Sleep Over

Friday night we decided to spend the night at our property.  We then let Michael invite his best friends, Shane and Logan, and while we were at it, we let Adam invite his best friend Jack. We put all 7 kids in the second room at the little house.  It was quite the slumber party, but surprisingly, everyone got along well and slept well.

 The next morning  the kids played on the zipline and rode 4-wheelers.  I thought I would get a lot of pictures, but this is all I got.

Poor Ellie felt a little left out, we'll have to figure out how to have her have a friend up soon.

Sup Dog

Our puppy was finally old enough to bring home this past weekend.  We went and got him on Thursday night. Friday, Nate spent all day playing with him- taking him inside, taking him outside, putting him in his cage, letting him out of his cage, doing it all over again.  Sup had a great time playing with him.

 Adam was the family member who begged and pleaded and negotiated the most for a dog, so he got to name the puppy.  He chose the name that he had chosen a few years ago for one of his Webkinz stuffed animals- "Sup."  Joe had veto power, but he decided that he liked the name, so it has stuck.  The good thing about a name like Sup is that you can say, "'Sup, dog!" 

 Satruday, Adam had a football game and so Joe took Sup with him to the football game.  It kept Ellie busy the whole time we were there, it was great.  Afterwards, we went to our property.  The kids walked around like a little peloton, with the dog checking out all the things to see at the land.  Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out, because it was really cute. 

 All of the kids love the dog.  They love playing with the dog and picking him up and generally harrassing him.  Sup is a patient puppy and never complains about all of the attention.  He does however, not like to be left alone and whines in his crate whenever we put him in there.  That is a big problem when it is bedtime because he wants to be gotten out every hour or so to go potty. 

Hopefully, he will grow out of the crazy nights soon because both Joe and I are suffering from some serious sleep deprivation.

Downtown Aquarium

As is becoming a tradition in our house, we went with the preschool kids on a field trip to the Downtown Aquarium.  They had the "field trip" on Martin Luther King day, so all the kids got to go.  It was a lot of fun.  It was especially nice to not have to bring a stroller and to have the kids be independant.  Well, until Nate decided he didn't want to ride one of the rides we were going on, and as we about to board he ran off, far away.  Stinker.

The aqarium part of the aquarium is really interesting, there are some good displays, however, there are not many of them.

 They also have an area where the kids can touch some ocean creatures.  They got to touch sand sharks and stingrays.

 Also at the aquarium are white tigers.  It is a little confusing why a place with a title of aquarium has a white tiger, but maybe they just wanted to add to the mystique.  We read the sign nearby and it said that there was a white tiger caught in 1951 and all of the tigers in captivity can be linked back to this one tiger.  It also said that 1 in 10,000 wild tiger births results in a white tiger, since it is a recessive gene.  Needless to say, Nate was fascinated with the white tiger.

 One of the neatest things at the downtown aquarium is a train that takes you through a tunnel under a large aquarium.  In it you can see a ton of different kinds of sharks.  The one that is most interesting to me is the saw shark that has a long pointed nose with saw teeth on it. 

We also rode the ferris wheel.  I am mildly afraid of ferris wheels, so I had to carefully suppress those feelings when I rode with the kids.  Here are the boys right after we got in our car:

Nate, Ellie and I.  The cars have no railings and the doors can open when you are in them, so you have to hold on tight to your younger kids when you are riding.

As we went up the first time, Adam and Michael started to get a little nervous.  I looked down and saw this:

Pinewood Derby

The pinewood derby was this past weekend. Joe and the boys had a great time putting together their cars.

 Joe even helped Nate to make one.

 Then we had the race, Joe was the announcer.

 Adam and Michael's cars won their first few heats. Adam's car even set the track record early on.

 By the end, however, one of Adam's wheels cracked and his car was performing worse and worse as the night wore on.

 Michael came in 3rd place.

Adam came in 6th, he was pretty bummed about it, but we always have one more chance next year to get it right!

French Doors

We just finished the last big project on the inside of our lake house.  I am so excited, it seems like it has been a never-ending endeavor.  In the downstairs there was a sliding glass door.  It was nice to look out of, but it was really old and made a loud scraping noise whenever it was opened or closed.  We decided we would prefer to have french doors there.  This is the door before we took it out.

Outside view of the same door.  It wouldn't look so bad if the screen wasn't so ratty.

Joe taking out the old door.  The house used to be painted green, years before we bought it.  Although I don't love the color now, I do think it is a vast improvement over green.

With the doors removed.  We had premeasured the door and it fit perfectly, but when we put it up next to the hole, we found we had to open the hole up by three inches on one side.  Not fun, but not impossible either.  Luckily, top to bottom was a perfect fit.

Inside view after.  Yes we do have an orange cone randomly sitting around outside, I don't know why.

The other view of the doors from the inside.  Joe will put trim up around them like he has around all the other windows in the downstairs.

The view from the outside.  He also has to put trim up here. 

Ya, for all the big projects being done, next we get to work on the outside, hopefully it won't be as exhausting.