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Stephen

Family-filled Saturday

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Yesterday was one of my favourite family days in a while.

It wasn’t anything spectacular but it was all of us for the whole day, doing a bunch of little things together.

We started off by heading out to our favourite Tim Hortons, in Dartmouth Crossing, for breakfast. We all had something fairly breakfast-y, except for X, that is. He had a frosted cinnamon bun. Looked really good but also looked like we needed to place some restrictions on breakfast food for next time. Of course, X didn’t seemed too worried about the nutritional content of his meal. 😉

After that, we went to Toys R Us to ogle the Legos, and then try the boys on different-sized bicycles before hitting up Kijiji for some deals.

After that we went to Superstore for some quick groceries and then to OPEN BANK ACCOUNTS FOR THE BOYS!

They were so excited. It took way longer than expected—MANY forms for their little hands to sign—but they were quite patient, and the gentleman at PC Financial was really great keeping them interested enough in what he was doing. And now, they are proud owners of their very own bank cards. 🙂

Boys got new bank accounts and shiny new cards too. :)

Boys got new bank accounts and shiny new cards too. 🙂

After that, we came home and had a nice relaxing lunch on the back deck, followed by a full afternoon of yard work.

The boys were extremely helpful. I had to repair our gate, that had blown off an embarrassingly long time ago, while Tam tackled the garden and other lawn work. The boys helped me pry nails, saw wood, and screw boards into place, and helped Tam move moss from our yard over into the medicine wheel they’ve been working on.

After that, it was six o’clock. They day had flown by. So, we did the only thing happy but exhausted parents should* do: picked up Hot-and-Ready pizza from Little Caesars. 🙂

We all chowed on the “za” while the boys watched a Hot Wheels movie until bedtime.

An all-around, awesome day.

Love, love.

*by “should”, I mean that’s all we had the energy for. ?

Your bum looks funny

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Me (stepping out of the shower): Oh, hey kiddo. Did you have a good sleep?

X: Daddy’s bum looks funny.

Me: What? It does? What do you mean?

X: It looks like this… (turns away and pulls his pants down) …but three of them — all stuck together.

Me: Three of them?

X: Yup! (pulls pants up and turns back around) But only two of L’s. His bum is bigger.

:)

front deck: day 4

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Just a quick update…

The workers got here at 7:30 am again this morning and started right into it. One of them had to leave in the morning to finish off another job commitment (started before our deck) so, progress was a bit slower than usual. Still, by the end of the day, all the deck railings were completed and the stairs were installed. All that’s left are the stair railings and the lattice-work underneath.

Day 4 - Almost done

So. Close. 🙂

[stephen]

 

front deck: day 3

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Okay… so, I just realized that even though this is the post for “front deck: day 3”, it’s really only the second day given “day 1” had zero activity.

No big.

Today the workers showed up at 7:30 am, on the nose, to get started early. The workers had to wear gloves so their hands didn’t freeze. Eeesh! Goodbye warm days.

When they first started we had no deck and the roof was being held up by angled supports. By the time we headed out, a little after lunch, the workers had almost completed the framing…

Movin’ right along…

We were gone for a few hours for a bit of birthday fun (our Lucas turned 7 today 🙂 ) and came back just as the workers were driving away. They were nice enough to stop and get out to talk us through everything they had done (A LOT!) and what they had left to do.

Day 3-2 Deck Progress

The original stairs were treacherously steep (94 year old house) so, the new ones have to be set back an additional 14″ to meet code. That’s no big, but the gentlemen working our deck need to do a bit of figuring for where the stairs meet the ground.

All-in-all a solid day.

The workers will back again first thing tomorrow morning. Very much looking forward the day’s progress. 🙂

[stephen]

front deck: day 2

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Okay! Now we’re talkin’.

So, the workers showed up today a little after 9:00 AM and started dismantling the ol’ front deck. It’s safe to say that we are not going to miss it. 🙂

(…thus the reasons for the deck’s replacement)

The boys didn’t mind though. For them it was like their own little dinner and a movie. Only it was breakfast… and construction… with a pretty predictable plot.

And this next images is pretty much how things looked at the end of the day…

Soon after this picture was taken they dug the holes for the new deck footings and brought over the cement truck to distract the boys for another good chunk of time.

Needless to say, the day provided oodles of entertainment for the boys and their friends. The rain had started to kick in around this point so there wasn’t a whole lot more they could do on the actual deck. And given the 50+ mm of rain we’re supposed to be getting over the next 24 hours, that might be all that gets done until Thursday.

Doesn’t matter. It’s so nice to finally see some actual progress on our home.

More to come. We’ll keep ya posted. 🙂

[stephen]

[UPDATE]

Snapped another picture on the way home today. Give a good view of the progress so far. 🙂

20111006-004312.jpg

front deck: day 1

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Well, I left for work this morning with the front of our house looking like this:

20111004-071509.jpg

When I got home, this is what I was greeted with:

20111003-235356.jpg

Pretty snazzy, eh? They did a great job brightening up that sky. 🙂

Okay… so, clearly the renos did not start as scheduled. Still, I’m hopeful that things will start today. Although, we are supposed to get dumped on by generous amounts of rain today so, perhaps I should just be hopeful that things get started at all this week.

Regardless, we will update on the progress when we can.

TTFN

[stephen]

introducing “the shards”

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Well, here we are finally, our family journal is up and running.

The original plan was to have everything set up before for the beginning of the school year so we could take you all through our latest adventures in homeschooling and/or general shenanigans. Unfortunately, technical hiccups with domain name transfers and whatnot, delayed things a few weeks.

But fear not! Now that the shards are finally online, we’re ready to rock the interwebs.

So, since we completely missed the start of the school year, we’ve decided that the first few updates will chronicle the long-overdue dismantling and reconstruction of our front deck, set to start first thing in the morning. 🙂

[stephen]