Konlock Reunion 2010

We didn’t get to go to the Heaton Family Reunion this year as it was too far away and our schedules with Andy working now would not accommodate such a long trip; however, we were able to go to the much smaller and considerably closer Konlock family reunion, which was held along Lake Michigan at Grant Park.

There was a lot of family and food and talking to people I have never met before and some that I have and don’t remember, but it was a nice day with nice people and we even went down to the beach to play in the water.

The boys were actually quite far out into the water and they said there was a sand bar that they could stand on. Jack was busy showing off his newly acquired swimming skills while Alex was enjoying being catered to by both his Daddy and Uncle Mark.

They played on the beach in the sand for a while so Andy and Mark could go out in the water by themselves. Alex would get sand all over him and run into the Lake to “clean” himself and then come back to play in the sand, only to have to do it again.

Alex was a little surprised here when he went into the water and the wave came in at the same time and he ended up deeper then he had intended. he didn’t cry though. He made his way back to the shore without any help. The hike back up the side of the hill was probably the worst part of the day. The mosquitoes were in full force and weren’t even deterred by the OFF we had drenched ourselves in. Plus, Alex didn’t want to walk after about two minutes and I had to carry him up the rest of the way. I was very sore the next few days because of it.

In all it was a good time. We wore ourselves out and ate ourselves full and the kids had a great time.

Jack is learning to swim

Jack was so excited to go to swim class. We had wanted to put him in one for a while but the time was never right. Now that we have more of a schedule going and Andy had the time off we decided to sign him up.

It could have not been more convenient as the classes are held in the local high school which is conveniently located just across the street from our house.

 

Unfortunately for the duration of the class only the adult that is taking the course with the child is allowed to be in the practice area. This is so that the kids are more focused on the learning aspect rather then who is watching them.

I am not a strong swimmer so I let Andy take the lead on this one and he took him to swim class once a week for eight weeks. On the very last day of class is when the rest of the family is allowed to go in and watch what the kids have learned.

 

  

Jack has improved 100%. He used to not like jumping in to the water and now he has no problem. He used to get scared putting hi face in the water and now he does it all the time.

His new favorite thing to do is to go to the local beach with his Grandma Ann and spend hours playing in the water. He is a regular little fish just like his daddy.

 

Although he still would not jump off the diving board by himself, he had no qualms about being dropped off by his teacher. Now that he has graduated this class he can enroll in a class that he goes to without a parent.

The classes come out in  book put out by the city every few months as the seasons change and they are very affordable. Next time I think we will sign both boys up. Jack can go into the next stage and Alex can take this class with his daddy.

I am so proud that he is not afraid to try new things. He really does enjoy the water, but always had issues with going in to far or getting his head covered in water. Now he is more comfortable and is learning the safety rules as well.

4th of July

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This was probably the first time I have ever been to an actual parade on the Fourth of July. We got a good parking spot and didn’t even show up early for it. We got a great spot for watching the parade that was in the shade and high up enough that you could see over the crowd of people. We had plenty of snacks and drinks and were lucky enough that the church we were sitting in front of had left the doors open so there was a handy bathroom. It was fun and not terribly hot. It was also nice to be able to participate in community events since this is now our community as well.

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After the parade, we went back to our house for awhile and the kids played on the slip and slide to beat the heat. We then went over to Andy’s parents house and Andy and Uncle Mark set off fireworks in the driveway until it was time to go see the fireworks display being put on by the city.

We found a good place on the side of the road that was just across the street from the park where the fireworks were being done. The show was fantastic, but it was hard to tell when it started because there were so many people shooting off their own fireworks. This was unusual to me because everywhere I have lived there have always been restrictions on people setting off their own fireworks due to the dry conditions and high chance off fires starting. The mosquitoes were out in full force, but it was a nice night to watch fireworks.

I know it is a little late, but I would like to say thanks to all the men and women who continually do their jobs and keep our country free. There is no other place I would rather live then right here in the United States of America. It truly is the promised land.

Safety Town

Jack’s Grandma Ann signed him up for a week long class on safety  called Safety Town. This has been a special class that the City of New Berlin puts on for children to teach them about the dangers of the world around them and how to follow safety rules like crossing the street with an adult, knowing what chemicals are poisonous, and bike rules.

Jack loves things like this and I think he likes to be on his own even more, so this was right up his alley as it required his grandma to drop him off and then come back and pick him up later. The pictures are from their graduation program where they show all of the things that they learned.

 

Jack got to be the leader when they were doing the street safety. He can really pay attention and follow directions when he is so inclined. 

I had to work, but both Andy and Alex attended the graduation along with Ann. They said he did really good. Andy took this same class nearly three decades ago. What fun for Jack to be able to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Wagon fun

When my boys are good they are really good. It may not last long, but it gives me hope. We got a little garden wagon for our yard because it seems like after each time it rains I have a million branches to pick up that have fallen off the neighbors trees into our yard. I don’t mind doing it, but it is quite a bit of work when  you are continually walking across the yard hundreds of times. So thus the wagon and I can just throw the branches in there and make one continuous trip around the yard and dump everything all at once.

Well, of course the kids want to play with it and they were doing so well I could hardly say no. Jack pulled his brother around the yard for awhile and then when I asked him to take some sawdust out to the compost pile, he loaded Alex and the bucket into the wagon and dragged it from the front yard by the garage all the way to the back yard on the opposite side of the house.

He certainly was a little trooper because it had just rained last night and the ground was still kind of squishy which made pulling the wagon very difficult. He would make sure that Alex was seated safely down in the wagon and made sure he sat there when he went to dump the bucket. Then he pulled him all the way to the end of the backyard and back up again. Such good playing together. I could hardly believe my eyes.

 

Water war

It all starts off innocently enough. Two little boys and their daddy go out into the big back yard on a nice summer day to plant a little oak tree that they hope will grow into a giant oak tree one day with a little tender loving care. They dig a hole big enough and wide enough to give the roots room to move. All the while the two little boys are being such good helpers.

They plant the tree and fill it back in with dirt and then they also cover the tree with mulch in order to help keep weeds from growing and to hold in moisture.

occasionally the two little boys run across small things like worms or beetles that catch their interest for awhile. They make little homes in buckets for them and name them inventive names like “Wormy” and “Blacky” and then let them go and return to helping.

Then, of course, it comes time to water the little  oak tree so that he might get a good strong start out in his new home. All is well and somewhat peaceful.

Then, Daddy turns the hose on the two little boys and they start running around screaming. But they are not screaming “don’t spray me Daddy,” no, they are instead screaming “try to get me Daddy!” Chaos ensues.

Several minutes later, Daddy extracts himself from their play, but leaves the hose turned on and the children in charge.

They pretend to make rain.

They take turns spraying each other.

They spray targets that they hold in front of themselves.

It doesn’t last for a few minutes. It lasts a full hour.

The children are drenched and all I can think is that I am so glad we have well water for the outside and it will all go back from where we got it.

Making our house a home… part 2

At last! Our bedroom can finally be considered habitable. Of course, we were living in it anyway during all the construction, but now, finally, it is what we dreamed for it to be. After much hard work, mostly on the part of Andy, and my help along with some help and some obstruction by the kids, we are arriving at destination home. Here are just a few more pictures of what has occurred in the last month.

Here is what my closet looked like originally. The closet is 4 feet by 8 feet and the shelves that are in there are about 2 1/2 feet deep. Much too large to be of any real use. Plus all the hanging is way out in front leaving a massive amount of space in the back that is completely unusable for anything but storage, which we do not need and I did not want in my closet.

 

There were originally two heavy slotted sliding doors that allowed entrance into the closet and Andy took those out and installed a pocket door instead which makes the closet seem more like a walk-in which is what I think it was originally intended to be.

I think it makes the room look much larger as well as cleaning up the space a little bit. This next step skips over all of the mudding, sanding, texturing, priming and painting and just shows the result of all that work. You can still see the drywall dust that not only covered everything in the bedroom, but snuck out into the rest of the house and covered everything else as well. It didn’t matter how hard we tried to contain it or what we covered with plastic so it wouldn’t reach it, the dust got all over everything. We chose Forest Fern for our wall color. The closest match to what it actually looks like is probably in the far left of the picture near the corner. It is really dark, but doesn’t make the room look dark at all. Feels more cozy then anything else.

The closet was what i was waiting for the most to be finished. All my clothes had been crammed into my craft room closet and all my shoes had been piled up on the floor. This has been the primary reason for me not posting any updates on this site. I just could not stand being in my craft room with that giant mess knowing that it had to stay there until the closet was finally done. It was well worth the wait. I now have a beautiful walk-in closet with more than enough room for all my clothes shoes and other miscellaneous items.

 

I have more space in this closet then I know what to do with. The kids are now attracted to it because it has becomes some sort of new secret club house that they can entertain themselves in. I was a little upset that I had to buy Martha Stewart products to get the look I wanted because I am not a huge fan of hers, but I am reluctantly impressed with the results.

Andy completed all the molding around the doors and windows to finish off the room and it is impressive. Because there was pine paneling on all the walls the molding and window sills couldn’t just be put back on. Andy had to make brand new sills from scratch and he did a really good job.

We still need to put the crown molding around the top and redo Andy’s closet as well, but other then those two things, our room is exactly how we imagined.

One more improvement that Andy was able to accomplish in such a short time was the installation of our two new front doors. I had originally wanted wood, but nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price for all wood doors. We settled instead for fiberglass wood-look doors and unless you study it really close, you can’t even tell the difference. Plus, they are energy star rated and will save us on our electric and gas bill… and they are beautiful.

         

This is by no means the end of our remodeling, but it is the major portion of it and I am so glad to have it over with.