There are weekends filled with video games, pajamas, and comfort food. This was not one of those weekends.
On Saturday morning we packed the boys up in the minivan and took a shopping trip to buy new shoes and a few other assorted clothing items. We got back to the house just after lunchtime, and just in time for Dean (Dina's dad) and Karen to show up. Dean was there to help out with some house projects, so over the course of the afternoon we pressure-washed the deck (that was the big project), leveled off some gopher mounds, moved and staked the big wooden swingset, and figured out why our bathroom exhaust fan wasn't working. Washing the deck was fun, though being wet and in the wind was a bit chilly later in the day. The wood is a totally different color now; it's quite amazing. This week we plan to stain the deck; it should end up looking really nice. Staking the swingset down was fun, too. We had stakes that were 2x4's cut into a point on one side, and I pounded them into the ground with a sledgehammer, then screwed the swingset to the stakes. My swinging hand was weak at the end of the day, and there's still a little residual soreness today. Maybe I should take up shovelglove to get in shape...
Sunday started out slow with coffee and breakfast. (Aside: we recently bought a Keurig coffee machine, and I like it. It's coffee on demand.) It was rainy, so we couldn't do much outside. Instead, we started getting ready for our Big House Reorganization Project. We're going to move Caden and Rohan, who are currently sleeping in our room, into their own beds in what is right now Griffin's room. Since all three boys will be sleeping in that room, there won't be room to play in there, so we're reorganizing our downstairs family room to make better use of its space as a play room.
Anyway, we moved most of the big play furniture and toys out of Griffin's room into the garage, and moved all of the toys/furniture/junk we'd accumulated in the family room into the garage as well. (Note that in this operation, my wife is the brains and I'm the brawn. She's a very good organizer; me, not so much. She mauls me in competitive Tetris.) Then we (meaning Dina) figured out how the room should be arranged, and we started moving stuff back down. We've got the play room most of the way there now...part of it is a little den area with a futon, easy chair, and TV, and the rest is toys and games. We were up pretty late. More work to come this week!
This morning I was able to carry the productivity forward. I installed a safety gate at the top of our deck stairs so Dina will be able to let the little ones play out there. I really should have worn gloves, though...it was way too wet and cold to be dealing with a metal gate. My hands were not happy.
This week we'll be continuing the BHRP, and getting the house ready for people to come over on Saturday. Should be fun!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Innovation
Apparently our bath toys just aren't cool enough. Rohan decided he needed something new during his bath tonight. Unfortunately, the nearest thing he could reach outside the tub was a full roll of toilet paper.
Granted, it was pretty cool to see the whole thing swelled up - I'll give him that. And I can't fault him for wanting to try something new. But cleanup was a pain. :-)
Granted, it was pretty cool to see the whole thing swelled up - I'll give him that. And I can't fault him for wanting to try something new. But cleanup was a pain. :-)
Monday, April 20, 2009
New update
Been kinda busy the last few weeks, so I haven't had much time for blogging, but I'll try to catch you up now.
The weekend before last was a lot of fun. On Thursday night, we had a birthday party at our house for Keefe, Gretchen's younger boy. That whole side of the family was over: Gretchen and Vidi, with Devin and Keefe; Guy and Dara, with Lizzie; and of course Dina and I with our boys. Griffin was in heaven playing with all his cousins. A very wild and excited heaven. Lizzie and Keefe spent the next two nights at our house, which was a lot of fun. On Friday I worked, but then on Saturday we all went to an Easter egg hunt at Fish Lake Park in Maple Grove. We had lunch with Grandma Cathy and Todd at a nearby Fuddrucker's (at which Todd ate the largest burger I've ever seen in person...the "one pounder" that essentially had a round loaf of bread sliced in two for a bun). The next day we went over to Dara's parents for Easter dinner. It's a little odd being invited to your wife's brother's wife's parents' place for a family meal, but we know them fairly well, and they're good people. We had lots of fun enjoying the fantastic weather and playing outside with all the kids.
On Monday we got our taxes finalized and got a nice big return. We decided to stimulate the economy a bit. More on that later.
This last weekend Dina was involved in a convention for her Mothers of Multiples group. She was attending the convention as a M.o.M., but was also putting on a scrapbooking breakout session. She had 32 people show up - pretty good! Her convention ran from Friday until Sunday, so I had the boys for the weekend again. Friday during the day I had the boys to myself, but that night my mom (Grandma Lynn) came up to help out. It's always fun to have her around; she gets along so well with all the boys. On Saturday we decided to go around shopping for a new TV with our tax return money. I didn't necessarily plan on buying that day, but wanted to start looking at screens. I ended up finding a great open box deal at Best Buy for this:
It's a 47" LCD tv from LG. It's got the features I was interested in (LCD, size, 1080p, 120Hz refresh rate, all the i/o ports I need) and it was a great price. And it looks great! We've already had a ton of fun playing games, watching movies, and watching HD TV channels.
After bringing the TV home we drove over to Elk River to my uncle Gary's house. We try to get over there each year around when he makes maple syrup. He had already collected the sap but wasn't boiling it yet since it was so dry out there; he didn't want to start a brush fire. So we just hung out, let the kids run around in the yard, and relaxed. It was a lot of fun. Plus I traded some of my homemade beer for some of his homemade maple syrup. Bartering for the win!
The next day Dina came back home, and the kids were very happy to see Mama. We had a relaxing evening around the house, which was great.
Today I overslept by an hour and a half, and missed my bus downtown. I drove to work, and found out that my company is trying to buy Sun Microsystems - whoa! More to come on that later. For now I need to get back to work. Farewell!
The weekend before last was a lot of fun. On Thursday night, we had a birthday party at our house for Keefe, Gretchen's younger boy. That whole side of the family was over: Gretchen and Vidi, with Devin and Keefe; Guy and Dara, with Lizzie; and of course Dina and I with our boys. Griffin was in heaven playing with all his cousins. A very wild and excited heaven. Lizzie and Keefe spent the next two nights at our house, which was a lot of fun. On Friday I worked, but then on Saturday we all went to an Easter egg hunt at Fish Lake Park in Maple Grove. We had lunch with Grandma Cathy and Todd at a nearby Fuddrucker's (at which Todd ate the largest burger I've ever seen in person...the "one pounder" that essentially had a round loaf of bread sliced in two for a bun). The next day we went over to Dara's parents for Easter dinner. It's a little odd being invited to your wife's brother's wife's parents' place for a family meal, but we know them fairly well, and they're good people. We had lots of fun enjoying the fantastic weather and playing outside with all the kids.
On Monday we got our taxes finalized and got a nice big return. We decided to stimulate the economy a bit. More on that later.
This last weekend Dina was involved in a convention for her Mothers of Multiples group. She was attending the convention as a M.o.M., but was also putting on a scrapbooking breakout session. She had 32 people show up - pretty good! Her convention ran from Friday until Sunday, so I had the boys for the weekend again. Friday during the day I had the boys to myself, but that night my mom (Grandma Lynn) came up to help out. It's always fun to have her around; she gets along so well with all the boys. On Saturday we decided to go around shopping for a new TV with our tax return money. I didn't necessarily plan on buying that day, but wanted to start looking at screens. I ended up finding a great open box deal at Best Buy for this:
It's a 47" LCD tv from LG. It's got the features I was interested in (LCD, size, 1080p, 120Hz refresh rate, all the i/o ports I need) and it was a great price. And it looks great! We've already had a ton of fun playing games, watching movies, and watching HD TV channels.
After bringing the TV home we drove over to Elk River to my uncle Gary's house. We try to get over there each year around when he makes maple syrup. He had already collected the sap but wasn't boiling it yet since it was so dry out there; he didn't want to start a brush fire. So we just hung out, let the kids run around in the yard, and relaxed. It was a lot of fun. Plus I traded some of my homemade beer for some of his homemade maple syrup. Bartering for the win!
The next day Dina came back home, and the kids were very happy to see Mama. We had a relaxing evening around the house, which was great.
Today I overslept by an hour and a half, and missed my bus downtown. I drove to work, and found out that my company is trying to buy Sun Microsystems - whoa! More to come on that later. For now I need to get back to work. Farewell!
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