Timber!!!!!

Today while Dad was here we decided to take out a tree that was growing very crooked. It would likely have fallen over sometime - so taking it out before it blew over was a good idea. It also is our free haul off week - so we could stack it by the street without having to cut it up real small.

Doug used a rope and a chain saw - and we tried to pull it into our yard - but it ended up going into the neighbor's yard instead :( Luckily it only hit their gutter a little. :( We did get most of it cut up, hauled out of their yard, raked up, and out by the street. The neighbors were not home, until we were almost finished. They were more concerned about what tree we cut down (as they really are attached to their trees) then the fact that a limb hit their gutter.

We only have a little left to cut up. The chainsaw was not working correctly - so hopefully we will finish it up later today or tomorrow.

Thank you mom and dad for helping with the tree. Your help was greatly appreciated!!!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Watching the Parade of Nations
Whee! Down the bouncy slide I go. Emily loved it, but Andrew was not so sure. One time down was enough for him.
Emily and Michael both gave the climbing wall a try. Michael is looking at me to ask if he could come down. He liked the idea of a climbing wall, but not the height. Emily made it all the way to the top!
Emily, Noah, Andrew & Michael at the Slugger Factory
Andrew and Michael both gave the Slugger batting cage a try

There was a World Fest downtown that had a parade of nations at noon. I thought that would be fun to see. We were surprised when we discovered a free festival in front of the slugger museum & fraser history museum. The kids enjoyed the bouncies, pitching machine, hitting machine, and climbing wall. In addition we went into the fraser history museum. A fun time was had by all!

splinter

Last weekend we took Emily to the doctor as she had a splinter in her foot. It had been in her foot for about a month. Part of it had come out - but some was still in her foot - and it had healed over. There was a callose on her foot and it was very sensitive. Her dr. said we had to go to a pediatric surgeon. I figured the surgeon would take it out in the office so I scheduled an appoitment for Monday. At the appointment, the doctor just looked at it and said that she could schedule surgery the next morning at the children's hospital. So, Tuesday morning we headed downtown to the hospital and had surgery. The doctor gave us the splinter - about 1/8 inch piece of wood. She spent Tuesday out of it due to anesthesia. Wednesday morning she went to our friends' house - and then came to school Wed. afternoon. Now she is back to normal. Her foot just looks like it had a broken blister on it. I think the bill from the surgery will be worse then the actual surgery.

The moral of the story - don't go barefoot on decks!!!

volleyball

You all know how althletic I am :) You also know how my hand-eye coordination makes me a great volleyball player - right :) Well, Emily started volleyball this week. There are only 7 players on her team - 6 of which have played before. They have nic named Emily their "secret weapon". She is loving it. The other girls are taking her under their wing and helping her along. It is great to see! She has practice all next week, and her first game on sept 2.

first day of school

Oomph! Can we lift our backpacks?
Look at all my books for 5th grade!
Big 2nd grader!
Wow! I have my own locker!


Wow! A 2nd grader and a 5th grader! Emily and Michael are sure growing up fast! We started school on Monday. Here they are on the 1st day of school.

hit away

we got Michael a hit-away. It is mounted on his basketball goal. We found it on clearance for only $11. What a good deal. We also found baseball pants on clearance for only $3.

new sewing machine

Emily's sewing machine from mom and dad got out of alignment. We took it into the sewing machine shop and they wanted $65 just to look at it. We knew the machine did not cost that much to begin with, so decided to just get her a better machine.

We got her a brother machine from wal-mart. It is very similar to the one that I have currently. She has enjoyed using it some, but has not had it very long.

lemonade stand

On Friday the kids had a lemonade stand. I helped them make slice and bake sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies to sell in addition to the lemonade. Lemonade went for 50 cents a cup and the cookies were 50 cents each. They started around 1:00 and got off to a slow start. They had a few sales - but around 3:00 it started picking up. Between 1:00 & 4:30 they ended up bringing in around $35.00. Emily gave $2.00 to a neighbor boy who came over to play and helped some. Then Michael and Emily each got $10 and they decided to give the other money to the neo natal unit at the children's hospital here in town.

After bringing in a good haul, they decided to try again on Saturday afternoon. Business was a lot slower - and after about an hour they had brought in $1.50 and decided to close up shop.

I will post pictures after I find where Emily put her camera - I took pictures on her camera.

six flags

Today we went to six flags. We all had fun. Michael went on the wooden roller coaster they had - he was actually crying when we got going on it, because he did not want to go - but by the end he said it was great. He ended up requesting to go on it again later in the day - which Emily did not complain about. We enjoyed the water park & the rides in the park. Now that Michael is tall enough to go on everything, it is very nice.

Emily had a little mishap in the water park. She slipped on a water slide & ended up hitting her head a few times on her way down a slide. She got a bump & burn mark on her head. She and I went to the first aid station for ice. She was very fortunate that it was not worse - but she does have a little red mark on her forehead now. Of course, she also had a splinter in her foot - which she got yesterday - so the lifeguard who helped us and the men at the first aid station were first thinking she hurt her foot (since she was limping). Kind of funny.

Emily's Room Complete

Emily's loft - changed from green & pink to blue & pink
Emily's bookshelf - changed from pink to blue.

Also note the ceiling - looks cool doesn't it :)

Emily's valance & some stuffed animals & ceiling
Her light switch cover was perfect with her new color scheme :)
Fun beads hang from her loft

Here is Emily's room. Of course it does not stay clean too long, so I had to be careful about where I took pictures from. It is more open than it was before -so hopfully that will help. She also did not want her rug in her room anymore - that makes it look better too.

Let me know what you think of my big girl's room

more painting

Today Emily & I spent more time painting in her room. After finishing her walls, we moved on to her loft. In addition we painted her ceiling. It looks really cool. I took some white & mixed it with the blue & we sponge painted her ceiling. It looks like clouds. WE also found some mix matched paint at Lowes that was the right pink to repaint the legs of her loft. So - everything has been repainted in her room (except her door & closet doors.) Will post pictures after we get everything moved back in. Right now our hall is filled with the contents of her room. It is hard to get down the hallway - I hope we don't kill ourselves tonight when we have to go to the bathroom.