it was a mother's day to remember.

last sunday was mother's day and our daughter invited us to their house.

WOO HOO!

I was so excited i could hardly wait to get there.  this

was the first holiday that we celebrated at one of our

kids houses instead of ours~ which meant no cleaning the house

or cooking for this mom. (yes, YES we can come.)

: )   : )   : )

these lucky ducks live on a lake and it was a perfect day to be outside.

we stood around their kitchen island and chowed on appetizers while

ad food prepped for a while and then she noticed that their oriole

feeder was empty so she and I headed outside to fill it.

*chris wanted the birds to put on a good show for us,

so even though he was at his parents for fishing opener he

made sure to fill the many feeders before he left.

they have good birds you guys, nuthatches, woodpeckers, finches, warblers,

orioles, and even indigo blue buntings to name a few.

(chris will text me pictures of them close up through his binoculars-

that's a cool son in law right?)

the brothers wandered outside too and down to the dock, and
pretty soon they were lowering the pontoon off the lift, so A and i
went in and woke papa bear (who wasted no time getting to a couch
when we arrived) and off we went.

kenzie the black lab was so excited to go boating that she jumped off the
dock "at" the pontoon before the side door was even open and she
face planted and had to swim back to shore and try again.
poor girl~ I was worried about her, but i guess she's done that before,
so it also made us laugh. silly girl.

lars and duke

my girl and her girl (who didn't even get a bloody nose).

cole and his sweetie sarah

the resident loons popped up to say hi!

 petie and i

since chris was up on leech lake with his mom, big brother eric got to be the captain.

back in the house, both dogs had swam and were soaking wet, this one looks

sad, but that's just kind of his look...trust me, he was having a great day!

kenz on her pillow with her duck, drying off.

this is the buck that my hunter daughter bagged last fall. my brother does

these European mounts and

they're getting ready to put it on this board and hang it.
*deer head mounts used to be considered total redneck décor, but now?
now they're in style folks and people are paying big bucks (lol) for them.

eric was the grill master- don't these burgers look amazing?

ranunculus, my favorite flower

the sectional was a hot spot for relaxing.
before we left we took a garden tour
and it was so fun for me to see all the perennials coming up and the garden planted
and growing for the first time.

chris loves to grow vegetables, Ad flowers, just like her mom.

it was just the best day. it was the first time all of us had been

at the kid's since they moved and we all loved being on the lake.

 eric texted me that night that he'd always thought pontoons were

just for old people, but now he gets it and he wants one too!

right? they make it perfect for a whole bunch of people and dogs

to be together on the water. fun in the sun. hangin' out. chillin.

*thanks Ad for treating your mom to a relaxing, fun day at your house, and

for doing all the work. it was the best!

my heart was completely happy when I went to bed that night.
these kids. these kids you guys. they are my life~ and if you're blessed
enough to be a mother, you know exactly what i'm clucking about.

xo, b

hi guys!

long time no see right? this blogging thing has kind of been on the back burner

-kind of on simmer-

for me for a while but I sure do appreciate you for checking in to see if i have anything

new to say. : )

(don't judge me until you've blogged for 6 years-hehe)

this is a really long post about our son buying his first house.

it's a cute little house in a cute little rural community.

it's across the street from a small lake and has a cute little

fenced in garden.

there's also a weathered wood garden shed 

that's one of my favorite parts.

(when he got the house he said he was going to tear it down to which I

yelled "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-don't do it!")

what isn't so little is his garage.

i teased him that he bought a garage and they threw in the house,

because for him it really was all about having a nice big garage.

the garage is insulated and heated too. : )

you guys this house was built in either 1899 or 1900.

that makes it 117 years old.

can you even imagine all the people that have lived here?

eric didn't want a big house to take care of (clean) so it seems perfect for him and duke.

lars and i jumped at the chance to help with the

most obvious things that needed to get fixed up.

this included a ton of cleaning (and i do mean a ton- i was in his kitchen

for over 9 hours washing out the cupboards, oven and fridge). we painted all the

rooms downstairs and the guys tore out the nasty plastic tub surround and

installed  shiny new subway tile walls.

eric put all new faucets in the bathroom and replaced the light fixture..

we've painted trim and doors, there's new door handles on every door,

3 trees got cut down and the yard and the garden cleaned off. (and now planted!)

there was an old martin house on a telephone pole that had

seen it's better days so e. cut that down and also removed a dilapidated

trellis and whiskey barrel with plantings from the front yard.

he's been in the house for 2 weeks now and other than finding a note

on the door from the police that someone had complained about

duke richard barking, i think he's loving having a home.

*duke shhhhhh!  you're such a good dog, don't you want people to like you?

i love how little towns often have grain elevators.

across the lake from eric's sits this majestic catholic church and monastery or school?

i'm not sure what the big brick building is used for.

this is it!

*i didn't edit these photos, there were too many, so scuse the poor quality.

so glad the porch swing stayed. you can sit on it and look at the lake across the road. : )

thankfully the back yard and deck are fenced in for duke's safety.

this is the garden shed/dog house that i love.

the garden hadn't been cleaned off yet- there was even still a little snow on the ground,

but there are strawberries and raspberries and now e.'s planted a bunch of other veggies

and says he's going to try making salsa-   Olay!

here's what he bought the house for.... if you're a guy, you'll understand.

it even has an attic.

now, here's the house.

his kitchen is super cute. it has cupboards i'd love to have in my house!

there are pull out drawers in every lower cabinet and the section way over to

the  right is so great~

the carpet in e.'s bedroom was badly stained, and as luck would have it, sister and hubbie

removed a built in from their living room that left them with an uncarpeted section so they needed to

get new carpet and viola~ they gifted their really decent carpet to eric.  he and lars installed it in

the bedroom and it's so much better!

there's a gas fireplace in the living room.

living room before we painted it

painted and ready to move in~

there's a really cute lofted upstairs with two bedrooms.

*only prob is, he tried to get a rocking chair up there and it would not go,

so he pretty much knows that his spare queen bed isn't going up those stairs either!

(poop).

this whole next series is of the bathroom.

before- with the disgusting plastic tub surround and the process of

remodeling it which has been the biggest improvement so far.

it's great to have a dad that knows how to do this kind of stuff. : )

like this light fixture? you can have it... oh wait it's in a landfill.

so again, here's the comparison: before (and this was the quality of the lighting).

after.

i repainted the kitchen this same color because eric liked it but it needed

to have a million nail holes filled and dings repaired. e.'s going to put

a sliding barn door on the door to the left.

this is after the kitchen was painted and finally all cleaned up.

it's a humble, cozy house for our boy and his yellow dog and lars and i couldn't be happier to see

him all settled and enjoying life in his very own home.

thanks for checking in and happy mother's day to all

you fabulous MOM readers of mine!

xo, beth