Last Sunday: Thomas making a music box he got at the pioneer activity.
Talea got these from the activity and painted them.
Monday: Getting ready for their school camp. Kaitlyn combed Makenna's hair and Makenna combed Samuel's hair. Every morning they got up and got themselves ready. I was impressed since we've never gone to school before. This week the girls did arts & crafts while the boys did sports.
Meanwhile Thomas, Alexis, Talea and I tried to pull the bushes out but will need more help.
Tilly standing on tiptoes to wash her cup.
Tuesday: Auditioning for a play: Makenna, Kaitlyn and Thomas. They got munchkin and ozian rolls in The Wizard of Oz.
Wednesday: Talea filled up our jar with organic popcorn and texted this to Madalyn saying we're ready for her to come home! She comes this Wednesday!! We've really missed her.
The 5 little kids doing a craft the girls brought home from their craft class.
After dinner work time. I sent the boys out ahead of me to start doing yard work while I finished cleaning up dinner. I came outside to find the porch all blown off and them laughing hysterically about making each other's shirts blow upward.
I love watching my kids work. Samuel is blowing the sidewalk and Andy is pretending to. They're all 3 singing. I could watch them all day long.
Work turning back into play with more kids added to the wait line.
I loved Talea's giggle. It was adorable.
Andy showing me a caterpillar instead of carrying the logs behind him to the wood pile. :)
Makenna and Talea decided to have their dolls have a campfire with some of the sticks instead of taking them to the wood pile.
Next job was to pick blueberries. Andy also turned this into a game by putting them all onto his badmitton racket and then pushing them through the holes into the container. I love having lots of time here to make work fun instead of being in a rush to finish it.
Next Andy grabbed a stick and pretended the bush was on fire and he was a firefighter putting it out.
Thursday: Kaitlyn took these pictures of their classroom and field day so I could see what it looks like.
After picking up the kids from school we went to Hobby Lobby to get fabric to make valances and stuffed animals. Then we went to Lowes and got paint to paint over the wood paneling. I really want to rip it down and have been studying on it for weeks but it doesn't look like there's any drywall behind it and it would be a big project to rip it down everywhere plus the ceiling and trim and put in all new drywall throughout most of the house. Maybe we should have, but to have the house ready for Madalyn and Kylie coming soon we decided to go the easier, cheaper route of painting it.
The 5 little kids have never bought paint before or seen how it's mixed and were fascinated. They were super excited we get to paint our house. It helped us feel like we're finally moving forward with a decision instead of just thinking about it for 2 months.
Friday morning: First item of business. Bye-bye bookshelf wall. The bookshelf was only 3" thick so nothing really fit on it. And we really needed room to walk behind the couch and into the kitchen. Plus we want it more open.
Alexis, like she did for the post in the living room, was the instigator and just took a hammer to it. Teenagers are brave and take risks. I wasn't sure if we should but it's driven me crazy as I can't see into the living room at all from the kitchen and this will allow me to a little more. I'm glad Alexis is here to encourage me.
All the kids loved smashing the wall and seeing the door on the other side. They also loved using the drywall as chalk.
So cool to look into the dining room and kitchen. Now we just have to figure out how to make it look nice.
Now the painting begins!
Watching Olympics while we paint.
Makenna taking a break and watching the diving with dried mangos.
I loved watching these 3 paint and talk together.
It took several coats of primer to fill in all those annoying cracks, but it's finally done!
A cool leaf bug. What is it? It had a thick body on the underside and was green and looked like a leaf.
Saturday: We went to a girls activity at the Mt. Airy Ward where we painted kindness rocks.
Thomas was at young mens camp so I had to bring the boys but they played in a classroom and were super good. When we got home we ate lunch and got to work painting the living room a blue-grey Samuel picked out. We worked the whole rest of the day, only stopping to get Thomas in Mt. Airy.
Picking up Thomas. He came home sunburned and exhausted but had a great time. He got to hike Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, rock climb, mountain bike, go boating, and go white water rafting. So much fun!
I brought him home and watched his reaction when he saw the surprise painting.
We weren't quite done but we'd gotten a lot done and he had no idea we were going to do it. I didn't even know myself until Thursday.
Going to bed late Saturday night. All the painting is done except the fireplace. I just tried a little bit of stain to see how it would look.
The corner where the piano goes and Alexis' bedroom.
The girls reading with Madalyn over the phone and Thomas relaxing with aloe vera gel on his sunburned shoulders before going to bed.
1 comment:
This looks fantastic.
Post a Comment