Claire turns 11

Claire was turning 11 so we went down to California 

for her birthday.  We stayed long enough to watch 

some sporting events too.  Since we were going to

be there longer than usual Amy found some projects for us.

First things first tho.

 Happy Birthday, Claire

The balloons are from a friend at school

Claire gets a ride home with a neighbor,

that was fun!!

 Devices  :o(

 Lacrosse team pictures

 I sneaked a shot

The team

 Slippers from Gram, how odd

 Birthday Cake!!

 Claire is goalie for the first half

 She's number 13 when she's playing and 17 when goalie

 She's a go getter

 Not too many score against her

 Another cake when Izzy came over 

It's nice they make their own cakes

 Nice way to prop up your phone

 You can cook on a hover board, who knew

 Claire and I went shopping one day. 

Auntie Brooke supplied the birthday money

 Whenever there's down time

 Cade has a headset on to play with his friends

 Grampa had a project Claire could help with

Changing the light fixture on the patio

 Cade got to help with the island rehab

 and the fence repair

 Off to another Lax game

 Claire's goalie the first half

 and big scorer the second half

 Gram and Claire had some time alone

Fun!  Gram did neither of these things!  

Of Course I forgot to take my camera to 

Cade's baseball game.  

Ellie & Pete

The kid's are growing so fast I thought

I'd post some new pictures.

 Pete loves cars.  We line them up, drive them down the

street of marbles, and then park them again.

 He's picked up where Ellie left off...when Gram & Pa

are over he wants Mac & Cheese for lunch

 When we go to Ellie's school to pick her up Pete runs

thru the trees and picks up little tree cones

 Ellie meets us outside 

 Then off to Jazz class

Ellie is in Boy Scouts too.  Yes, Boy Scouts

They just started up a girls branch

She has Girl Scouts before school one day a week

 When there isn't anything after school and the weather

cooperates, we play outside

 or inside

They play really well together...most of the time

Busy Kiddos!!

New Flooring So Time to Update the Stairwell

Now that we've decided on the floors it's time to get

the house ready for them.  We put white doors and trim

upstairs and in the basement but for some reason

didn't update the stairwell.  We are going to have

the flooring laid on the landings so it's time to paint

the trim and handrails there.

Before

After

 We have old 1980's style cedar strips on the walls

Instead of trying to take them all off and then dealing 

with the glue we decided to whitewash them

 Looks totally different

 The doorjamb to the garage never got painted 

white either

 The banister down the stairs

  The trim along the stairs

 The handrails and the trim around the entry door

 The upstairs banister 

The wall around the window never got painted

when the living room was painted, so now it is!

Ready for the flooring!!

My choice

Brooke's Birthday

This doesn't look much like Brooke's birthday

but it really is.  The kids frosted and decorated

her cake, which I didn't get pictures of for 

some reason.  Then we made dinner for Mommy

 Cornbread to go with the yummy chili

 The kids played at fridge while I made everything else

They must have played here for half an hour

Brooke, Chris, and Walt were moving the ceiling light

from in front of the closet to the middle of the room,

in both kids bedrooms

 The kids and I played all day

We played car repair at one point

This is Ellie's message to the owner of the cars.

She has improved so much in her writing, spaces

between words really helps.  Her first report card 

came home this week.  She is actually participating

in class more and of course above average in her reading

and writing.  Good Job Ellie!