House Update: Grammie and Pey Visit

My parents were able to visit!! Even though they live so close (only 2 hours), we don't get to see them like we should!

The kids were sooo excited as they waited at the window for them to arrive!! It's always nice to have kids running to meet you, get excited squeals and big hugs;)

You can imagine the extra squeals as Pey volunteered to take the kids for a spin in the Big Red Fun!!

They all loved the ride:)

After plenty of riding and some lunch we headed to the new house!!!!

 My parents had already been to the property pre-house but were never able to walk through it when it was on display and hadn't been able to travel down to see it set-up, either. Thankfully they got to see it all cleaned up and almost looking ready for us:)

We were all surprised to see the frame and start of the roof of the carport!

It was massive! When we've talked about the carport it's been about the area it was to cover on the ground, like how much room the cars will need and whether to allow some non-parking space... not how high it was, or "seemed"!

Then we were able to walk through the house with  Grammie and Pey. It's been nice being able to walk through the house and start  to plan the rooms a little bit!

 Nate found plenty to do while the adults wandered around!! Even a new hiding place!

If you are interested....
this is the view of my front yard (toward the right) from the front porch!! LOL... not quite "home" yet!

30 more days until the house will be completed!! And then we'll be talking about the moving date.... the waiting period is almost over!

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Down with the Trampoline

We have NO idea when the house is going to be ready!

A few weeks ago, our contractor slipped in a conversation with Brian and said his crew would be out of the house in two weeks!!

When Brian brought that time frame up in a conversation, the contractor immediately corrected himself and said 60 days! Booo!! But like we've been told there are always things that take longer or new problems...

like the plumber quitting due to distance issues
the outside construction plans changing
legal documentation needed for more utilities to get to the house

Just a part of building.... I now know;)

But.....

just in case it is WEEKS and no longer months before our house is ready for us we are starting to  prepare:) And we started with the BIG stuff.... LOL!!

It was a sad day when out trampoline came down...

obviously  the kids didn't mind, too much!!

They even enjoyed washing some of the toys that had been in the "homemade sand box" (LOL!!) under the trampoline!

What a difference though with the trampoline gone!

It will be interesting to see how much longer we have until the BIG moving day:)

More Wordless Wednesday at  NapTime MomTog, 5 Minutes for Mom,  Mama to 4 Blessings, Go Graham Go

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CRASH

Brian received Jenga as a gift for Christmas! It's a game he had been wanting for a while... one of those "we'll play after the kids go to bed" games. But they begged and thought they could do it!! They were right:) We've had a great time and have played again and again already;)

{pretty}

All the Jenga blocks stacked.

All the family playing together.

{funny}

Daddy, impressed at how the kids' Jenga skills.

Nate preparing for the crash.

{happy}

Smiles everywhere.

{real}

No matter how careful you are...

 

the blocks come CRASHing down!!

You hang your head

smile...
and stack them back up again.

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Gallon Man

**Please check out my Shutterfly giveaway to win a set of 25 cards from Shutterfly:)

This week one of Anna's math lessons was to learn about capacity and the different liquid measurements. Since I STINK at remembering these (I am glad I'm a homeschooling Mom so I can learn it again), I decided to add to the lesson!!

So we made Gallon Man:) You Tube "gallon man song" to get an explanation of him.

1. I pre-cut all the pieces for the kids. I used just 1 piece of construction paper as the gallon "body" and then cut the pieces based on that size. So for the "quart" cut the construction paper into 4 pieces, the "pint" cut into 8 pieces and the "cup" into 16 pieces!

2. Then I laid the pieces on the table one color at a time and had the girls figure out how many of each color they needed to cover the "gallon body".

3. After fitting each color, I had the kids label the pieces with the name! I thought it would be helpful in remembering the pieces to write them over, and over and over:) CHris was busy with finishing other work, so I wrote his labels for him!

4. We laid the pieces out so that they each understood HOW to glue it all together! Also good to see the spacing and that these guys are big... we used the school table and the dining room table;)

5. They got to work gluing;)

6. I loved how they turned out and the kids have had fun with them!! They were having them race down the stairs later in the evening... LOL!!

7. Tomorrow I'm planning to use them to review and there will probably be some more stair racing;) I'm hoping one of these guys makes it to the new school room in the new house;)

I also have a giveaway from Shutterfly coming this week.. very good... especially if you haven't finished your Christmas cards yet:)

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday @ We are That Family  check out lots of great ideas.

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Nate versus The Apple

As you can tell from the header... I really liked the apple pictures we did last week:) 

But as I put together the collage I quickly realized that I didn't have any of Nate with an apple :(

So we took some and it turned out to be a fun little "photo shoot" :)

He wouldn't hand it over so we could go on a walk!

So the apple came with us;)

I think Nate won that battle;)

This is what he finally handed to me.... all he had eaten!

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Weekly Wrap -Up: VBS, Not Out Much & Water Day Zoom

We went out to dinner with the VBS mission team last night. It was fun:) Mealtimes are always busy with 4 kids, so we had more opportunity to talk after the meal when the kids were busy playing at the outdoor park ...

or riding the rollercoaster with Daddy!

LOL!! I knew there was a reason we don't take him out much :)

And today was WATER Day at VBS.... a very good thing since it was HOT, HOT, HOT outside!! I used the opportunity to practice using the zoom I purchased with my camera... better than getting my camera soaked;)

Here are my keepers...

It was great practice:) I got some other great shots that we'll get to use for our finale slideshow that we all look forward to on Friday night;)

It's been a great VBS week!!! The kids have loved going in the mornings.... has made our whole morning routine TV-free which I hope I can continue into next week and into our morning routine for good:)

I have loved helping (the little bit I have done) the team minister to the students coming every day!! The kids of our community are awesome! And I'm soo thankful that they were willing to come out every morning!! The teens are serving and leading in a couple activities.

The middle group is working hard on their lessons.

And the little ones are busy with all sorts of fun in their class too;)

Which leads me to the VBS Team from VA!! They ROCK... did I mention they were a Senior Group?? You'd never know that most are retired if you looked at all they have done each morning with the kids and each afternoon preparing:) They have been such an encouragement to me and have loved on my kids:)

It's been a very fun week:)

Linking up to Weekly Wrap-up;)

Threading Beads

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