Miscellaneous May - Part 2

My girls got to pick the colors for their new bedrooms.  

 Yikes!  We have stripes!  (Actually, they look awesome - especially with better lighting).  

More painting.  We learned the hard way that when you paint outside and the wind kicks up you get dirt and grass bits stuck in the paint. Audio books kept me going because I am so sick of painting.

Date night:  installing the vinyl floor slats in the workout room.  "We'll have it done in light half an hour."  Four hours later...it makes a good dance floor without the equipment in it.  Love the floors - it turned out great!  I recommend vinyl sticker slats!  Love the husband that rescued me and painted the cement floor before we stuck on the vinyl - I hadn't noticed until last-minute that we were supposed to paint and I just didn't have it in me to paint another thing that weekend.

A sweet note and a plate of cookies for an overworked daddy.

Some of Drew's kindergarten crew:

Too busy

Three things noticed recently as we go through the blur of regular life, basement finishing, end of the school year, etc.

On the left, My bulletin board containing pertinent schedules, invitations, and necessary information. On the right, our family calendar (surrounded by more things that couldn't fit on bulletin board #1).

 

Let's have a close-up of the calendar

The entrance to our house.  You can barely see it.

I think we are too busy.

Sister Lori

Our sweet Lori came to see us as she headed to the MTC.  Pictures with the home crowd (Hannah came home early from school to see her):

 She stopped by the school to say goodbye to the boys:

We are excited to have a missionary in the family again!

Fire Truck

The elementary school ended Field Day by having the fire truck come spray everyone down with water, so I took the little ones to go watch.

 The water was COLD.  Jacob and friends would get soaking wet and then lay down on the pavement to warm up.

 Some of the lower grounds turned into little ponds.  Drew is laying down IN the pond.  I will not offer my opinion on this matter other than to say I am glad he had fun, and I had lots of towels to put underneath him in the car for the ride home.

It was a fun way to end a celebratory day!

Nailpolish

 Drew has been sneaking lots of things out of my room this week - money, candy, and nail polish among them.  He painted both he & Camden's nails sparkly pink and managed not to get it anywhere but on their nails.  Hannah's comment was "He paints nails better than me!"  I removed it at bathtime, only to discover the next day that he snuck green nail polish and painted his own nails AGAIN.  I didn't have time to remove it before school so he went that way.  On the way out the door for church this morning I noticed it again and I did stop to remove it off of his fingers at least.  This last time he got green polish in his ear, on his arm, and on the carpet.  Lovely.

Kindergarten Graduation

It's been a great year and Drew has learned and grown a ton.  Here he is recieveing  his certificate from Principal R.

A handshake and picture with beloved Miss M.

The Graduating Group

A picture of the "D" buddies - Drew and Daken

Hitting a Wall (or 19 doors and some moulding?)

Today was the day:  spray all of the basement doors!  Our kind framer/finish contractor offered us the use of his sprayer so we were saved the hassle and cost of renting.  However, the amount of free time, daylight, and sunshine that we had was enough to put us in a bind.  Here is a record that I made of that experience:

I went to Hannah's rainy soccer game early that morning and came back after Tyler left to coach Drew's game.  He got a flat tire on the way home.  Then he got to work taking all the basement doors off of their hinges and carrying them outside because it was time to paint the doors and the weatherman said no rain from 12-5pm.  Partway in to the set-up we were both grumpy, overwhelmed, and trying to figure out how to make it work (we were so sleep-deprived).  Our next door neighbor came over smiling and saying she wanted to see our basement.  She surmised our difficulties and so kindly brought us a tub full of tarps, duct tape,and helped us figure out a system.  She was heaven-sent!  ***I can not stress how true that is.  We had hit a wall, and didn't know how we were going to make things work.  Alisia was our angel that day; she helped us get going and gave us the encouragement and boost that we needed***  Once we got going things went well and by 3pm we could send Tyler out car shopping with Lisa.  When he got back we did a fast second coat.  The doors turned out very well - Tyler has gotten to be great with the paint-sprayer.  He carried all the dry stuff back downstairs and felt so good that we started on the baseboards.  We were fighting for daylight with coat two and opted to leave them out in the driveway to cure.  Callie & I finished up the last of the white paint on her one wall and closet, Tyler picked Hannah up from a party and we called it a night at about 11pm.  We woke up to wet baseboards the next morning - it had rained again, but by the time we left for church the sun was shining.  As we got out it started raining AGAIN so the kids helped me dash around to moved everything into the garage and sop it all up.  I'm not too happy about how they turned out between painting in the dark & getting rained on so I think we are done spraying and I will do all the casing by hand once it is installed.  Overall, though, we were really blessed and thank goodness for rain in this parched desert.

It's a day that I am glad is past, but I do want to remember how much Alisia's actions blessed our lives.  It probably seemed pretty small to her and took just a few minutes of her day, but it made all the difference for us.

And here is how the little girl entertained herself during our painting spree, because in the midst of all of this we also happen to be the parents of six adorable children:

Miscellaneous May

 I know some people who can put on a movie for their kids in order to induce naps or bedtimes...not my kids.  Camden had to be extremely tired on this occasion to miss out on electronic entertainment.

 The tastiest science unit ever:  This is Jacob's sedimentary candy that he made at school.

 Here's his symmetrical gappy smile.

 The newest fan of the puppy costume.  Best $10 spent EVER.

 

I love every face of this dear little girl's personality!

 

 

 

Aunt Mandi has been rounding out my wardrobe with lots of pretty dresses.

Callie's Egg Drop at school:

More fun with strings - this girly girl can turn even a sleeping bag tie into jewelry.

 

Most helpful discovery:  Jacob enjoys feeding Emmie and is good at it.  A mother of six takes all the helping hands she can get, since she could use about 14 arms (and at least 7 brains).