Addition Changes

There have been lots of changes in the addition lately.  The biggest ones have been in the "dye room".  Here it is a few days ago..painted, but empty. 

Then the room got used to paint shelves for the bedroom closet.  Tanner and Elena hung out with Dad when they got home with school.  They each have a bowl of goldfish and are sitting around, talking with Dad and eating snack.

And then, today, big boxes arrived!  It took Martin two trips to the store to get these all home!  After the cabinets were installed and the kids were home from school the boxes got turned into a fort.  I think that Martin was as excited as everyone else to get to play with the cool boxes!

Random events from a weekend with Aunt Marilyn:

Martin put on his gambeson, maile coif and hauberk (in progress), and gloves and took up his sword. :)



I got some new-to-me clothes thanks to the generosity of my great aunts (they had fun choosing things to send my way! :)












Elena play with a piece of sample fabric from the loom and with some ceramic and wax cats.










And, now that we're back to a "normal" week, here's Alia practicing the trumpet.

This was our New Year's Eve project. It's a 500 piece puzzle. Alia took the photo of the finished piece and she was our helper. Tanner & Elena each did their own, smaller puzzles.

We paused mid-puzzle to celebrate with ice cream and/or root beer floats. It was a fun evening!

Happy 2010!

The latest home improvement project involved 6 cu. yds of topsoil.

And three Kings & Queens of the Mountain!
(and lots of bath days!)

Favorite quote:
"Having fun, Mommy. Having fun!!" -Elena

You've heard of "Weekend Warriors"--the guys that head out to the basketball court on Saturdays and play until they drop. Well, our sorts of weekend wars are with projects... On Tuesday the supplies were purchased. On Wednesday they were delivered (by a cool tractor trailer that turned into a fork-lift when it was separated from the trailer!). On Thursday we called Indiana Dig. On Friday they marked the buried cables. And on Saturday, whew! Rent an auger, dig some holes, work until Conference starts. The minute conference is over go back outside! There was a third (and fourth) project...the "moon lander" base footers were dug and cemented. And the front walkway planting bed expansion was started. We are tired, but very happy, "weekend warriors".

We took a trip out to Indy and played at the Conner Prairie Adventure room. Trains, pretend farms, woodstove, animal puppets, general store, tea room, and maybe more! The best part was playing animal puppets with Dad...silly pig! Don't eat his nose!





























Tanner and Elena got out the screwdrivers yesterday. I figured they needed something to use them on...a few screws and some old 2x4's and we had 15-20 minutes of fun project time!

Two kids, three bean bags. One child was tucked away on her bed with a book!

The bean bags were our Thanksgiving project (Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa!)

Our home teacher and his son came over to help with the barn removal. Chris and Tanner are "best buddies".

















The shingles were removed and taken to the trash. The roof boards were salvageable (and may turn into raised garden beds next year!). The siding was all tongue and groove and will find a new home with our home teacher.









Eventually all the siding and side supports were removed and the entire barn was pushed down towards the field. The rest of the lumber was removed (we may need to invest in a Sawz-all soon). Some was salvageable. The floor boards at the back were horrible.










Check out the beautiful hole! Can you believe this used to be a barn? This was one of the cleanest demolition jobs I've ever seen!