Day Camp

 

Day Camp 2015

 Day Camp 2021

We traveled

I know, I'm such a wimp, but we decided to mask-up and take off...

On our way to visit Greg's brother and family in Nashville, we stopped at Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.  You may remember the mistake we made a five years ago and missed it by an hour. The time zone change tripped us up. 

 2021-we made it!

2016-too late!

 

There's Yoda on the steps.   

The spring that made this location popular and valuable.

The replica cabin.

 

 

Also, 5 years ago when driving to Alabama we noticed the National Corvette Museum and thought it would be a great place to visit on our way back.  Again we made a mistake and drove back on Easter Sunday, one of only 5 days this museum is closed in a year.  It was totally worth the trip 5 years later.

Yoda wanted to find the car from when he was born. 

A few years ago there was a cave-in.  They have since rebuilt, but they have lines to show where it happened. 

My favorite car.  

And one of the cars my dad had. 
Next stop Nashville! 

Easter Egg Hunt 2021

2021

2014

Who knows where Parker will be next year, and he is a little old for an Easter Egg hunt.  But he played along and we did a little photo recreation...

Doors

I've been slowly taking care of some doors in the house.  I blogged about painting the front door a couple weeks ago, but I've also painted most the interior doors.  While we had doors on the brain, it hit me to finally take down the shower door in our bathroom.  

We've talked about our little bathroom before.  It's very small, which is fine, I don't want/need a giant bathroom to clean, but this one is a little silly how small it is.  

Here's the makeover we did a few years ago.  

And here's when we hired a guy to build new walls.  

Both great progress, but... that shower door was so awkward.   

It was too narrow to walk out of comfortably.  A new, swinging shower door could work, but it was a tough solution because the guy said he'd want to peek in the walls to make sure he was securing it to a sturdy enough structure.  Great idea, but it sounded expensive.  And who knew if a swinging door would get past that toilet?  A shower door that had 3 panels instead of 2 would make the opening bigger, but again, I didn't want to spend $700 or more on this silly little bathroom.  Then - DUH!  Shower curtain!

I tore out the door, scraped all the caulking, cleaned up the shower and for less then $100 and a weekend of time I hung up my new shower curtain.  

We got a tall stall curtain, it pulls all the way to the side and we can walk out with ease.  Such a simple solution!  Sometimes there's a few drops of water on the floor, but not much more then the shower door let escape.  Also, it's just Greg and I that use the this room, and we're grown ups so we clean up after ourselves. 

In 2020 it's all about making things work. 

The front porch

The front porch needed a change, we got to it during this annoying summer.

Here's a before photo from a few years ago...

 

And here's a close up of the redone porch...

Greg tore down the railing and detail up top.  (We noticed a few neighbors had done it and it looked like a good idea.)

We "wrapped" the pillars with a pvc material--no more painting!

Moved the furniture from the back of the house to the front so we can all sit up front.

Simple macrame hanging plants in colorful pots.  

New door color!  A beautiful blue from Benjamin Moore. 

I accidentally caused 3 of the 4 boxwood bushes to die, so I moved the one live one over to the side.  Then I dug up all the pachysandra and re-planted them throughout the front mulch bed.  I also moved the stepping stones around so they make more sense.  Also added some top soil so hopefully everything will grow strong.  

I bought some string lights from Ikea, we've only used them once.  But they're so cute. 

There are some new house numbers along the side of the door as well. 

The smallest detail that we changed but I liked a lot is the peephole.  I bought a new one and replaced it in seconds! And no paint splatters on the new one! 

Tearing down the railing opened up the porch so much and now we spend way more time out there.  It's funny that such a small change made a big difference. 

Hitting the Trail Again

Greg took the kiddos off on another long hike.  After the last hike we asked what they wanted to do differently or the same--they all wanted to go again, they wanted to switch around who got what backpacks, and go for a shorter hike.  But they went on a longer hike, I think it was by accident. 

They did a TON of prep and planning before hand, they went for 3 days, 2 nights, and had a pretty good time over all.  They may go again if the weather holds.  (I stayed home and did a bunch of painting and stuff around the house and didn't cook the whole time!)

Here are some photos, before, during and after the hike...

 

Ramen in a bag! 

There's their little camp stove on the right. 

Buckeye!

Playing in the dirt.

We bought a 3rd hammock for this trip.

They are saluting Mimi's last apple squeeze, so silly. 

Angry teens...

...happy teens.

On their way home. 

First Day 2018

Before school started Mimi got to walk the halls of her new school, get to know her locker and generally have a look around.  Here she is all thoughtful...

 Look at that concentration!


Parker, up early and off for his 10th grade year, yikes!

 Yoda, our last one in Elementary school.  3rd Grade and feeling great!

And Mimi gets to sleep the latest of them all.  She doesn't even have to wake up until 7:30 and she LOVES it! 

Eagle

Parker took on an Eagle project this past year.  He didn't know what he wanted to do, but he knew he wanted to do something outdoors and at a place he loved.  He asked at a few places and then finally decided to ask at our elementary school.  He offered a few ideas, but his 4th grade science teacher asked if he'd like to do a pollinator garden in the school's flower beds.  He was interested and felt like he finally found his project.

Here is the before.  

In the past it had been a "sensory garden".  A teacher long ago had planted plants that smelled, looked, and felt interesting.  Lots of them were herbs so the students could even eat them.  But that teacher left, and since the garden is slightly hidden by this brick wall, it was a little forgotten.  A self-propagating, pollinator garden seemed like a good fit. 

One day last fall we went in and tore out some of the weeds and leaves. 

We even got some helpers from the troop.

Over the winter Parker spent hours and hours researching plants that would work in the garden.  They had to be perennials, attractive to pollinators, deer resistant, drought tolerant, etc.

He also worked hard to find a greenhouse to donate flowers.  This was not easy.  He knew he had some donations from family and friends, but we needed a few hundred.  One store was willing to give him 50% off anything he bought and the PTA was willing to donate some funds, but he kept looking and found a greenhouse willing to donate a bunch of plants.  He also ended up working there and learning more about plants as a bonus. 

Fast forward to Spring and it was time to plant!

Getting the flowers from the Greenhouse.  Thumbs up!

Loading the van with all the goodies. 

Preparing the soil with a tiller donated by a tool rental company.

Here's Parker directing the work to be completed. 

How did Parker feel about all this?  SO TIRED!

End of the day!  So tired and sweaty and happy with the results! 

Stats:

2 flower beds 

400 sq ft

200+ plants

dozens of bulbs

lots of seeds

40 bags of dirt

water bottles

granola bars

pizza

20 volunteers

and one little snake

Now all that's left is the paperwork!