"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society"

I recently decided to start a book club with a few friends.  I love to read and book clubs seem to be all the rage.  Our first book was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society".  It was a fascinating read.  The book is set in Europe directly after the end of World War II.  It is written as a collection of letters, which I, at first, found distracting, but then grew to love.  My only complaint of the book was the final chapters.  The author fell ill and asked her niece to finish the book for her.  You can definitely see a change in their writing styles which is slightly distracting.  Overall it was a decent, quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed getting together with other women to discuss it and eat!  

This month we are reading this:

Stay tuned!

I know I'm biased....BUT

Aren't they the cutest group of kids you ever saw!!!

On a side note...I'm such a dork I totally did not take before pictures of our basement (what was I thinking!).  If you can imagine a dark, disgusting, place with insulation peeling off the walls and a nasty old glass sliding door you get the picture!

I wish I could take full credit for the paint color choice.  I went to our local Benjamin Moore store (who know us by name...scary!) with a bunch of paint chip ideas from my girlfriend Erika's blog.  I was sold on one of hers and then noticed the newest Pottery Barn flyer.  I fell in love with Saybrook Sage HC-114.  I loved how it looked in this picture:

I can't wait to get some furniture in that room and some huge black and whites of the boys!  Curse Dave Ramsey (tongue and cheek) I have to wait and save!

Our new basement....from every angle...

It's done, it's finished, wohoooo!!!  The carpet installers left today which means are basement is complete!!!  

Joel was not thrilled with taking a group picture!

The view from the bottom of the steps.

Looking up the steps.

The new french doors!!  LOVE THEM!!

Standing at the french doors.

Storage closet and the door to the unfinished side.

We are out of money for furniture so I guess the boys are going to have one gigantic fabulous toy room for now!  I'm so glad we're done!!

Another Gabeism

On Saturday we enjoyed a nice lunch at Subway, thanks to my sweet in laws.  Like most Subways, this particular restaurant is on the small side so we really can't all sit together.  Typically, in these situations, the three older boys sit at one table and we sit at the table directly across from them, meaning we don't always know exactly what is going on.

I decided to get us each a cookie and as I was getting in line I could hear Gabe saying "Abracadabra Alakazoo"; the longer I stood in line the louder and more persistent his "ABRACADABRA ALAKAZOO's" got.  Finally Greg stepped in and his yelling stopped.

When I sat back down I asked Greg what was going on, to which he replied "Gabe wanted the drink and Sam was insisting that he use the 'magic word'".  I just about fell out of my seat laughing.