Selling Richmond

Not sure how many folks will get my title. Its a play on words from the show titled Selling New York....if you've ever seen it. Anyways, as of next Tuesday we are selling Richmond...or at least our house in Richmond.

Preparation for putting the house on the market has been CRAZY! I remember doing it when we sold our house in Philly. Somehow I don't remember it being this bad. Maybe its because we now have a 2 year old - and therefore constant mess and a clutter of toys, etc. Or maybe its because Matt and I having separate schedules leaves so very very little time to get things accomplished.

We had a home staging expert come in to help us. She spent 2 hours with us, giving advice on how to stage each and every room in the house including the outside. As we get closer to the listing date Matt and I have started second guessing ourselves a bit. Not about his decision to go back to school, but about selling the house. We are so attached to our current home for many reasons. First, we like it and have made several improvements to "make it ours." Second, its the home where we've raised Katie. From the day we brought her home from the hospital to now, its all she has known. We are both concerned the move and changes will be very disruptive for her, and we may see some backlash - either potty training relapse or general misbehaving. But her reaction is impossible to predict....and the move is not optional. Who knows - maybe she will love the changes and see it as a big adventure. All I can say is I hope the house sells relatively quickly....not exactly the best sellers market right now.

One more thing - some of the clothes Katie is wearing in the pictures of this post are Cousin Claire hand me downs. We like to call it "Outfitted by Claire." :-) Katie gets excited to wear Claire's clothes....I think its because she looks up to her big cousin. Just wanted to say, thanks Claire (and Kat) for giving us such beautiful things to wear for free!!! :-)

Easter 2012

Over the past week we've been getting ramped up for Easter. Everything from dying easter eggs, painting pictures for the Easter Bunny, to "practice" Easter Egg Hunts in the back yard.

Today we headed to Maymont where they have a huge Easter celebration for kids and families. They had an Easter Egg hunt, multiple Bouncy Castles, face painting, a lollipop tree, and lots of open space to roam/picnic/whatever.

The line for tickets was TERRIBLE! It took Matt over 40 minutes to get tickets. Fortunately, Katie was happy to run around and play with some friends we ran into. She also found a fountain, which kept her occupied for at least 2o minutes. Its amazing to me how mesmerized she is by water - in virtually any form! (FYI - I'm just outside the frame of this picture....making sure she doesn't take a header into the water.)

Once we had the tickets we got busy spending them. The bounce house was at the top of Katie's list. Bouncy castles run a close second to water in Katie's world! :-)

After some bouncy castle time, we headed over for the Egg Hunt. Much like the ticket purchasing process, the egg hunt was extremely over crowded. Fortunately, Matt was able to run ahead of us and mark off some eggs just for Katie. Otherwise, I don't think she would have gotten a single egg.

Most of the eggs had prizes and not candy inside. Katie kept asking me where the M&M's were (that's what I used for our back yard hunt). She was super excited though when she found a dolphin ring inside one of her eggs. My favorite moment was when she opened up an egg and found a fake coin inside. She proceeded to tell me that the coin was a choking hazzard and that it was VERY dangerous. Ha! Well, at least we've taught her something. :-)

As much as I'm enjoying this weekend I'm also a little sad. Normally we spend Easter weekend in Woolwine with GG, Nana, and Papa. It just didn't work out this weekend for many reasons (Matt worked through Friday night, Katie has been sick this week, and I didn't have Friday off from work). I just want to say that I'll miss my Woolwine United Methodist sunrise service tomorrow....and I hope everyone has a beautiful Easter Sunday.