to do with that dragon and was at the END of parade line of kids.

So my kid is a photographer waiting to happen. I hope he loves this hobby as much as me. Here are some pictures he has taken with my iphone. I LOVE the angles he gets:

View out of his car window. I know it's dark and of a warehouse...but I like the sky:

Of Mom in the car:

I love this picture:

A more serious pose:

Mom paying bills:

And for those of you who are bored...my latest design inspirations.

For my guest room...I intend to do a color scheme kind of like this. I have the walls a light blue/grey under the chair rail. Going to definitely do the black frames...but instead of the light light pink for the kick...I'm going to have a dark-ish cherry red:
I'm going to incorporate some bling with the red and some mirrored furniture or opt out of the black frames and go with mirrored frames like this room at Ethan Allen:

This room is also my inspiration for my grey bathroom. Notice a lot of blue/mirrored stuff? I guess I'm in a glam phase for the little bits of the house where I get to be girlie.

To offset it, are some very traditional couches we will probably get:

Yes, that's Michael taking a nap and Brian chking his blackberry.

We're thinking a dark honey colored leather...these couches have a slightly puffy arm with nail studs. I'm not a huge fan of nail studs to be honest...TOO traditional for me because I am more of a "Transitional" decorator. BUT...the couches are comfortable and I like them. So I may put these traditional pieces in the living and opt for some modern fabrics or modern end tables to give the room some interesting points.

Here are some fabric swatches keeping with the traditional couches and the colors in my rug. See, the arm isn't TERRIBLY puffy like most traditional pieces are...but the nail studs make it so.

I'm not THRILLED with the boring color choices there...I'm looking for something a bit more graphic...just need some PUNCH in there!

I like the shape/color of the wood of this dining room table. It kind of matches our cabinets and the black legs matches our granite:
But I am drawn to the upholstery in this chair here with the green and cream and it's shape. Wonder how to use it???
VOILA! More pics than words I hope! And maybe I'll have some new pics to post after this weekend???

Love to all,
P