Porch: Painted!

Today I got my porch painted. To my utter surprise I found out that I can get much more done without the kids around! Fancy that!

 

Not only did I paint the porch but I also painted the dog.

 

And myself.



It feels good to have this out of the way, although I might add a second coat where the traffic is most intense. Another baby step closer to selling this house!

 

I didn't quite do all the other things on my list, but I did make chocolate turnovers which were a welcome snack during painting. Now I am ready for my kids to come home and hear all of today's Storyland stories.

Storyland Checkin

While I was making dinner my kids skyped me so I got to talk to them and see them and hear about all the fun stuff they had done. They were half glued to the CABLE television (a luxury we don't have at home) and half interested in seeing me and talking to me. Sounds like they had a blast so far.

 

Six years ago, we took the kids to Storyland. Cees was 12yo, Tim 11yo, and all the others were 7yo and under, including Sylvia who was a few months old infant. It was a great day, but also quite intense and crazy. At the end of that day, just when Storyland was closing, Kate decided that she desperately wanted to go into the 'Dutch Shoes Ride'. Since you know, us being Dutch, our happiness can only be reached by sitting in a 'flying klomp'. It was too late though and we had to leave without her being able to do that ride. She expressed her displeasure most of the long way home.

 

For the next two months, or maybe two years, she would ask me every day 'Can we go back to Storyland? Please? So that I can ride in the Dutch Shoes Ride?? Please???????'

 

Today she finally got to ride on the Dutch Shoes Ride and life is good. It only took six years for it to happen. Now she will be happy forever.

 

The hotel has a swimming pool, so not only did they get to go to Storyland, they also got to swim AND they got to watch cable. What a perfect day they are having!

A Day Off

I am still downloading pictures from my old computer. My plan was to do all that before I transfered them to my new computer but life interfered and I have the same result as after one of my moves when the movers had carefully wrapped and packed empty shampoo bottles and full trash cans. Some day I will organize my pictures I swear! For now you can earn bonus points if you correctly identify the kiddos in these pictures and give an estimate of their ages.

 

Today most of my kids are off to Storyland with my friend and I am actually getting things done. Even although I really wanted to just grab a good book and relax in my backyard, I pretended to be a responsible adult instead. Dawn and I made spinach feta pies and pesto garlic bread for lunch, yummy. I made a batch of fast puff pastry dough for chocolate turnovers tomorrow. I did two loads of laundry, including folding one (which is where my system usually breaks down and the clean laundry gets to live in baskets for way longer than I am willing to admit on line)

 

I swept and washed the porch in preparation for painting. I did a load of dishes (and made many new dishes dirty while cooking but conveniently ignoring that). I sanded part of the porch and put on a coat of primer on the bald spots. I started tea about six times and kept forgetting that I was making tea, so I would start it again and again (does that count as productivity?)

 

Tomorrow they will be gone still so my big project is painting the porch and I have a 56 pages list of small projects I am planning to do which might be just a tad optimistic.

 

Happiness

 

Life is chaotic but so happy.

 

Not only is my house getting closer and closer to being put on the market, but I also have a new laptop!

 

Cheapie one, but 725 times better than my old computer. This is my first post from it and I did it within 5 minutes instead of 8 days.

 

Erik Flying

Every year our local airport has an Airport Awareness Day, of which the highlight always is the Young Eagles program. The Young Eagles allow kids to fly for free with local volunteer pilots. Up till now, Erik had been too young, so he was super excited that he finally got to fly.

 

He has flown to The Netherlands twice when he was less than a year old, but strangely enough he has no recollection of those flights.

 

We made sure to make it to the airport early, since usually the free flights are very popular. We didn't have to wait long before Erik got paired with a pilot and two other boys and off they were.

 

He loved his flight and said he even got to fly the air plane which must have been very exciting.

 

Ball Gown

Today at 3pm we found out that Jane needs a ball gown for tomorrow. OK, maybe it didn't really need to be a ball gown, but it wouldn't hurt either, it is after all going to be the world premiere of the productions they made at video camp this week.

 

We quickly made it over to the thrift store and looked through the dresses. It didn't take us long to find this lovely ball gown. She fit a number of dresses, but from the start it was very clear that this was going to be it.

 

We added some shoes and she got her world premiere outfit for a total of $7.75. Did I mention I love our local thrift stores?

 

I am looking forward to watching the productions tomorrow, especially the music one where they ended up in a police car...

 

Never boring here.

Autism Dogs

Our puppy Giant has been accepted in the Heeling Autism program, to become a service dog for an autistic child. We are thrilled and know he will do well.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind is trying to raise money for their Heeling Autism program via the Pepsi Refresh Everything program. Please vote for them. They are ranked 7th now and need to be ranked 1st or 2nd to receive money.

Thank you!

Coming Back from Camp

Kate went to a 10 days overnight camp in Maine. This was the very first time she did overnight camp, so it was quite exciting. She had a great time.

 

She told me already she wants to go back next year, but take Sylvia with her that time.

 

Sylvia was so happy when Kate came back home.

 

It was lovely to see the happiness when they were reunited.

 

Now Dawn is away at camp, she will be back on Sunday.

Saturday Hike

 

 

 

I haven't looked up this bird yet, any one knows what it is?

 

Corn on the Cob

 

Landscaping Assistant

 

Erik helping my friend by condensing the grass clippings in the back of my truck.

 

Yes, this is all from my yard, yikes.

 

Anyway, Erik was having a great time 'helping'.

 

Pond Life

 

Or how to cool down on a hot day.

 

The frogs have not been amused by this new development.

 

And the dog gets banned from the house a lot because the pond does not smell like flowers. Unless one would take flowers and throw them in standing water for way too long as a science experiment.