Emily as a Driver

So we had our first driver's ed. meeting this week. We got all the information about the process in our state. Emily starts driver's ed. June 16, the week after school gets out. They start driving on the first day, so I decided to get her behind the wheel in the big parking lot of the middle school up the street from us. She did really well, actually. She's a little nervous about driving, but as I told her, that's not really a bad thing as long as she doesn't freak out. She could pull into a parking spot with our van and get in between the lines, which, as she pointed out, was better than some of the parking jobs people do at the grocery store. She made it up to about 25 mph tops going around the lot. I forgot to have her practice turning the car on and off, which seems so simple, but actually is bad if you do things out of order. I had to teach her to only use her right foot on the pedals, hands at 10 and 2, etc. Her experience is so different than mine because I was driving myself to school (and driver's ed) with a stick-shift car at age 14. We just had a lot more opportunity on a farm to drive. Overall, she did really well, and asked to go out again. This time I may ask Mike to go with her - he's a better driver than me!

The Birthday Dinner of Choice

Avritt's goal this year was to eat a whole cantaloupe. While he didn't make it, he did eat most of melon on the platter in this picture. That was a half of a cantaloupe. He really loves cantaloupe.

The Miniature Golf Gang

Watch out for these guys on the course!

Avritt lines up a shot.

On this hole, the golf balls lined up just like this on the lower green after all of their first shots. Alex ended up winning the round.

The Race

Avritt is in the lead.

Pyscho lady in the yellow and blue car cuts off Alex. Later in the race she forces him into the guard rail around a corner. He survived with only some bruises, and a story to tell.

Avritt rounding the corner on the last lap - he kept his lead the entire race. He drives well, and knows how to make the turns. It didn't hurt that he was the first one out on the track, either. :)

The Line-up

Alex

Jaret


Avritt

Max

Batting Cage at the Birthday Party

Birthday Boy

View of the Loft

The top picture is a view of the loft as you are walking into the lower basement area.

Entryway Closet

I know this is boring, but I'm being thorough in the documentation process. :)

View of the Stairs

Stairs Opened Up

You can finally see what the traffic flow will be going down the stairs. The studs haven't been reworked yet, but when I came home from work today, the wall was gone. There will be an opening going straight down into the entryway.

We have been putting the cats in Emily's room if the builders are working in the stair area, but I didn't know they were going to be tearing out that wall today, so the cats weren't in there. I couldn't find them anywhere when I got home. The workers told me the last they saw the cats, they were high-tailing it up the stairs away from the demolition. I found them hiding under the couch, cowering in fear. I guess we didn't need to worry about them getting in the way of the builders, as long as they are making lots of noise. Now we don't have a way of blocking off the basement from the cats, however. We'll see as time goes on what we will have to do.

Framing for the Loft in Playroom

The loft in the playroom got framed in today. Underneath the loft will be a spot for the trapset. There will be a railing that will enclose the upper part. The kids will get into the loft from the landing at the top of the stairs. There is an opening in the wall, and a ship ladder will be built there.

Details of the Boys' Room

The top picture shows one side of the boys' room. On the left side of the picture, there will be a window seat in that area (the framing for the pocket door in the laundry room is propped up in there right now - the builders put it there to get it out of the way) and in the middle there's a cavity for shelving. On the right side against the back wall is a little nook for Avritt's bed with spots for built-in shelving in the walls on either side.

The bottom picture shows the other side of the room. On the left side of the picture is a matching nook for Isaac's bed, with built-in shelves. Beside that is the walk-in closet. The orange ladders are sitting in what will be the bathroom.

Isaac's Baseball Game

Way to go, number 11!

Construction Progress

This picture shows what I saw when I came home at 11:30 today to check in. As you stand in the front room of the lower basement, with your back to the road, this is what you will see. Four doors will open into the hallway. The laundry room (there will be a pocket door for that room) and bathroom are on the right, Emily's room is on the left, and the boys' room is straight ahead.

When I came down at 3:30 pm to deliver chocolate chip cookies (the crew gets them freshly baked most every day), The door to the boys' room had been framed in, and they were working on bulkheads and ceilings.

This is a view looking through the walls of Emily's room.

This is looking the opposite way down the hallway. This is standing in the boys' room and looking back toward the pond. The space in the hallway on the right will be filled with cabinets, shelves, and a counter for folding laundry.

Kima Claims the Couch

After avoiding the couch when it came from Texas (Mike took it home with all the other stuff from his Mom's estate), the cats have finally warmed up to it. We will be getting new furniture eventually in the living room, but this couch and the matching love seat are a little step up from the couch that Mike had before we were married and which we had used for over 15 years. That couch is now in the office.

Walls Framed In

These pictures show the beginnings of the rooms in the basement. The top picture shows the laundry room on the right, the bathroom in the middle, and the boys' closet on the left. The boys' closet will be located in their room, which hasn't been framed in yet. The second picture shows what the hallway back to that area will look like. The door to the boys' room will be straight ahead from that view, and Emily's room will be on the left, which isn't shown in the picture.