in which we accomplished much in a week

The first four pictures were taken a week ago.  We popped open the paint container, a giant 5 gallon bucket, and stirred it up.  We poured some paint into smaller containers and got to work.  Part of one wall was finished that day.

 

 See? That was done in a couple of hours.

 Today we got a LOT done.  I'd been painting here and there during the week.  Dad had painted a couple times (he was super busy this week though).  But today was Saturday, a day of work.  We had a friend, Mr. C, come over and help remove the awning above the patio.  It HAD to be taken down and it's on its way to be recycled.  (In the picture below Dad and Mr. C find a piece of pvc pipe sticking out of the vent above the bathroom window.  Why?  Who knows?)

 Buddy even helped to accomplish this big task.

 They finished in just over an hour.  This is what I've been working on for the past couple of days.  It's lovely, but not finished because I'm short.

 Here is the side that was started a couple of weeks ago.  It needs a second coat of paint and at the peak of the roof it needs a spotlight. Oh, and the trim needs to be painted.  But it's getting closer to being finished!

in which we took a much needed break

We've been working hard.  So today we decided to take a break.  Buddy had three requirements left in order to finish his Bear in Cub Scouts.  Two of the requirements were to go on a picnic and take a hike.  We took a short drive and ended up in a state park overlooking the ocean.  Today was beautiful!  We enjoyed our picnic at the top of the cliff.  We ate sandwiches and the boys got chased by their Dad. 

 

 When we were finished, we hiked down to the bottom and the kids played on the beach.

 I mentioned that the kids played on the beach.  There was a huge drop off the trail and because I have bad knees and I'm not a huge fan of falling, I stopped before the drop off and just watched. 

 Just a little further up on the beach, right out of sight in the picture, happened to be a family that we know.  It was the guy who has been doing the work on the house, Mr. L.  It was funny to run into him there.

in which you see a door

I'm showing you our front door.  Yes, that is light streaming through it.  Isn't it fabulous?  The sun is shining people!  Okay, so that really isn't what I wanted to tell you.  Turtle has a thing with streams of light.  He likes to look at the dust particles that float around and then he calls out "stinging buzzers!" and tries to chomp all the little things away, all while he is pretending to be a tyrannosaurus rex.  That's my Turtle for you.  He got the idea from one of the many "Land Before Time" movies, where the characters are running from bees and their friend Chomper saves them by eating the bees.  He cracks me up multiple times a day.

 

in which she lost another tooth

It's amazing how fast teeth can fall out around here.  Sunshine lost another tooth and she was super excited about it, as you can see.  She drew pictures.  She made holders so the Tooth Fairy wouldn't get confused.  Sunshine is absolutely precious like that.

However, the Tooth Fairy didn't have any ones, so Sunshine had to wait a day before collecting her "prize."

in which we work and work and work

It's been a couple weeks since we started working on the outside of the house.  Much has been accomplished and there is still so much left to do.  Here is the side of the house, which is now mostly done, that you saw a couple of weeks ago.  The kitchen window (2nd one down) is now here, just not installed yet.  But the siding is done!  Next we have to finish caulking and paint.

 

 

Here is the side next to the front door.  See all those plants?  They HAD to be removed, as no plant life can touch the walls of the house.  Goodbye daffodils.  You have made me smile. However, I'm not sad to see that ugly fern and the creeping azalea bushes go.

Here is the side with the plants removed and over half the nails pulled out of the old siding.  Looks awful.

No plants still, but new siding!  Also new vents, which cannot be seen in this picture. 

 Now here was a great mystery to us.  If you look closely you will see that what that thing is under the window is actually CARPET!  Who does that?  I'm not sure. The carpet got pulled up and what was under that?  Sand, packaging peanuts, more sand, more packaging peanuts, dental picks, dirt, potting soil.  At one point, I asked Dad if we would find a dead body buried in there.  We didn't.

 This is what the area looks like now. No more carpet, sand, packaging peanuts or other trash.  It's just dirt and a ton of rolly-pollys. We hope to get a patio in soon and much later will come a porch swing.  Doesn't that sound fantastic?

in which he raced a dragon (car)

This year the Pinewood Derby was a very different experience.  First off, Dad was feeling great, as was everyone else in the family.  Secondly, the racers were half scouts this year, which made the racing so much shorter.  The boys got to have their cars go down four times, once in each lane, and then their times were averaged.  Buddy came in 4th out of 13 scouts and 9th overall (28 or so cars).  He did a great job and was so excited his car did better this year!