hot air balloon festival

a while ago, parker and i went to the highland village hot air balloon festival. they have balloon races, food vendors, rides for little kids, and music. however, i think we got there a little too early. the races were at 7 am, definitely wasn't going to get there that early. food vendors weren't open when we got there, so we couldn't eat anything. so we were left with walking around the gift vendors and checking out the rides.

on our walk to the event. he was ready to go! (he was actually running, even though it doesn't look like it)

our first ride was the merry-go-round. he was his first time and he loved it.

the funny part was that he kept turning around and saying the the "forseys" were coming to get him :)

it was extremely hot this day and they had kindly put up misting stations.

the festival was right on the lake, so we made a little trek down there.

he also rode on the little train and totally got a kick out of that one.

and the coolest part was the pink firetruck! it was a breast cancer firetruck. you can sign the truck for anyone who has/had breast cancer. it was awesome!

and to prove how hot is was...

those red cheeks, sweaty hair, and a lot of water :)

a "new" kitchen

i know, i know! it's been forever. i've been slacking really bad, but i've also been super busy. so...to start off, we have a "new" kitchen! we finally got around to painting it. with someone's help, of course, and that would be jesse's dad, jeff. here are the gross before pictures of our green kitchen (the previous owners really liked frogs, no joke)...

and the much better after...

so much more airy! i love it! it is creamy cucumber from olympic.

and just for fun, here are some of the during photos...

and this...

resulted in this...

all the popcorn stuff from the ceiling. may not look like a lot here, but it was so hard to get out.

and that would be the newest update to the house. and although i'm writing about it now, it was probably about a month ago, now. i'm so behind! but we would definitely love to thank jesse's dad for helping out. he's definitely much faster than we are.

and i promise i'll try to keep up more from now on!

sneak peek

we know he's our child because he likes sushi :)

parker's chalkboard is now officially complete. i was able to find a little container at ikea to put his chalk in. it was in the "as-is" section for $.10!!! what a deal!

and the sneak peek...

it's not finished, so details and more pictures are coming.

new additions

lately, in my enormous amounts of extra time this summer, i have been trying to fix up a few things around the house. in the almost 2.5 years that we've lived here, i'm just now getting around to actually making it look like we live here. so...

our laundry room needed some help. the rod that was being used to hold extra coat hangers and jesse's work shirts was a shower curtain rod that you twist to tighten to the wall. well, it never really tightened that well. i guess it couldn't take the weight of the shirts and was always falling and consequently tearing the paint from the way. so it was high time we fix it.

i went to lowe's one day and happen to come across these guys.

so all i needed was a wooden rod and we're good to go!

so my dad came over to help me put it up.

and ta da! much better.

and please disregard our green kitchen, we still haven't painted. it is on my to do list though!

and there used to be blue striped curtains covering the laundry (when the kitchen was planned on being blue and white), but they were taken down since we've changed idea of colors. now, the curtain rod that was there to block to laundry room has been transplanted to here...

the finials on the ends were too big to fit in the area over the laundry room, so i've got to source out a new one for there. the old rod is now over our sliding door to the back yard which was previously these annoying vertical blinds.

some were beginning to point in the wrong direction and weren't closing right...they were just a pain. and now it looks like this...

yay!! however it will change in the near future...again. those curtains are actually for the laundry room, once we find a new rod. they will be replaced with some white curtains. but, trust me, it's way better than the vertical blinds that were there.

i did this one a while ago, but haven't mentioned it. i made the end of the kitchen cabinet a chalkboard for parker.

i just need to find a container that i can screw into the cabinet to hold an eraser and the chalk. parker seems to like it though, that's all that matters :)

and last but not least, we now have a compost bin!! i'm pretty pumped about it. less trash, better soil (once it's all decomposed), and better for the environment. i got the tutorial here. it was super easy and super cheap. and since i had already started planning on making one, i started collection kitchen scraps and lint early. so i had plenty to add to the bin when i made it.

started by drilling some holes on the bottom.

then added some leaves, dried weeds, and dirt.

added in all of our kitchen scraps (banana peels, egg shells, cucumber skins, lint, carrot leaves, strawberry tops).

then mixed it all up and put the top on. drilled some more holes in the top. then set it to the side and you're done!

and that would be all the newest additions to our casa. the kitchen is my biggest to-do right now and i desperately want to finish it. so i'll keep you updated!

what's parker up to lately?

a few pictures to let you see what parker's been up to lately:

baking.

playing in the water with reed...

and with worms.

attempting to work out.

legos.

helping with dinner (which helped him to actually eat :) )

golfing.

and lining up cars...everywhere!

stay tuned for some new additions to our house.

charlotte!

this past weekend i finally made the trip back to my hometown of charlotte, nc. and by finally, i mean that it's been 8 years since i've been back! it was awesome! the change there was ridiculous, but it was also 8 years of change. so many new neighborhoods, shopping centers, expansions and natural growth (i miss all the trees).

i stayed with my best friend since middle school, sangeeta.

we started out my trip with visiting my old houses...i miss them dearly.

this was the last house i lived in and the one i remember the most. my room is the top 2 right windows :) the people have painted some; the shutters used to be black and the door was white. my dad planted the huge tree there in the front. it was pretty much the best house ever!

we drove around a lot on friday when i got there. i was so excited i just wanted to check everything out. we went and saw my other house, my elementary school, a few shopping centers. we stopped to have lunch at this cute little italian place called rotelli. i had stuffed shells, delish :)

and while driving around, we had to go get sangeeta's car fixed. so we stopped at the dealership and i ran into an old friend's dad. he mentioned that my friend, jessica, had actually just been there. so we gave her a call and she came back to see me. haven't seen her in even longer than i've actually been back to charlotte. and we've known each other forever...like since diapers :)

that night i got to enjoy and old favorite, cherry blossom. we used to go there a lot. i always got shrimp fried rice, so i had to get it again. and it was amazing, just as good as i remember.

and i've been asking jesse about going to 6 flags every now and then, but we have yet to go. so, needless to say, i was pumped when we decided to go to carowinds. we went with sangeeta's sister, gayathri, and our other friend's sister, anusha. they added a new roller coaster, the intimidator. it was intense...90 miles an hour, long, and lots of "hills."

sunday, we got to go to another old favorite, park 51. we used to eat here a lot too. expect i was so young that all i ever remember getting was those tiny boxed cereals haha. i went for more of an adult meal this time, ham and cheese omelet with home fries and a biscuit. yummy!

had lunch at macado's in concord mills (for those of you in tx, it's basically the same at grapevine mills). and went shopping at aerie...got an awesome deal on some shirts and pants. and somehow we managed to make it over to southpark (which has grown like crazy; it's basically like a mini galleria) and then dinner at our friend neeli's house.

neeli's mom cooked chicken curry. i'm not a spicy food eater, so she made me a small portion that was much milder. but everyone was freaking out thinking it was going to be too spicy, but it was AMAZING! it was so freaking good, no joke.

(anusha, neeli, sangeeta, me)

minus my early flights (left dallas at 7:40 and left charlotte at 6:10), my trip was awesome! thanks vijayagopalan's for letting me stay with you and atyam's for cooking me dinner!!!