Babies in my Basket

Again. I wonder if it is the same Mama Bird as last year? And I wonder if that egg in there is going to hatch or if it was a dud?

The Countdown Begins...

Three weeks from now we will be here...

Projects

We finished a huge garage-cleaning out project today, and what do you know -- we do have a two car garage! (Today was the first day we have EVER been able to fit two cars in the garage...)

And this next one is a little masterpiece I like to call "Committed to Painting the Kitchen":

Ben Goes to Kindergarten

For an hour, that is.

Tonight was "Beginner's Night" at Ben's future elementary school -- an introduction to the school for parents and rising kindergarteners. Ben was clearly anxious as we arrived despite the fact that four of his friends were there also. He knew he was going to be required to separate from me and go to one of the classrooms, so as one of the staff approached to take him from me, he wrapped his arms around my waist and prepared to dig his heels in.

And then the woman said, "Hi there, Ben. We have baby ducks. Would you like to see them?" And Ben nodded hesitantly, looked at me, looked at her, looked back at me... and she led him off to see the baby ducks (and then to his classroom).

After the program for the parents finished, I found Ben in his classroom. He seemed a little shell-shocked, but quickly filled me in on his two favorite aspects of kindergarten: the ducks (which he showed me, in a little pond in the school's courtyard) and the computers in the classroom. Kindergarten, thankfully, seems to have met with his approval -- at least so far.

I Should Have Knocked on Wood

Yesterday morning before work I stopped at the grocery store* and one of the ladies who works there asked how the kids were and was everyone healthy? I replied that everyone was fine - for once! Of course, when Ben got home from school last night I could tell he was in a downward spiral which culminated this morning in chocolate-milk-vomit. (Too much information?) So after we dropped Rebecca off at day care we stopped at the grocery store** and picked up some gatorade and ginger ale and chicken noodle soup.

When someone inquires after your children's health and you say they're fine, always knock on wood, people...


*Actually Starbucks, but I'm calling it the grocery store in case Joel reads this, since I am supposed to be cutting back on my Starbucks consumption.

**The actual grocery store, this time.

Painted, Finally!

Yesterday morning Jose the Painter showed up with the right color paint, and a truck and ladders and a crew and everything and we finally got our cedar painted!!! I was holding out for some sunshine before posting a picture, but as soon as the crew finished up yesterday the clouds rolled in and it's been dreary and raining off and on ever since. So I finally gave up. Here's a picture of the newly-painted house in the drizzle:

I did not manage to take a before picture unfortunately, but here is a picture of the house shortly before we bought it (this was the picture that the previous owners took for the listing. You can see that the cedar is stained a dark brown color and if you look closely you can see it was starting to fade in places even two years ago when this picture was taken. So two years later the stain was worn away in many places thanks to the sun exposure we get. The new stain we chose is a solid stain (versus semi-transparent) so it should protect better against the sun. We also had our shutters and front door painted black (they were green previously)

Before (way before):

Beach Fest

This morning we took the kids to Beach Fest in the neighboring town of Matthews. There were rides, games, a haunted house that Ben set one foot inside and promptly turned around and came back out, beach volleyball, sand sculptures, miniature golf, and lots of junk food. Rebecca was content to observe from her stroller the entire time while snacking on dry cereal and pretzels, which allowed Joel plenty of time to give Ben some mini golf instruction.