Parentheticals

This last week the girls went to girls camp. The only thing that I can get out of them is that "it was fun". While they were gone Timmy was the biggest kid, and he did a good job being the responsible one most of the time. We had an extreme heat warning for most of the week, so we stayed inside more so than usual. That being said we still did get to the park a few times. On Tuesday we didn't meet with the builders since they hadn't gotten anything done over the last week. Mike is getting frustrated with their lack of progress. They finally got a container to the house, so we moved stuff Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. At the present time we can't recommend them to anyone, but we will see if they start getting stuff done finally perhaps we will change our opinion. They say that this upcoming Tuesday the plumber will arrive, so if they can get the demolition done before then then perhaps we will stop falling behind. We also moved to the Waters House on Saturday...

Two weeks ago on Monday the girls went to Owl Camp. I'll camp is a activity that is put on by the library for kids who enjoy Harry Potter. Owl camp was really cool -they did a bunch of classes where they learned about ocean animals and electricity, and about herbs and they learned how to read tea leaves. They also did 'common room' where they did crafts, games, and trivia. They liked the teacher that was supposed to be Snape the best because he got into character the best. Rea was in Hufflepuff and they won the house cup and some free books. For the last two weeks we have been at the Poulson's house since our house is still under construction. For the first bit things were fairly normal (or what passes for normal at this point of time in our lives), however, last week was the Poulson family reunion, so we had all of the Poulson's over for the week. The cousins all had a lot of fun playing together every day, and Mike worked out of Grandpa Mike's office because e...

These last two weeks some weird sickness has been making the rounds around our round family. It involved coughing and sleeping a lot. Timmy got it last, and hopefully no one else comes down with it. Timmy's birthday was on Tuesday. He got video games, bedroom decorations and a plush chain chomp (from Mario) which Rea made for him Another thing that happened on Tuesday was that Mike went to see our house which is under construction still. Mike was surprised to discover that construction has been progressing at a greatly increased pace, however, he was also surprised to discover that the kitchen is entirely torn apart.  This wasn't originally a part of the plan, however we have decided that now that the kitchen is torn apart we might end up remodeling it to have a more open connection to the front room which will make both rooms feel bigger.  Here are some plans that Mike drew up for the modified kitchen: Wednesday was Juneteenth, and mine for the day off of work. We didn't r...

Last week Rea and Sara went to Oakcrest. They had a really fun time. They played a game called Feed Fred. Fred is a tree with a mouth cut into it, and they were trying to throw rocks into the mouth. They also later threw fruit snacks at Vannie - their camp counsellor. They also did a giant swing and zip lines. Rea also enjoyed that. On Tuesday we went and saw the house. The workers have not done as much work as I would have expected, but they did make some progress. Gideon broke his computer this week as well, so we got him a temporary one. Here's hoping that that one stays in one piece.  Friday night we went as a family to get Beard Papa's Cream Puffs, which were very tasty. They make ones of multiple flavors and with lots of possible fillings, so it is a choose your own adventure to build your puff. This Saturday was Elizabeth's birthday. She got her presents and had noodles and meat for her meal. Her dessert was blueberry brownies with blueberry frosting.  Rea sewed get ...

On this Memorial Day we didn't have a Memorial Day party this year because we were too busy packing for our trip. Throughout that week we completed packing our house successfully. It took a lot of work, but by Sunday evening we finished packing it all into the rooms that will not be impacted by the add on. Friday last week the kids were invited to a sleep over at Grandma Poulson's house. They had food and fun and cousins over, and that is a recipe for a good time with them.  Either intentionally or not this aided the packing efforts, since having no kids is good for getting work done. Sunday night we went over to Grandma Julie's house in order to move there while the worst of the building is going to be taking place on our house. Mike has a place to work from in their house and they're allowing us to live in the basement. Grandma Julie and Grandpa Craig will be gone for a few of the weeks so we'll be taking care of the house for them while they're gone.  Rocket ...

Throughout the week Mike has been slowly packing up things and moving them box at a time into his office and the carpet room. The front room is completely empty and the kitchen is as close as we can get it without moving anything that is completely necessary to living and eating in this house. Mike's office is pretty darn full right now, however it still is possible for him to work in it. On Wednesday the Water's kids found some mushrooms in their yard, so we decided to see if there were any mushrooms up at the dell. We found three morels, a few clusters of oyster mushrooms, and a cluster of wild onions. We picked one of the onions to transplant to our yard and gathered the mushrooms to make into some sort of mushroom food in the future. Mike sauteed them and froze them, so the next time we make pizza we can have wild mushrooms on one. On Thursday the kids were bored, so Mike cut up some dowels that we had sitting around the house and made some drumstick sets. He sanded them do...

On Monday we dropped off our car at the auto repair shop because for years our doors have been slowly degrading. It got to the point where everyone had to climb in through the front doors and then climb over everything to get to wherever their seat was. After dropping the car off the auto repair shop looked it over order the parts and got it fixed by wednesday. We are super excited to have a car whose doors work again!  While we were out of a car Grandpa Mike lent us his truck so we were not entirely unable to get around. On Monday at dinner time we also discovered that Elsa had some incredible eyebrows. We aren't quite sure exactly how it happened, however her eyebrows were very impressive. (Alison mentions that it is nice that Sara has someone to practice makeup on.) Early this week (Tuesday or Wednesday probably) Timmy started having an allergic reaction to something that we aren't quite sure what it is. It seems that it flares up when he goes outside so we're guessing i...