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January and February came and went in the blink of an eye: we have been busy.

After a summer like January (more warmer days in January than last July), February brought some winter: rain, wind, hails, even thunders and lighting but also a couple of beautiful double rainbows.For as rare as they are, in the past 6 months we saw at least 3/4 of them. They never stop to amaze us.

it is hard to see the second rainbow in this image

While I did use Photoshop to stitch images together and adjust the colors, this is really how it looked like.

We still had our beautiful sunny days, of course, but we also had to crank up the heat most days.The winter weather did not stopped us. Keegan especially has been a busy boy. Between the end of January and the end of February, he had 4 birthday parties and another birthday celebration. Lucky for us, two of his friend opted for a joint party. Wow: we were exhausted.

We started with two of his best buddies: MacKenzie and Kelsen. They are born 2 days apart at the end of January, so they joined forces and had a wonderful celebration in Mission Bay, under a rare sunny day. There was a bouncie house, and crafts and of course cupcakes! How fun! It was interesting to see a Spiderman-Princess party.

playing soccer with his buddies Elliott, Kelsen and Van

the birthday girl and boy with Spiderman and Princess cupcakes

Right after the party, we all got bad colds: I completely lost my voice for a day or two. It felt weird not being able to talk…but I am sure there were plenty people enjoying the silence. (-:

The following week, it was Van’s pirate party. It was fun. It was all about pirates, with a real pirate leading a treasure hunt, and pirates crafts and cake and piñata. Event the guest were encouraged to dress up. Keegan “costume” lasted a whole 5 minutes, before he wanted to take it off. I barely had time for a picture.

Keegan loved the activities and I had plenty of time for chatting.

mr. sensitive eyes, shielding from the sun. He would not make a very good pirate.

The made-from-scratch cake was amazing. Even Keegan seems impressed.

The following weekend, it was Rozalin’s party, another friend from school. We did dread this one a little because it was held at Chuck E. Cheese’s but it was not too bad. Keegan had a lot of fun playing games and winning rewards points, but he was not too thrilled by the huge mascot. Who can blame him? Who thought that having a creepy looking rat as  the symbol of a pizza place would be a good idea?

playing the horse race game

that mascot is very creepy if you ask me

One of Keegan’s favorite things about birthday parties are the goodie bags, and the chance to eat candy. He gets to pick one or two pieces only, so it is quite the event. Guess what color was the candy he picked?

Jada’s birthday is in February too, and even if she celebrated at Disneyland, we had the chance to go visit her and wish her happy birthday.

Our final celebration for the month was Elliott’s soccer themed party. Again crafts, snacks and piñata all matched the theme. The best part about all these parties is that all his friends from school are there, so Keegan feels somewhat comfortable and plays by himself.

the three musketeers (weren’t 4 even in the book?)

Birthday parties asides, we also got the chance to squeeze visits at the zoo, and Seaworld on Presidents day, when both Keegan and I were home for the holiday. The Dolphin Show is Keegan’s new obsession, so we made sure to make it. We also got to see the Pets’ Rules show. I wonder why they have to schedule the shows so close in time: it is always a mad rush to go from one to the next.

Striking a pose with a giant panda at the Zoo

On Valentine’s day weekend, another party, this time at Mila’s house, where Keegan spent some time playing with his buddies Hannah and Mila.

By the ed of the afternoon he is so tired he looks dazed among all the toys. I swear, we did not drugged him.

We had our Valentines Day celebration: while Matt and I postponed our official date one week, Keegan got to have fun the exact day. He exchanged Valentines with his friends at school: you are supposed to bring enough for all children, and are not allowed to personalized them or address them, you just sign them. If Charlie Brown would have been around right now, he would not have to fret about the red haired girl or not getting any cards…

He got in the mood with an appropriate shirt.

At home, he got to eat his candies, enjoy his school’s Valentines and open his gifts: a train bridge and a custom puzzle with his name.

playing with his train track and the new bridge

He is really getting interested into puzzles right now. He also loved his music and motion card (but at $6.99 a pop, it will probably be his last). Even if we did not got out that night, Matt sent a beautiful orchids/brumelia plant, and cooked a wonderful dinner (my contribution: setting the table and preparing the heart shaped mozzarella/tomatoes appetizer), so we had our romantic evening at home, beating the crowds.

Last but not least, we had our final construction walk through on February 25: a year and three days after our “soft start”. Wow: what an ordeal it has been, and we are are happy to be finished. No more lock-boxes at the door, no more unexpected visits from workers, especially in the weekend, no zipper doors…finally time to worry about decorating. Granted, we still have lots to do, especially in the outdoor area, and we don’t want to wait, but we are trying to focus on the part that is done, and not so much on the yard…talking of which, we  hired a landscape architect to create a complete and comprehensive plan for the whole outdoor area, including the side yard that is now a dumping ground. Of course we will not be able to tackle it all at once, but we thought it would be good to have a plan that we can execute little by little, instead of tackling different area randomly…at least when we are done the yard would look consistently designed.

To celebrate the end of construction, we had a very informal open house for the neighbors that have been so patient and supportive throughout this ordeal. We had a pleasant late afternoon chatting and “touring” the house, while the kids played. We had a great time. It is nice to be able to have people over again.

Now we will focus on main priorities, even if I can’t stop thinking about all the other things I would like to do to update the house to match the remodel (kitchen cabinets refacing comes to mind).

With March approaching, Spring is in the air and hopefully my parents’ visit in a few weeks. We are looking forward spending some time together.

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…well, we still have a few cosmetic fix-ups, and then we need to decorate, put furniture in, re-landscape, etc. but the major construction is over. We should have our final green light and walk-through in not more than two weeks (we hope), which means no more lock box and surprise visits by random workers. We are obviously looking forward to it, and while we will have more work to do, we figured it would be nice to post some pictures of the basically finished house.

The entrance needs some rugs and plants but out new mailbox is in. We also had to replace our garage door, that decided to break down completely last December. It does looks nicer with windows in it.

We also finally got our adjustable awning put in, so our plants can recover from the scorching the suffered when the trellis went down. I like the warm glow it gives to the office and to Keegan’s room.

The bathroom upstairs needs curtains, towels (and final tiles sealing) but all the cabinets and hardware are in. And the bidet works. (-:

The stairs need a couple of steps replaced but they turned out nice.

We moved the guest room (Asian Room) upstairs…oh that was fun!

Now Keegan can finally have a room to call his own, with a new bed, a new chair and a lot more space. He loves his swivel chair:he likes to hide in there. We all know, though, that the chair purchase was mainly small compensation for me: since I can’t afford a real egg chair or bubble chair for myself, I got the IKEA chair for Keegan.

As for the bed, despite some request for a “car bed”, immediately vetoed, we bought a convertible KURA bed from IKEA. It is a tween size, so it can last for a while, but what I liked the most is the fact you can flip it over to convert it in a bunk bed.

The new bed in Keegan’s room

Despite being so excited about his new tent bed, the new sheets and blankets, he actually slept in it great, without waking up once. This is the only picture I have in which he does not seem constipated…it is now impossible to take a picture of him without him trying to “smile”: closing his yes, and clinching his teeth like he really, REALLY, has to go, right now!

With all the problems we had with the city, the chance of updating and remodeling our master bath in the near future are basically zero, so we gave it a small face lift, by changing the vanity, sink, faucet, mirror, adding some hardware and adding a nice new cabinet. And since we lost our window, we added a solaTube in both our bath and Keegan’s: what a difference it makes. Once again, IKEA to the rescue.

Of course, now I am still busy researching furniture, yard designs, window treatments, etc, so we are not really done, but it beats worrying about what the city will have to say. And by the end of it all, I am sure we could call IKEA and ask them to move their show room to our house: we will probably have at least 1 IKEA piece in every room. (-:

So, how do we feel about being at the end of the tunnel? I think Keegan’s face tells it all…Ecstatic!

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