4th of July Parade

Saturday, July 4, 2015

We went back to our old neighborhood for the annual 4th of July Parade and pancake breakfast. It was fun seeing some of our old friends and neighbors again and visiting with them. Luke was at a parade with his band that morning so he was not with us.

Last Day of Elementary School

Thursday, July 2, 2015

M&M and Luke got out of school around the first week of June, but the younger kids with the year-round schooling had to go until July 2nd this year! We were so ready to be done by the time July hit! Kay's class is the only one that really had an awards program for the parents to come to. The other classes just had a little ceremony for the students. DH was able to come to the school with me for Kay's program and then we got pictures of the girls with their teachers.

Kitty's Science Project

June 2015

Kitty's teacher usually makes her students do a science project but this year she made it optional - I'm not sure if it is because she assigned it late or she just decided to do things differently this year. So Kitty was not required to do one but we decided to do it anyways. She chose to do a project on how food coloring added to water affects the color of flowers. I bought some white daisies at the store and we put one group of flowers in plain water and then added food coloring to the water of the other flower groups. We also had two flowers that we tried splitting the stem down the middle and placing each half in a different color.

I wish we had had more time because by the time Kitty needed to write it up the flowers were just barely turning colors and the two-color ones hadn't really changed much at all. It was kind of neat seeing them turn different colors though.

Before picture

This is the setup we had the flowers in.

The 2-color flowers before.

The 2-color flowers after

The flowers at the end of the project - it helped to put a white background behind them so you could see the color better.

New Carpet

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

When we moved into our new house, there appeared to be 3 rooms that still had the original carpet from when the home was built - two of the bedrooms upstairs and my office. We knew that we would wanted to replace that carpet when we had the funds and so I was on the lookout for a replacement for it. We really like the carpet that is in our great room - off the kitchen - so I was trying to find something similar to that. It is a super soft carpet that is a neutral beige color, but with multiple colors in it, not a solid color.

One day I was looking at Home Depot and found something that is pretty close to an exact match. Then they had a sale going on with free installation and a percentage off of the total if you opened a Home Depot credit card. So we decided to go forward with it for the two bedrooms. (We are looking at either hardwood or laminate for my office. I don't want carpet in there.)

Someone came out to measure the rooms and then they ordered the carpet and pad and then we set up an installation date. We decided to remove the old carpet and padding ourselves to save some money. So when the installer showed up on Wednesday morning, it was a pretty quick and smooth job for him. Since everything had to be moved out of the rooms, we decided to swap the room that MJ and Kay are sleeping in and setup our old queen bed in the other room for a guest bedroom. (Luke and M&M have their own bedrooms downstairs and Blondie & Kitty share a room downstairs.)

Some before pictures - this one has the carpet removed with the pad still in.

It's hard to tell in this picture but the carpet was pretty worn right around the doorway into the rooms.

Getting ready to pull up the old carpet

The bedroom furniture in the great room!

New padding installed

It doesn't look too different in the pictures but it looks and feels totally different in person!

Slip-N-Slide

Friday, June 26, 2015

The girls had some fun playing with the slip-n-slide in our backyard. We set it on the hill on the north side of our house.

Kay's projects

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Kay had to do a research project for school on any subject she wanted. She chose to learn about horses. She then had to present what she learned to her class. Here is the poster that she put together for it:

Kay was given an art project for her birthday from one of her friends where you make a plaster mold of your hand prints and then you paint it. DH helped her with the plaster mold part and then she painted this underwater scene all by herself:

No more braces!

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Luke got his braces off today! We are now all braces free (at least until we have another one that needs them). M&M is super jealous because she didn't get hers off until her Junior year of high school. The orthodontist gave him a clear retainer that he made that day but he wants us to come back and get a different one in a couple of weeks. He also glued a retainer to the back of Luke's bottom teeth.

Before and after pictures

Father's Day 2015

Sunday, June 21, 2015

DH opened some gifts after church and then we went over to my parents' house for dinner.

Pile of girls

Friday, June 19, 2015

The youngest 4 being goofy!

DH's birthday

Friday, June 19, 2015

DH and I went out to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday and then came home and opened presents and had some cake - although neither of us were terribly hungry after our dinner!

This is a present that I had wrapped to give to DH for Christmas, but then ended up keeping it to give to him on his birthday instead. Notice the Christmas wrapping paper. :)

A crazy chocolate/cheesecake/oreo cake that I made for DH.

I'm not sure why I am sitting in front of the cake instead of DH.

This is a Happy Birthday message that Kay left for DH on the driveway! It says "YAY! HAPPY BRITHBAY"

Lightning

Monday, June 15, 2015

DH was able to get a few lightning strikes on her camera. Unfortunately he had some trees in the way.

Strawberries and Cheesecake

Monday, June 15, 2015

We have a small strawberry patch on the north side of our house and I used them to make a strawberry topping for some cheesecake that I made. It was super rich and delicious!