Fun at the park

I THINK spring is finally here, and I took the kids over to the park close to our house to enjoy some late afternoon sunshine. :) Rachel loves to be outside (she doesn't always get to go out when the big kids do since she needs a little more direct supervision!) and she tries her best to keep up with Gavin & Abby!!

Abby is a little monkey at the park! She tries things that cautious Gavin might have attempted only last summer. She doesn't need any encouragement to try something - I just turn around and she's doing it!

Looks like we'll have another reader on our hands soon...

Rachel was finished her snack and picked up Gavin's Big Book of Trivia Fun for some light reading while she was waiting for mommy to wipe her hands! ;)

"Take a picture of MEEEE, Mommy!"

Abby loves to have her picture taken, no matter what she's doing. ('Take a picture of me putting on my socks, Mom!' 'Mom! Get a picture of me looking at this paper!')

My attempt at Mother's Day pictures...

Man, oh man, getting more than one little kid to cooperate for pictures is practically impossible!! :)

On Mother's Day morning, I got the kids all dressed and only realized afterwards that they were all in shades of blue and white. Clearly a sign that I was supposed to take pictures!! ;)

Rachel wanted nothing to do with her brother and sister, prefering to run down the road instead, chasing after the neighbor's cat. It was also all of about +3 degrees outside, so everyone was complaining how cold they were! Sigh.

Maybe in 20 years I'll forget what a hassle it was to try to get decent pictures of these cuties!!

Work in the basement...

Our basement was 'finished' when we moved in, but there were a lot of things that were not done really well. The drywalling was a little sloppy, the baseboard was some "wood-look" plastic, and most of the door frames weren't finished. Oh - and the couple of doors/windows that were finished were stained a deep red color. Not to mention the orange/gold carpet! ;) I've always planned to finish and fix the doors and windows, but I guess I just don't spend enough time down there for it to quite irritate me into action!

I finally decided about a week ago that I was going to JUST DO IT! Actually, I decided I was going to put new baseboards on (we took off the old ones about a year ago when we put the new carpet in), but realized that of course I couldn't accurately cut baseboard when there were missing door frames. So...door frames it was.

Here's a few before and after pictures...the hall closet before (no framing at all, lovely brown plastic folding curtain):




And the hall closet after...

Family room windows...

The family room windows didn't have any frames on them either. It's amazing the difference it makes!!! :)

Before (well, I had already primed one window before I remembered to take a picture!!):

After (without the blinds put back up):