First Day of School 2013

Ice Cream in a Bag

 GG and Gpa came one late summer afternoon.  We decided it would be a great time to do ice cream in a bag.  Every summer needs some ice cream in a bag and what could be more fun that having GG and Gpa here to make it with?

 Kyleigh turned 10 in August.  It was a party year for her.  She had set ideas of what she wanted to do at her party and we obliged.  She wanted a bike rodeo, pizza making, and nail salon party.  We started the party with bike decorating.  We had lots of crepe paper and the girls had a good time decorating their bikes.  We set up a bike/other object obstacle course on the driveway.  The girls had a good time maneuvering the course.  10 seems to be an in between age for bikes.  You can see that some of the girls had graduated to large bikes and others were still riding their smaller bikes.  After we rode bikes we went inside and made pizzas.  I had premade circular pizza dough pieces for each girl and we had loads of pizza sauce and toppings for each girls to make their own pizza.  Two ovens come in so handy for activities like this.  The girls ate their pizza and had cake.  The cake that we had for this party was a Holly and Kyleigh specialty.  Kyleigh asked Holly to help her learn how to use fondant to decorate a cake.  We borrowed Holly's pans and made the cake layers.  Then the day before the party Kyleigh went to Holly's for the afternoon and they decorated the cake together.  Kyleigh designed what she wanted and it turned out sooooo cute! They both love cake decorating and we are keeping our eyes open for a class the two of them can take together.  While this was going on at our house Holly's sisters were at her house working on some crafts.  Several of the Christensen cousins were at Kyleigh's party so they made it a craft day since they were here anyway.  That turned out so great because one cute Christensen cousin is an amazing artist and loves nail art.  She came over and did fancy nail art for some of the girls.  Kyleigh's birthday has fallen the day before school starts for the past two years.  This party was the Saturday before so a lot of her friends were out of town for one last pre-school hurrah.  We knew it would be like that, but we had a great time with the friends that were able to come.

 One benefit of having a birthday before school starts is that you can call all the shots for the whole day.  Kyleigh wanted pancake men for breakfast, which is pretty standard.  She also wanted to go to the zoo.  Zoo Boise has had a butterfly exhibit for the last two years.  One picture shows a butterfly that landed on Kyleigh's shirt and decided to stay awhile.  Of course, she loves to feed the goats.  Katelyn will feed them a little bit and then want to wash her hands.  Ridge won't even go near them.  He can't stand dirty hands.  Kyleigh on the other hand, would feed them all day if she could.  Since Kyleigh already had one fancy cake she decided she just wanted cupcakes for dessert.  (Ridge can't help himself from assisting with the candle blowing).  We also made homemade ice cream with the huckleberries that we had picked along the greenbelt the Saturday before on a family bike ride.  Everybody loves heavy, heavy hangover.  Sometimes one gets a little concerned about how hard the "bump on your head" is going to be from the little ones.  Kyleigh got lots of nice gifts, including a cake decorating kit to feed her interest in cake decorating.  Happy Birthday to our sweet, responsible, lively Kyleigh.  Where would we be without you?

State Fair

 I love the fair.  I get as excited as the kids when I see the flurry of activity at the fairgrounds the week before it starts.  Rusty can't stand the fair.  We have a deal that I won't ask him to go to any other fair-like function as long as we can go to the actual fair every August.  The kids can choose to buy a souvenir, ride a ride, or get a treat.  Ridge chose cotton candy and it took 6 wet wipes to clean him up.  We love the petting zoo and old tractor display.  This year the bean council had a kiddie pool full of beans and tractors to play with.  We had a hard time getting Ridge away from that one.  We also watched a monkey show that was pretty great.  Yes, it is hot and tiring but that is all outweighed by the fun. 

 

 Somebody needs to cover up that UI tattoo before they bring this thing to Boise.  HONESTLY!

Fairmont Dolphins

 Kyleigh and her friend at the city swim meet.  She practiced swimming for 45 minutes a day all summer with the Fairmont Dolphins.  Her swimming skills and confidence shot through the roof.  They had 4 meets and the big 2 day city meet.  I gained a new appreciation for my in-laws sitting through umpteen years of wrestling tournaments.  She loved it and even chose a swim clinic at BSU in the fall over soccer.  She plans on participating next summer also. 

The artwork is not mine.

The House

 Dining Room.  Rusty saved me a piece of wood for a new kitchen table that will match my cupboards.   I just can't let go of the old one.  I love having a kitchen table that doesn't cause trauma to my soul when glue, permanent markers, paint, and general spills occur (which is daily).

 Kitchen.  Yes, those are two microwaves.  Long story but we didn't plan that.  The open cupboard shelf also an accident (the doors didn't get made).  Two of my favorite accidents in the house.  Love both of these features. 

 My Office Closet.  The best invention in the history of ever.  Original purpose was so we could always keep an eye on what the kids were looking at on the computer, as it is right off the kitchen and family room.  That seems less of an issue with a laptop and kids doing homework in the kitchen.  However, it keeps all the paper junk off the kitchen counters.  I thought I would never be able to use more than three shelves on one side of the room.  When they quickly filled up Rusty added three on the other side.  Still more were necessary and he added two more in the center.  I also love the ribbon dispenser and the fabric drawers.

 Family Room.  This is the room that we had originally planned to have a twisty slide coming into from the upstairs.  It was really a lot of work to re-route the trusses to make this possible.  If you look closely in the upper right corner you can see that there is no ceiling in that corner.  It goes up to the second story.  The closet that sits in the corner was the issue.  Originally we said we wouldn't need it so if the slide were to cover it up it wouldn't be a big deal.  It turns out that the closet is jam packed with toys and games so we didn't want to cover it up.  We put a rope in at Christmas time (if you look closely you can see it hanging down).  That rope goes up 18 feet for the kids (and adults) to climb.  Katelyn is a little monkey on that thing.  We will also add a rock climbing wall on the same wall as the window and a shelf up past the ceiling line for the kids to play on.  Not sure when.  We got the air hockey table and popcorn popper for Christmas.

 Master Bedroom.

 Master Bath.

 Mud Room.  Everybody has a locker with hooks for coats and a shoe cubby down below.  On the opposite side of the room is a bench the length of the room to sit on while putting shoes on.  Under the bench is a drawer for everyone.  Right now the drawers hold winter gear.  The door in the end is a coat closet.  Up above is bins for extra shoes and those will be switched out for winter gear in the summer.  I absolutely love this room.

 Gym room.  Also a favorite.  Springy foam floor and a closet for all of the workout gear.  TV in the corner for workout videos.

 Ridge's room.

 Katelyn's room.  The tree and animals are wall stickers. 

 View from the rails near the kids room looking down into the living room.

 

 The Pantry.  This room is in the lead for my favorite room in the house.  Rusty built me beautiful shelves that I love, love, love!  It makes me so excited to stock the pantry when I don't have to rearrange every time I add a can of food. 

 The living room.  The arch on the left side of the fireplace is the "wood box".  It is Rusty's favorite thing and most proud invention.  Reason being- there is a door that leads from the garage to the "wood box" so he can get a wheelbarrow full of wood and wheel it into the garage and load it directly from the garage into the house.  He never has to try to balance a load of wood while attempting to kick his boots off and avoid messing up the carpet from dirty boots.  He pretty much feels like the genius of the world.  He also built me the entertainment cabinet and the barn doors above it that open to reveal the TV.

 The driveway.  WOW!  Now this driveway was a project.

 The end result is amazing.  The kids can ride in a giant circle on bikes, trikes, scooters, ripsticks, rollerblades, and skateboards and never ride into the road. It is like having a private road with MandH and so easy to turn around so you don't have to enter the road backwards.

Kyleigh's room.  Her room turned out so cute.  We love the pink stripes.

Not pictures-  Rusty's office, the upstairs tile deck and downstairs covered concrete deck, kids bath, and downstairs half bath.  We also have a great back yard with a horse pasture behind us, a chicken coop that matches our house colors, and a fabulous gas fire pit.  The yard will be our project this spring.  We love it.