Football Fans and a New Room....

I love traditions! Every Sunday in the fall/winter, with the rare exception, we have a favorite afternoon tradition....FOOTBALL! Over the years we have enjoyed having this special time together become an exciting weekly event. We don our Seahawks gear, eat really nummy football football food (in the living room, of course) and enjoy watching the Seahawks....win or lose, we are loyal fans!!! Our menu varies from all hors' d' oeuvres like... hot wings, sweet wings, cheese sticks, poppers, nachos, 'lil smokies...to steak sandwiches with sautéed peppers and onions... grilled kielbasa with potatoes and onions...or maybe a homemade sub sandwich on a delicious kalamata olive bread with various nummy cheeses, pastrami, ham, turkey and roast beef with a garlic ceaser salad! The kids love the fact that we eat in the living room, and I love the fact that we are making memories!

Mitchell enjoyed the opportunity to play on the freshman football team for our local high school. It is neat that even though we home school, the children can be involved in the sports programs of our local schools. He had a great time, learned and played a lot, and looks forward to playing again next year.

So....last year we decided it was time to build an extra room for Mitchell in the garage. Our home has a total of 2500 sq. feet. We have about 1800 sq. ft. and 3 bedrooms that the 7 of us share, and Papa & Gigi have a portion of our home that is 750 sq. ft., their "studio apartment"... you could say. It is really what would probably be our family room but works excellent for them as it has a large bathroom and its own heat source. One of our bedrooms is very small, about 125 sq. ft, and Mitchell and Will have shared that room since we moved here 4 years ago. The girls have another room and then of course Chad and I and JD (and his crib) shared the largest bedroom. Well, last winter we knew it was soon to be time for JD to be in a big boy bed...he was 3 you know… so we started considering our options for Mitchell. My dear friend Michele had the great idea of building Mitchell a room in our large garage. The garage is roughly 1000 sq ft. and since we have a barn and another out building, we could use some of the garage space for a room! What a great idea.....how come we didn't think of that!! Anyway....last winter the construction began! Unfortunately I did not take enough photos during construction but Chad did a fantastic job from the ground up; and this June, Mitchell moved into his new room! Since we are devoted Seahawks fans, it was only logical to go all out and make his room a Seahawks man cave! We took his jersey to Sherwin-Williams and they were able to match the paint colors...they did an awesome job! Unfortunately the foosball table didn't fit in there as he had hoped, but the dart board lends to lots of fun. He still hopes for a mini-fridge in there someday soon.....we will see!!! Mitchell and JD are both loving the transition to their rooms and Chad is happy to have another project done and completed!