Weekend Happenings
Many of you have asked how my mom and stepdad enjoyed their stay at Casa Petersik after driving seven hours south from NY to pay us a visit.
Well, true to grandparent form they barely noticed their surroundings. All eyes were on the beanette of course.
But when Clara was napping or asleep for the night they definitely made a point to say how much they liked the guest room and the rest of our house for that matter (it was their first time seeing our new place) which was really nice to hear. The weekend consisted mainly of oohing and aahhing over everything that Clara did, eating our way around town (we went to The Boathouse and Crab Louie’s along with getting takeout from Joe’s Inn), exploring the petting farm and zoo at Maymont, hanging out at Stony Point Fashion Park…
… and doing our fair share of yard work.
Yup, my mom is one of those people who can’t sit still. So if Clara was napping, mom was outside raking. I kid you not. At one point I stuck my head outside to see her raking the neighbor’s yard. Seriously, it wasn’t even our property. So I gently redirected her towards our house and counted down the seconds until Clara would wake up so I could lure her back inside using my offspring as bait. It was pretty much one of those sitcom worthy situations. There was even a random neighborhood dog who came by to see what mom was up to.
And yes, she’s wearing heels while she rakes. My 4’11″ mom is never caught in flats. Ever.
For a bit of time during a particularly amazing nap on Clara’s part, John stayed inside while she slept… which gave mom and I the opportunity to clean out the area to the right of the carport:
Here’s what it looked like before:
And here’s a close up of some of the things we “discovered”:
Pulling out all of the random items in the dirt (in the hopes of planting something pretty there someday) was like an archeological dig. Here are a few things that we found among the dirt and leaves:
- An old trophy with the arm broken off
- Hunks of glass and broken pottery
- Small empty plant pots
- Various metal yard ornaments
- Homemade concrete mushroom statues
- Various shells and coral pieces
- Slabs of slate and other rock fragments
We also found fishing line weights, 41 cents, three bricks, two arrowheads (which I totally want to save and frame in a shadowbox) and a giant steel arrow along with the number 29 stamped out of metal. Here’s what it looked like after my mom and I finished cleaning things up:
Go Team Shorty.
Here’s an after shot of the whole carport after we did some decluttering in there too:
It’s amazing how just cleaning out that area to the right of where we park makes the whole space feel a lot less crowded and tight (and tucking the big garbage pail into the fenced area that was built behind that walkway to obscure it definitely looked better than keeping it out in the open). Although the real change will definitely be converting the carport to a garage sometime down the line.
Oh and we realize that we haven’t shared pic of our house’s gorgeous cobblestone driveway yet (we still have so many unseen nooks and crannies to share with you guys!) so here’s what it looked like after mom was done with her crazy raking spree:
We still have to cut back all of that liriope (also known as Monkey Grass) that lines both sides of the driveway, so it’ll grow in all fresh and green in the next month or so.
John’s sister Emily, her husband Todd, and their 16 month old son Emanuel also dropped by one night for dinner after their power unexpectedly went out. And guess what we got to take for a spin? Our new dining table. John, mom, Jack, Clara, and I added up to five, and with the addition of Emanuel, Emily, and Todd we were a group of eight! It’s funny how quickly our family multiplies, which is exactly why we wanted such a big honking table to begin with. So we brought in all six of our dining chairs from the kitchen along with our two thrifted office chairs and this is what we were left with:
Of course the room is only about 5% done, but that didn’t matter. We had a blast gathered around the new table eating take-out Italian food (from Joe’s Inn) and watching Emanuel toddle around (that’s Emily chasing him in the background).
And those of you who mentioned that round tables are great for conversations were totally right- everyone talked to everyone! So our weekend with mom and Jack could best be summed up as a rootin’ tootin’ good time. It was really fun to “break in” our house (give our guest room some traffic, test drive our new table, and even squeeze in some much needed yard work). Some of the best memories in our last house are tied to times when it was full of people – and stuffing this house with laughter, food, and family definitely made it feel even more like home to us.
Psssst- We’re answering one of our most commonly asked questions over on BabyCenter. What do you do when you get a home related gift that you can’t stand from a friend or family member? It’s not an easy situation, but we’re sharing how we handle it – and we’d love to know what you guys do.
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Not to be that creepy first commenter, but I happened to find this YouTube video and see your latest blog post at the same time, and I *had* to share. I think baby giggles are the secret elixir of life: http://goo.gl/BWvHJ
Glad the visit went well!
Love it! Haha. The funnest part? Clara started hysterically giggling as soon as she heard that baby laughing. Too cute.
xo,
s
Go team shorty! haha. Your mom is like Posh Spice. Wouldn’t be caught with out heels on! Looks like a great time.
LMFAO! I havent honestly laughed at my computer in a long time, and you sure did it.
“Your Mom is like Posh spice.”
Wow, great giggle this morning!
Thank YOU Stephanie!
Yes! I audibly LOLed too. Then I shouted it out to John who also LOLed. Comment of the day goes to Stephanie!
xo,
s
Looks like you all had a great time. My mom can’t sit still when she comes to visit either. Gotta love that!
Looks like you had a great time! My mom (who is 5′) is the same way, when the baby is napping she will wander off and start doing my laundry, shoveling the deck, etc. Gotta love moms!
Great post…what fun! Love all the gabbin’ and family time that’s going to be had around the big ‘honker’ :)
Also, what you found out in the carport is HILAR!
You’ll have to check out our post today and read what we actually found in one of our vanity master bathroom drawers from the previous owners…DANG I wish I took a pic! It’s too gross to even describe, hahaha!
Big hugs and love that cobblestone goodness, mmmm!
Sounds like SO much fun! Your driveway is gorgeous, and I am really loving the idea of a round table…just like in King Arthur’s court…everyone’s equal!
Looks like the table was perfect and you even had some room to spare! Any update on your new parsons chair stalking? My parents are the SAME way! My parents were here last week and my dad fixed a lamp, put my new license plate frame on the car which had been sitting around for 2 months, and a bunch of other little things around the house. If we didn’t have snow on the ground, he would have raked my messy back yard. LOVE it!
The chair stalking update: stalking is still in progress. Haha.
xo,
s
So great to see pictures of the fam, the outside of house and just the fam gatherings. Your house is so great on the outside…so much yard and space.
BUT….the main gist of this post is to say how closely you resemble your MOM. That is a compliment as you look like sisters. Adorable!!!
Thanks for the weekend updates…..
LOL your mom totally is like my mother! When she recently visited, she couldn’t stop MOVING. She was constantly cleaning my house or doing lawn work. It was insane. haha.
And my GOD, you and your mom are twins.
Sherry, you look soooo much like your mother! It’s fantastic. Love this post since it sounded soooo familiar to me. My MIL is just like your mother — when my ILs come to visit (from Richmond!) it is a whirlwind of activity around the house. They tire us out for sure. And they helped us clear out our terribly overgrown backyard last spring and summer. It’s amazing what we found back there — from old hula hoops to unreturned beer kegs (did I mention that a group of UVa sorority girls lived in our house in the not-to-distance past?). So I get what you mean about an archeological dig . . .
Your mom is hysterical (and you look very much alike!). My husband recently compared our adult lives to an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond”. I swear the older I get the more that show makes sense! Though his mom was offended at the comparison haha
ps- Clara is definitely a tall baby!
My mother in law is also a fountain of endless energy – she spent most of her “downtime” on her last visit doing yard work :) But I’m not complaining!
I’m sure you hear this all the time but wow Sherry you look so much like your mother!
Beautiful family.
I love that the side of the carport was so messy! I was beginning to think that the previous owners of your house were descendants of Mary Poppins…practically perfect in every way! Phew! They were human too!
I can’t believe how green and snow-free your yard is :) I am GREEN with envy! Let me tell you, we still have plenty of snow, ice, and slush, all a lovely shade of grayish brown, up here in New Hampshire.
I love your driveway!!
Oh I love your driveway!! And I can totally picture it with your garage built at the end :)
My mom’s the same way! Can’t sit still, is constantely mopping, polishing, wiping and tidying up …oh, and rearranging whatever knick knack she can find :o)
Sherry, you and your mom look so much alike! In a good way. :)
I absolutely heart you guys and your blog. This is such a great post. I actually have several comments about it.
1. Your mother and my mother are cut from the same cloth. Whenever my parents come to visit she is always hanging pictures, installing blinds, planting flowers……all wearing heels. LOL Oh, and she is 5’1, making her a member of team shorty as well.
2. I LOVE your driveway. It looks so long and stately.
3. I really like the last photo of everyone around the table. I like pictures with people in motion. It reminds me of a picture from an IKEA catalog. :)
4. Love the random neighborhood dog coming over to check everything out. :)
Glad you had a nice time with your family there. I love the round table. It is making me thing about getting one. We have a formal dinning room that has nothing it it right now and we also have a large family. Bad part is it is only about a 10×10 room so not much room for a large table. I really love the idea of everyone being able to talk to each other. Do you guys have any ideas for figuring out how big of a table we could fit in our little space? I just don’t want it to be to crowded and need a little room for a cabinet for my china also.
We’d tape things off on the floor with painter’s tape. Or even tape a bunch of pieces of newspaper together and trim that into a large round shape to see what size feels best. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
What about corner cabinets? A round table would leave that as “dead space” anyway.
basically in a 10′ square room you couldn’t have a round table bigger them 60″ in dia. then you would have 30″ of space between the wall and the table for pulling the chair out and walking by which is the min. amount in ergonomics. to make up for a sideboard the corner cabinet idea would be great.
For the first family picture did you just set up the Tripod?
Yup, we were those geeks in the front yard cheesing for the tripod.
xo,
s
So glad you had a good time.
I have always dreamed of a gathering table in my dining room. You know where it starts out with 2 on each end and grows from there. But after this post I may have to reconsider the round table approach. It looked so inviting and beautiful. I’m puurty sure that table can’t be extended, right? Just for curiosity, what would you guys do if you had more people over for dinner? I would love to hear your thoughts. These are the random things I consider before making a purchase.
Our table can’t be extended, but we’ll be opening up the wall to our kitchen someday (which will have an island with seating for around 6 additional people). We’ve also heard from two professional party planners that 70″ round dining tables like ours can actually seat 12-14 people in a pinch, and we definitely had room for at least 4 more chairs- maybe even 6!
xo,
s
loving the driveway, what a surprise!
Your driveaway is fantastic! And your yard. Are those planters from your old house? They look similar. Glad the new table worked, too!
Yup, they used to be out on the back patio. After we moved we sort of parked them in the side of the carport and didn’t do anything with them until this weekend.
xo,
s
I love the round table – it feels so cozy and like what a get together with closed ones SHOULD be. I’m not sure if we’ll have room for one in our new house next year but this is definitely something to think about.
The outside of your house looks just as beautiful as the inside. Especially with your mom’s help with the power cleaning! :)
OH MY GAH!!! That cobblestone driveway is gorgeous. Love, love, LOVE IT.
How could you hide that beauty for so long? I think that might be one of my favorite features yet! What a fabulous entrance!
I know right?! Well, it was covered in snow on the day that we moved in and it has been sort of junked up with leaves and sticks for the past few weeks, but now that Hurricane Mom swept through it’s finally picture ready. Haha.
xo,
s
OMG! I love that your mom has so much energy and that she does yard work in heels! That’s awesome. She’s totally an inspiration.
Ooh, and be super careful about fishing weights that may be lurking around – besides being a choking hazard (duh), those suckers are just about pure lead. Eeeks!
Yikes! Thanks for the warning!
xo,
s
Not only pure lead, but careful about the hook that may have been attached… They get everywhere, my fisherman boyfriend missplaced one and I found it attached to the bedsheet …. Try and figure that one out…….. Lol
Oh, I so agree about the round table. Oddly enough, I discovered how great they are at a restaurant one night, and I have wanted one ever since! As soon as I have a space big enough for one it will be first on my list. And yay for having family in town and together. I love it when in-laws can peacefully and enjoyably co-exist!
Am I a weirdo for wanting to see the arrowheads, the giant steel arrow, and the number 29 stamped in metal? Those all sound like cool finds! I could see that planting strip next to the carport full of zinnias or daisies. Thanks for sharing your visit… your mom is so pretty!
We meant to snap a picture of all of our finds, but we were sorting them into the trash, recycle bin, and a yard waste bin so at the end they were all divided and not exactly picture ready. Boo!
xo,
s
Your driveway is soooooooo charming!!!! Glad to hear you had a great time!
:) Yay! I am glad you posted the time with the family. You’re mom is like mine, when she came to visit she re-potted my plants for me :D
The carport looks a lot better, neat you found arrowheads.
The table looks fantastic too, really a great time for family!
Looks like you had a great weekend! I agree that round tables are absolutely the way to go! So much more social and they allow the whole group to be involved!
@Sherry, you look like your mother. The giant table looks great with people sitting around it. I saw some green (p)leather parsons at Marshalls the other day and thought, “if only I had their number.” :-)
Haha, thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
in that picture of your mom furiously racking away, i see something hanging next to the door in the car port. i can only imagine it being a clock? but that doesn’t seem right. what is it?
wow i totally meant raking.
Yup, it’s a giant oil-rubbed bronze outdoor clock that I grabbed about two years ago at Target from the exterior home aisle. It used to hang in our sunroom.
xo,
s
My parents are the same way–always wanting me to think up some “house projects” for them to help with when they’re in town for a visit. Pretty fun to work on stuff together!
Looks like a great time around your beautiful table. Thanks for sharing!
I love it. My mom is just like yours, short and sassy, she also wears her heels everywhere. In fact, I think she even had platform sneakers for a brief moment in time. Glad you had a great time with your parents, mine live far away too, so we don’t get to see them often, so the time we do get to spend together are precious and all about the kids:)
PS My mom is all about the laundry and the ironing, she will go thru my husband’s closet and iron all of his shirts and pants!
Haha, that might take the cake. I think John would die.
xo,
s
Your mom is adorable! I love the carport area and it looks like a great time around your round table! What a fun weekend!
I can’t believe this is the first time you’ve shared your driveway with us. It’s totally beautiful!
Glad you had a good weekend! Too funny about your mom raking in heels!
It looks like you’re thinking gray for the dining room! Just wondering what paint samples you have up on the wall!
Hey Dani,
We mentioned those a while back in this post: http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/01/going-gray/
xo,
s
I love your driveway! Sounds like a fun weekend was had by all.
I chuckle every time you mention how honkin’ big your table is. My husband and I have seven children, which is nine around the dinner table every single night. It would not even be possible for us to have a table big enough for a family gathering, because I have six siblings (and all of them have five or more children) and my husband has eleven siblings (plus their many and varied children).
But I would absolutely adore a table like yours, just for my family to sit around. If our space allowed it.
awww LOVE this post!!! Sherry you and your Momma and your baby Clara are absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!! and I love your DW looks awesome! thank you for such a great post!! ((:
go team shorty!! :)
glad y’all had fun with the family. i love your driveway (and the updated contact us box in the sidebar).
is your yard streetlamp gas-powered or electric? our street has similar lamps, but the gas lines to them were closed off years ago so they’re non-funtioning. we thought about converting them to electricity, but don’t have a clue as to where to start.
Ours is electric. Not sure how you’d go about a conversion other than calling an electrician or two to see how it might be done. Good luck!
xo,
s
I’m so glad you made that passing comment about the Monkey Grass. Being young and naive, I don’t know a whole lot about gardening/landscaping/lawn upkeep, but my new husband and I moved into a house that also has a driveway lined with it. I had no idea it should be trimmed back. Thank you! I’m thinking today is a great day to do just that…
It can also be thinned and separated into clumps to transplant to other areas if you want. That stuff is HARDY!
Be mindful of liriope–if not contained it will invade your yard. Unfortunately there are many “old fashioned” landscaping plants that are invasive like this.
If you already have it, you have to keep an eye on it to keep it corralled. It spreads underground, so soon you’ll have it in your lawn if there are not physical barriers.
I have it lining my sidewalk and I detest it. It looks fine in late spring when it grows back from its mandatory late winter haircut, but it is escaping its bounds and spreading into my landscaping. I am actually planning on removing it this spring. Not looking forward to that dig, but looking forward to replacing it with something needing less maintenance.
Great pictures! Looks like you all had a great time.
Your drive is absolutely gorgeous!!! And I’ve gotta say, living up in Massachusetts where we just got more snow over the weekend…I am totally jealous of your weather right now!!
Holy Schnikies could you and your mom LOOK more alike???? I like that fuzzy picture around the table. I take lots of these and delete them but you taught me that even blurry they still convey warmth and family.
Your driveway ROCKS!!
It’s fun seeing a bunch of close up/detailed shots from the front of your house – I hadn’t realized quite how charming it is.
My grandparents just visited last weekend and did the same thing. They’re almost 80 but endlessly high energy and easily able to run me into the ground. My Grandma insisted on raking the yard – it’s impossible to stop a determined German woman.
Sherry you look JUST like your mom! So cute. :) Sounds like it was a great visit!