Weekend Top Five 8/2/09

I don't believe we did five different things this weekend, so I may need to get a little creative.

Here goes:




5. Another Painting Project Complete
I know there is probably a psychological reason that I am so obsessed with painting every wall in my house, but for now I am choosing to ignore it.

As for the living room, I have been wanting to paint it since the day we moved in, over 7 years ago. And through the seven years, the walls have gotten more nasty and stained.










So Tuesday night I started with the biggest wall and continued off and on the majority of the week. I got two coats on, while also battling the summer virus that had taken hold, and trying to run a garage sale a few of the days.

I didn't take any before pictures of the room, but I went back into my archived pictures and found one of the Christmas tree in the corner a few years ago. At least you can see how the room has changed.











The color isn't really as orange as the picture looks, even though it IS a little darker than I had original anticipated.

The hallway, side entry, and front entry are up next, as soon as my muscles stop hurting from this project.

4. Lots of Family Visit With Many Changes
My brother's family came to my parents for a visit, and my sister's family and one of my step brothers' families came over as well.

The original plan was to all head over to the local Lake Michigan beach for a picnic and swimming. When we got there, the wind was insane, just about blowing the little kids over, whipping sand against our legs, and the waves had a rip tide warning posted. Not exactly an ideal beach day for 8 little kids.







So we packed the vans back up and instead headed over to a local park a little inland from the lake to set up a picnic. The kids like this little park and we managed to (mostly) evade the wind long enough to eat our picnic lunch and play.


5 of the 9 cousins having lunch






Unfortunately, it was probably less than an hour later that it started sprinkling so we packed up again, this time to head over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to play. After a treat of root beer floats and mint ice cream, the cousins all set off in different directions to play.


Noah and one of his cousins trying to feel the rain drops on their face










The big boy cousins all played well together building different things with legos, but Aaron was having a rough day. When we got to my parents, I decided to change scenery with a bath. Baths are the favorite activity for many of the kids when they go to Grandma's, so as soon as my niece found out that Aaron was in the bath, she HAD to join into the fun. I thought it was so cute that she still had her bathing suit on from the beach earlier and just hoped right in. Unfortunately, Aaron couldn't resist his "dumping" obsession and completely emptied out my step mom's BRAND NEW bottle of children's shampoo.

Yes, we'll bring more to her the next time we visit :)

3. Surprise For My Dad
My father served in the military before I was born. I think he has always been very proud of his service, as should any person who has served at any time past or present. I remember vaguely a lone picture I have seen of my father long before I was born, sitting in a jeep during those years, which is really the only connection I have to that time in his life. There were some pieces missing from his past that through a small amount of detective work over the last few months, I was able to retrieve. I was so excited to be able to present these missing pieces to him on Saturday. It made me feel really good to be able to bring that kind of happiness to him, since he has done so much for me through the years.

2. Sunday Work Day
Since my bell group is starting rehearsals up this week, I had A LOT of work to do to get ready. So Sunday morning, I left all three boys at home and headed out to church. I worked on bell folders from 9 AM until 5:30 PM when I headed home. I got music colored, hole punched, sorted, and labeled through Christmas. It is such a large amount of work, but I actually really enjoyed having a day to myself to just sit and get it all done without interruption. It doesn't happen very often and now I feel comfortable heading into rehearsal on Wednesday.

1. Daddy's Day
This is only from what I have heard about the boys' day, but from what I understand, they were quite busy. They went to McD's for lunch, the wooden park in Jenison, and followed it up with a trip to the city pool. It's no wonder that they needed to veg in front of the TV when they got home. All that fun takes major recuperation.

Daddy and Aaron on the swings at the park on Saturday





The Week Ahead:
As I already mentioned, we start rehearsals for bells on Wednesday, which I am quite excited about. Regarding that, I also need to spend some time researching other items we need for the start up of this year. We may try a trip to the beach again since the cousins are staying with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days. I think Deb and I may try a garage sale again later in the week, but I am not very hopeful after the dismal result from last week. Other than that, I am hoping for a fairly low key week and just enjoying these last few weeks of summer before school.

I've been lax in commenting on everyone else's posts lately. I apologize but I will for sure come visit if you let me know you posted your weekend.