Chase turns 4!

This week we had a birthday celebration for this guy!

There's never a dull moment with Chase around!  He likes to be loud (NOT good at church!!!), talks to anyone and everyone, and is always up to something!

He dresses up in something every single day, usually as superman, spiderman, batman, or a ninja turtle.

Lately he has been obsessed with bubble baths.  The first time we tried to get him to take a bubble bath he was terrified and wouldn't touch the bubbles.  I'm sure it stems from an experience when he was taking a bath and rubbed soap all over his face and in his eyes-- he hasn't enjoyed bath time nearly as much ever since.  But now he loves bath time again, just as long as I don't get water anywhere near his head, ha ha.

I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by.  Next year he'll be in preschool, and he can't wait!  (I just hope his teacher is ready.)

Projects

The past several weeks have been crazy busy. Derek has been super busy at work, we're finishing our basement, and I bought a few projects that I wanted to finish before we have a birthday party for my sister at our house. Our old dining room furniture was fine, but it was lightweight and not super durable. Chase has a way of making me want to keep only things that are going to last! We started with this black set from ikea:

It worked really well in our old house because it's very narrow which we really needed in our old tiny dining area.  But it looked too small in our formal dining room, and I definitely didn't want it getting everday use in the kitchen.

So I found this set on the ksl classifieds, but it really needed to be refinished:

I liked the lines, and could see potential in it.  So I sold our old set and bought this one, not sure when I would get around to actually finishing it.

I've also been on the hunt for a hutch to go in the formal dining room, and I found this just begging to be brought back to life (picture from here because I forgot to take a before picture, but this is basically the same hutch):

When we found out we'd be hosting a big party I knew that I wanted to get everything done asap.  So I got to work. I sanded, primed, painted (I used an oil based enamel paint that seems like it will be really durable, and reduces brush marks), and glazed everything.  These took soooooooo much more time that I had anticipated, but I am really happy with how they turned out.

Hutch after:

Everything after:

What do you think?