Small Projects

At the beginning of last week the girls went down to grandpa and grandma’s for a few days so David and I worked on some small projects.  One of the projects was painting the bedroom doors in the basement.  We painted the whole basement last fall, but the we wanted to the doors and different color and paint them in the shop.  David painted the doors, now they look 100% better.  My project was to get Bentley’s name up in their room.  We had vinyl letters in her room in the last house, but they didn’t stick to the walls so I had to do something different.  For a whole year I have wanted to do this.  I finally had all the materials and the time to get it done.

Bentley knows those are the letters to her name.  She points to herself and says “Bentey’s etters” (that’s as close of a spelling as I can come to her pronunciation).

Special Visit

Towards the end of this last week my sister and her husband came to visit us.  They were on their way through to camp in the Hills.  Bria and Bentley had a great time with them, and so did we.

A game of hide-and-seek.

Someone new to push them on the swings.

Blowing Bubbles

Sitting with Aunt Tonia.

Our other activities included walking through our towns tiny crazy days, going out to eat, and a ranch rodeo.  The girls even went to the rodeo with us.  They amazingly made it through the whole thing without whining, wanting to run around, or demanding to much junk food.

We were so glad that Chris and Tonia could make it.  We don’t get to see them very often, and when they do come this way it is usually to Mom and Dad’s.  It was fun to have them come to our house.

A Week Late

Last week the girls and I took a trip to the capital city to meet up with some friends who were camping an hour in the other direction.  We only get to see them a few times a year and since they were so close we wanted to make sure we saw them.  We all had lunch together then took a trip to the little Discovery Center, a park (about the only one not under water), and Walmart (we always have some shopping to do).  It was short, but fun.

The rain puzzle that shows how water comes from clouds and goes through a whole system until it makes it back to a body of water.

Digging for fossils.

“Kinects”—there was a display of a large Ferris Wheel, a double Ferris Wheel, and Roller Coaster all built out of Kinects.

A lesson in friction.

Fun “bikes” that don’t have pedals.  They are used to teach toddlers how to balance on a bike by walking instead of pedaling.  All the kids of walking age had a good time trying them out.

We would have liked to get together with our friends again because they were going to be camping close by for another two weeks, but we just can’t seem to find a day that will work.

Bible School

Vacation Bible School started on Monday at our church.  We are a small church and don’t have a lot of helpers.  I was in charge of the decorations and backdrops.  I worked on them for the two weeks prior to VBS with a little help from some friends.  Due to the small number of helpers I was put in charge of the crafts too.  Someone else had those all planned, I just have to instruct the kids.

Here are some pictures from the decorating I worked on:

The theme is “God’s Ultimate Rescue”.

Riding Around

The last couple of weeks have been packed full (I will show you why in the next post). The girls have had to take a few moments to go for a ride.

This was one of the really hot days last week.

Bentley has figured out how to make the motorized tractor go. Now we just need to work on the steering. A few days later they were out riding their tractors together, and Bentley was doing a much better job holding the pedal down continuously.

Completed Projects

After our huge project weekend earlier this summer, we (mostly David, I helped only a little) have still been working on smaller projects that just needed to get completed.

Coat closet by the front door:

I asked David to make the shelf for the coats lower than normal so that we could put at least one more shelf above it that we could still reach.  It is so nice to have all the coats, hats, gloves, boots upstairs instead of down in the storage room.  This winter it will be really nice not having to run up and down the stairs every time the girls need something to play outside.

Water softener:

I asked for a water softener several houses ago.  David finally agreed and found one online that was a good value and large capacity.  He installed it and we have had wonderful soft water for a week and a half.  Cleaning the shower is so much easier!

A utility sink:

David had an unplumbed utility sink sitting the basement for a while, waiting for the softener so we could do all the plumbing projects at one time.  Now we have a place to clean up paint messes.  It is in my laundry room, so I can use it for whatever laundry needs I might have too.

Fireplace mantel:

The fireplace mantel has been done for a while, but I hadn’t taken any pictures.  We used to only have one board across the top of the fireplace, and the back was open.  I always felt like things were going to fall back behind the fireplace (we did find some of the previous owners belongings back there).  Now I don’t have to worry, and the wood is in much better shape.

Basement stairway:

When we moved in to our house, the wall below the wood section was concrete that had been painted white.  Because concrete is porous, paint eventually won’t stick.  We were constantly picking up flakes of paint from the stairs and it just looked unfinished.  David attached some drywall, did the mudding and taping, textured, primed and painted, and now it looks great.  No more messy chipping and flaking on either side.

We have several other projects on our to do list for this summer.  When we get around to them (usually means just finding a time and place to get materials) we will post more pictures.

Beat the Heat

The last week has been really hot here.  We have been enjoying the activities that help us beat the heat.  The girls spend a lot of time out in their little pool, which is in the shade in the afternoon.

The afternoon always requires an icy popsicle too.

We also spent all Sunday afternoon at the North Dam (our version of a lake) jet skiing, skiing, and tubing.  The girls had a blast in the water.  Our friend with the jet ski had his nieces along, who Bria loves to play with.  Having them their made Bria a lot more daring.  She did so many things that we have never been able to coax her to do in the past.  I didn’t have my camera and was in the water with Bentley most of the time so I didn’t get any pictures of Bria.  Someone else took some pictures of Bentley.

Bentley took a brief ride with David on the jet ski.  The life jacket makes her crabby so she doesn’t last long.

She loved being thrown out of the water and also jumping in from the dock, which was just added this year.

The water is a bit mossy when you get out of the dock area.  I don’t really care for that.  After a while, however, I decided that it was too hot not to swim out a bit further, and as long as I was on top of the water and could touch the weeks growing up from the bottom I could continue.  David had a really good time riding the jet ski and trying to ski with only one ski on.

Most the time we just try to stay cool by staying in the house.  If that doesn’t work we head to the Drive-In to get ice cream.