Day 212 – July 31, 2010 :: Playing Possum

Ssssshhhhh! She’s pretending to sleep. ;)

[It’s a sweet photo, so we’ll just ignore the fact that she’s actually doing it to be ornery and uncooperative. ;)  ]

Day 211 – July 30, 2010 :: Good Morning Sunshine

Just a simple shot of Matthew hanging out near my computer one morning while I was doing a little browsing around the web.  He was in a particularly good mood and was telling me about how happy he was to have gotten his new game and how he’s looking forward to spending the day with one of his friends soon and so on.  So sweet.  :)

Day 210 – July 29, 2010 :: Megatron Reclining

Matthew had his eye on another Transformers game for his DS.  Unfortunately, the retail price was more than he wanted to spend, so he and Mark set out to try to find one on eBay.  Matthew was extremely disappointed when he lost the first auction he bid in, but on the next try a few days later, he won! He was so excited he was jumping up and down. :)

The game shipped quickly, arriving on Wednesday.  Matthew had already used his video game time for the day, but was allowed a few minutes to test it out.  The next morning I awoke to find Megatron (last year’s Halloween costume) lounging in our recliner, battling away. :)

Day 209 – July 28, 2010 :: Shoe Business

One of the things Kaylee’s been working on recently is learning to tie shoes.  She’s mostly only ever had Velcro shoes, so there just hasn’t been an opportunity to get much practice. So we set out for her to learn.

We Googled different way both to do the actual tying, and to teach someone.  I tend to make things overly complicated, so it was hard for me to simplify my instructions enough to not overwhelm her.  The first couple of days we tried, she got very frustrated, and I figured it was going to be a long process. But then on the third day, something clicked for her, and she got it!  She was so excited! :D

She still needs practice to  get a bit faster, and she hasn’t actually tried with them on her feet yet, but she’s already improving on her overall technique and is quickly picking up how to tighten them and such. She’ll be a pro in no time! Way to go, Kaylee! :)

Day 208 – July 27, 2010 :: Step Right Up and Win!

Kaylee often comes up with all kinds of elaborate “events” for us.  This time she decided to have a carnival in the family room. She set up several games and kept track of the points everyone got for participating. The points could be traded in for prizes, which were these cut-out “masks” that she made.  Her creativity and imagination never cease to amaze me. :)

Day 207 – July 26, 2010 :: Checkin’ It Off

The kids have a few general chores and other things they are expected to do during the summer. We’d been going without an official checklist this summer, but they were having trouble remembering to do everything. And really, I was having trouble remembering what they were supposed to do too.  So I dusted off last year’s file, tweaked it a bit, and printed it out.

Here Kaylee is checking off that she’s completed that day’s karate class. This photo really doesn’t do justice to how red and sweaty she was.  And I love that she did karate in a cute little sweater shell. LOL

Day 206 – July 25, 2010 :: They Crack Themselves Up

Matthew and Kaylee wanted to put on a silly show and make videos of it.  They decided to sort of spoof “So You Think You Can Dance”.  It’s one of the few shows I TiVo during the summer that I sometimes watch when they’re around, so they’ve seen a few episodes.  They had fun making the videos, but it was way more fun for me to watch their reactions as they viewed the playback.

 

Here is one of the three videos they made.

I think the current SYTYCD people’s jobs are safe. ;)

Day 205 – July 24, 2010 :: Total Boredom

Most days, if Matthew has some downtime, he finds all kinds of creative ways to entertain himself. On this particular day, however, he was bound and determined to immerse himself in total boredom, rejecting all suggestions of activities and offers to play games. He just sprawled out on the floor under the card table and moped.

Day 204 – July 23, 2010 :: Sprinkler

Mark picked up a new sprinkler for the kids, and they couldn’t wait to try it out.

It’s a Buzz Lightyear one. They can use the handle on the controller to adjust the water level and launch the rocket. If you get it lined up right, it goes up about three times as high as you see here .

But mostly they just played in the water.

We have this little umbrella set up in the yard, so that the kids have a spot to get some shade when they’re in the pool. They aimed the sprinkler such that the water would come down onto the umbrella and they could hide under it.

The audio for this next shot… in the whiniest 8-year-old girl voice you can imagine… “Mooooo-oooooom, make him STOP!”

At this point, Matthew picked up the sprinkler and began aiming it at Kaylee. Which meant it was also being aimed towards me. My camera and I quickly retreated to the safety of the house, leaving the kiddos to their fun. ;)

Day 203 – July 22, 2010 :: Back In the Kitchen with Kaylee

I’ve lost count of which baking lesson this is. She chose chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I usually make my own frosting, but I’ve never made a cake from scratch. She insisted. She loves measuring the dry ingredients. :)  So we found a recipe online and gave it a go.

The cake turned out ok, a little on the soggy side, but still quite good.

We had a little incident with the vanilla when making the frosting, so it was pretty… um… strong. The kids didn’t seem to mind though. :)

Day 202 – July 21, 2010 :: Play That Funky Music

After this week’s sax lesson, Matthew graduated to being able to practice with the full horn. He was so excited. He’s really enjoying it, and loves to show off, “freestylin’”. :)

Day 201 – July 20, 2010 :: Tent Time

Kaylee loves playing in this little popup tent. We initially received it as a baby gift when Matthew was born, the idea being that it could be used as shade for the baby to nap outside. We never really did that, but it’s still gotten plenty of use over the years.

Yes, Kaylee is in the tent sideways – the yellow part is supposed to be on top. She’s sitting on the “door” side.

It’s a little bit better fit when upright…

And, of course, if sitting is too cramped, she can always lay down. LOL

Day 200 – July 19, 2010 :: From the Neck Up

Matthew in his room, practicing with his sax… well, part of it. For his initial lessons, his instructor had him practicing blowing through just the upper part.

Day 199 – July 18, 2010 :: Jenga

Kaylee pulled out the Jenga game for us to play. We hadn’t done it in ages.

Mark and Kaylee and I played.

The game went on quite a long time. Matthew had missed the beginning, but then came over to watch.

Testing for loose blocks.

The end is near…

I took almost 100 pictures during the 30-minute game, except during my turns which I found was just too awkward. I was really hoping to catch that big collapse, but when the time came, it startled me so much that I forgot to shoot! LOL So the above shot is the last one; she knocked it down on that turn.

Kaylee had wanted to quit halfway through. I think, for us, Jenga is just too stressful of a game.  That’s probably why we hadn’t played in so long.  I suspect it will stay in the game closet again for quite a while. ;)

Day 198 – July 17, 2010 :: Game Day

Mark had some friends over for D&D. One of them brought his son to hang out with Matthew. When that happens, we suspend the time limit on computer/TV time and just let the kids play.  They took full advantage. ;)

The boys were mostly on the X-Box.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word “dude” that many times in one day. They almost never call each other by name; it’s always “Dude”.

Kaylee commandeered the laptop for the day.  The boys did come and look at something she was doing at one point, but mostly they ignore each other.  I’m good with that.  It’s quieter.  ;)

Day 197 – July 16, 2010 :: Party Like an Animal

Kaylee decided to have a birthday party for her stuffed cow. She missed his “birthday” (the anniversary of the day she won him from the crane game) by a week or so, but decided to celebrate anyway.

The guest of honor.

All the guests had some sort of party accessory and their own toys to play with.

The hostess attending to the guests on the lower level.

Too bad none of the guests helped her with the cleanup afterwards. ;)

Day 196 - July 15, 2010 :: Insulation Insanity

Step 1: List a bag off the stacks and open it into wheelbarrow.

Step 2: Break up insulation. Matthew was not allowed to karate chop them anymore after he accidentally karate chopped my wrist. :b

Step 3: Load hopper. Sweat. A lot. Mark is in the attic on the other end of that green hose.

Step 4: Take break to breathe, drink water, and groan in agony. These shots were early on. We looked much worse later.

Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the 6½ hours that it took to blow in 80 bags of insulation. (We returned 20.)

We do not have a shot of the time the hose, which we had duct taped to the blower because it had the wrong fittings, came off after about the third bag, exploding insulation all over the wall and everything that was sitting by the wall. Fortunately, the blower was relatively empty at that point or it could have made a much worse mess.  I put heavy duty plastic zip ties over the duct tape once I got it put back together, and, thankfully, it held up through the rest of the process.

The initial plan was to have Kaylee help with breaking up the insulation, but wearing a dust mask freaked her out, so she hid out behind the stacks of insulation. I gave her the camera and told her she could take as many shots as she wanted.  I knew about the shots above (I took the one of Mark; I think she took the rest), but I was surprised to find the ones below. LOL

Eventually, Kaylee went inside, coming out whenever she heard the blower shut off, to clean up the empty bags and bring us water or whatever else we needed. She was a terrific helper. :)

I have to say I can’t remember the last time I sweated that much, did that much physical labor, or hurt that bad. I was a total pretzel for the next two days.  It was an agony I hope to never repeat.  But we got through it.  And it does seem to have helped with the air conditioner being able to keep up and keep the house more comfortable on these hot Texas summer afternoons. :)