The front porch

The front porch needed a change, we got to it during this annoying summer.

Here's a before photo from a few years ago...

 

And here's a close up of the redone porch...

Greg tore down the railing and detail up top.  (We noticed a few neighbors had done it and it looked like a good idea.)

We "wrapped" the pillars with a pvc material--no more painting!

Moved the furniture from the back of the house to the front so we can all sit up front.

Simple macrame hanging plants in colorful pots.  

New door color!  A beautiful blue from Benjamin Moore. 

I accidentally caused 3 of the 4 boxwood bushes to die, so I moved the one live one over to the side.  Then I dug up all the pachysandra and re-planted them throughout the front mulch bed.  I also moved the stepping stones around so they make more sense.  Also added some top soil so hopefully everything will grow strong.  

I bought some string lights from Ikea, we've only used them once.  But they're so cute. 

There are some new house numbers along the side of the door as well. 

The smallest detail that we changed but I liked a lot is the peephole.  I bought a new one and replaced it in seconds! And no paint splatters on the new one! 

Tearing down the railing opened up the porch so much and now we spend way more time out there.  It's funny that such a small change made a big difference. 

Pre-Summer Fun

We wanted to get a few things off our Ohio list before summer even hit, and we took photos to share just with you, whoever still reads this blog :) 

Ohio has a National Park!  Who knew?  

We went and enjoyed a very long hike along with many other people from all over the world.  When we got home Greg read the map again, the hike we went on was about 4 miles and considered moderate to difficult.  But it was beautiful.  We did NOT bring enough water.  I panicked a little. Lesson learned. 

Parker did a little orienteering.

 The hike went along an old canal and up and down some hills and over creeks and bridges. 

We saw a deer and a toad. 

All the way to a waterfall with a million other people who wouldn't move out of the way even though they had already taken about 3 minutes worth of pictures.  So this guy got to be in our picture too. 

And this guy, with the tree, neither one would move!  

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We also visited Cincinnati and Newport, KY.  There are TONS of things to do!  

President Taft's house.

I could tell you all about the informative duck-boat tour, but I'll just show you this amazing bridge.  It was one of the first suspension bridges in America and built way bigger then needed at the time (the river was like 5 feet deep).  The Brooklyn Bridge is modeled after it a little.  And that awesome building right behind it was built to mimic the bridge.  Rumor has it that famous people have condos there. 

Here's another bridge, just for pedestrians to cross the Ohio river. 

There's a piece of the Berlin wall at the museum that memorializes the Underground Railroad. Remember how I said the river was like 5 feet deep, it made for ideal crossing for the Underground Railroad! 

Off to Jungle Jim's grocery store (with lots of international and hard to find food)

And Ikea of course. 

Spring Break Day 2

Tuesday=Ikea
Yeah, you may think it's not that exciting, but the company was TERRIFIC! At the last minute I asked my friend (who also randomly moved from Boston to the Ohio area) to meet up and she suggested Ikea in Cincinnati, how could I say no? It's what we loved doing in Boston anyway, so we met up and had wonderful time!

IKEA

We went to Ikea this week with a friend. We were loading up in their minivan and Heather asked me if I knew how to get there. I assured her that I did in fact know how to get there, but Superman asked in exasperated voice "You don't know how to get to Ikea? We should go in our Saturn, it knows how to get there!"
Putting on an ostrich puppet show. In June 2007 I posted that Ikea was a great place to beat the heat, it is also a great place to get out of the cold. I guess that's why I don't make it there in the Spring and Fall since they are the best times of the year.

Let's Go Bowling

Since the weather was unhealthy this week, we did indoor activities and who knew Superman would be such a good bowler? This is New England's kind of bowling, it's called Candle Pin bowling. The ball is much smaller and the pins are skinny. Luckily, the cute shoes are the same. People from here have no idea that people NOT from here have never seen or heard of bowling like this.
Ikea is also a great place to beat the heat, here Superman and a friend put on a dragon puppet show and Mimi watches (and of course smiles at the camera, one of her first words was "cheese").