Surround Sound.

Now that it's getting nice and summery out, we've been spending more time in our backyard. We discovered the other week that the little solar powered twinkle lights we'd bought last year have already died. I mean, they were cheapies, but they were cute and I liked them. Tim looked into getting a more sophisticated lighting system, and told me that with what he found on Amazon, using the plug in timer we already had, it would be about $500. I of course, balked at the price, because we do already have lighting on the patio cover and I feel like for $500, I could get an electrician out and get things hard wired, not plugged into a socket and hanging along the side of the house.

Then instead, I doubled down and said, if we're going to spend $500 on a home remodel, I'd like to get surround sound through the house and back yard, and a system that would allow me to stream music or play my iTunes from where ever I was, because we had almost 20 year old surround sound speakers haphazardly throughout the living room, including a center speaker off center because otherwise it would block the IR for the TV remote, and then a boombox in our bedroom and a Bose player in the pretty room. So, for slightly more than $500, we now have speakers in the walls and ceilings for the living room, and the ceiling of the pretty room and our bedroom, a new TV, a Roku for streaming, and a separate hard drive that has all of our media, and speakers across the back yard. It's the best outdoor living space ever now - enjoying the fake grass and the blasting music while I lay in my hammock, which is big enough for two adults plus the occasional child. The project was finished up on Friday afternoon, and Kristen and the kids came to hang out after gymnastics, and she and I immediately flopped in the hammock with Moscow mules while the girls had a gymnastics dance to Hamilton. Summer time and the living is easy.

Overall, very pleased with how it's all turning out.

The rest of the weekend continued to be busy. We had Mimi and Poppy and Jake over for brunch on Sunday, which we turned into a little mini party for Mimi's upcoming birthday. Tim showed everyone how to do the floss dance, and I laughed until I near about died.

We continued the fun at Judd and Matty's birthday party that afternoon, which was at an indoor kids gym, not at our house. Ellie went straight ninja warrior for most of it - I enjoy that she paired a pearl necklace with her workout shorts and tank top.

Both kids had a blast, and then because Kristen and Jeff are generous and saints, we spent the rest of the night at their house too - pulled into our own garage at 10pm, with both kids asleep in the back seat. Needless to say, we spent yesterday doing a whole lot of nothing, other than mooching dinner from Gigi and Grizz and making patriotic crafts.

I've been listening to a lot more music and watching a lot less TV now that the system is up and running. We also found our old camcorder and got all of the videos off of it, including a tour I made of our apartment before we moved, and a tour of our house after we first moved in that I made for Grandpa Thiel. Man, things certainly have changed! Makes me feel even more house proud about this cute little house. In a weird twist of fate, the Bose player crapped out a week or two ago, perhaps knowing that it was about to be replaced, but the ancient boom box and my elderly iPod is creaking along. I moved it into Ellie's room, and she is SO excited to be able to listen to whatever she wants in her room. Like her mother and grandmother before her, she's ready to listen to the Beatles.