The playhouse project continues

If you missed it, you can read about the history of our playhouse here.

 

Sorry, but there are lots of pictures in this post. We have a lot of family members that want to see the process of restoring the playhouse.

 First step, tearing off what we knew needed to be replaced...so we could see everything that needed to be replaced.

 Megan couldn't wait to help.

 Joey did his best to help.

 Well, for being 40+ years old, only the front needed to be replaced, not bad.

 Joey was very good at following directions when Mark needed help.

 It took some time, but we finally found someone that had a connection to a friend selling barn siding (not cheap stuff!) With new wood purchased, they could finally start closing in the front again.

 Joey liked this view better...

 Anyone else think reminded of Charlie Brown looking at this pic!?!

 Eventually, both kids ended up in the playhouse. I think they are really going to like it when it is done.

 New shingles! For some reason, Megan and Joey really liked this part.

 Just waiting to hand Dad another shingle when he asked for one...soon this turned into a game seeing how far they could throw a cut shingle (my kids are weird)

 A view from inside. Joey LOVES peeking through the windows and a little spy hole in the back. Pretty sure we do this every time we are in our backyard :)

 Let's paint prime! Normally, when I paint, I quickly slap on some primer then get to painting. But with this, I took my time and put a ton of primer on the dry wood. FYI old barn siding takes a LONG time to get all of the texture covered properly...a LONG time!

 Joey used a lot of primer too. The preferred painting technique of a 3 year old: scoop paint like a spoon, smear 1/2 of it on the wall while the other 1/2 drips over everything. For the priming part, I didn't care...let him get messy!

 Megan on the other hand, she had a good system going. But like most kids, she was done after about 20 minutes, so I was left to finish the priming myself.

Side note: the paint brushes the kids used came from MY Grandpa Joe's painting room :) I know it isn't much, but I know he had a part in restoring this playhouse too...because if he were still here, he would be doing everything he could to help with this project (Yes, I am crying while I type this.)

 So here she is...rebuilt, primed and ready for the finishing touches! The kids are already having fun playing inside, so I know when she is done, lots of hours will be spent in this little playhouse.

A sneak peak...we still have more to do, but 'she will be done soon.

Not a bad way to end our Summer

Labor Day weekend is always our last weekend of Summer break. This year, 4 of Megan and Joey's cousins were in town to enjoy 1 more family filled weekend before school started.

 I can't express how it melts my heart when I see the older cousins play with my kiddos. Teenagers might be stinkers sometimes, but deep down, they are good kids that love their family. Conary and Joey were both having a hard time adjusting to long days filled with playing early mornings!

 

 Of course, the last weekend of summer was filled with good times at the lake!


The kids even convinced Papa to take the pontoon boat out to take a tour of the lake and to stop off to swim in the deep part.

 Lots of people means lots of food! While picking up corn at a road side stand, it was "cheaper" to buy a bushel of corn than a few dozen ears. So we had lots of yummy meals using corn but first...we had to shuck the whole bushel. Lots of helpers...we got it done quick!

 Papa had built a ladder game set to have at the lake, so naturally, we turned it into a competition! We had a bracket system set and about 3 hours later, we had a winner...I forgot who won (not really) It was fun and it did the trick to keep everyone happy.

 Mud MONSTERS!!!

 I guess in Canada, they eat chucks of watermelon like cavemen...my kids were just doing what their cousins were doing. I don't have the picture, but try to visualize 10 of us, standing in the grass, slurping watermelon...it was a funny sight!

 All of the kids are very creative and it was only a matter of time before they made up something new to do. Here is Joey being Joey :)

 

And here is Joey learning about physics :)

Megan taking her turn. I believe after this, they started the rule that the last one to slide has to pour water on the mat for the next person. They all did this for a long time...it was fun to watch all of the kids playing and having fun together.

 

So, I would say that the last weekend of Summer was great, I will hold these memories close, because big changes come next year...Conary will be off to University. Our Summers will always be different, not bad, just different, so this weekend was extra special.

A day in the life of Joey!

Joey is a silly kid that likes to move and play. He is also very helpful and loves to have a job to do! Megan is starting school tomorrow, so I know that this means a BIG change for Joey, but he does well on days when it is just him and me. Fingers crossed that he does this well once school starts for Megan.

 Typically, Joey gets up, eats almost instantly and then moves to the toy room to play. I have noticed that over the last month, his imagination has bloomed and he can create new toys out of anything. On this particular day, he was using his zoo as a garbage truck!

 I needed to make some zucchini bread and Joey has a weird obsession with stirring things, so I let him do all of the hard work!

 While the bread was baking, I needed to empty the dishwasher...Joey took it upon himself to help put the kid dish away set the countertop...with matching plates and bowls :)

 He even found an area for the surplus dishes (because you know, you can't have a pink plate with a green bowl!)

 This was his stance after he got all of the kid dishes out of the dishwasher. Now add his cute little, "Ah, me did a good job." Yep, I would say he is a confident little dude!

His finished blueberry zucchini bread <--- 1="" :="" a="" baking="" bread="" cooking="" cups="" fall="" for="" good="" have="" he="" helper="" his="" i="" in="" is="" it="" like="" link="" little="" looks="" lots="" of="" only="" p="" perfect="" pinterest="" plenty="" projects.="" proud="" recipe="" recipes="" so="" sooo="" sugar="" thanks="" the="" to="" try.="" used="" was="" we="" will="">
So as you can see, Joey loves to help and loves to play...now if I could only get him potty trained, he would be perfect ;)  

Birthday girl :)

Before I start this post, I just want to take a moment to remind you all how precious life is. Sadly, the day before Megan's birthday a relative of ours passed away in a car accident. She was a beautiful young lady, 22 yrs old, and she had nothing but happy thoughts of a bright promising future. She is loved by many and will be missed. So yes, Megan's birthday was somber but I will always look back Brittany's passing as a reminder to cherish each day and focus on what is good. Hug your kiddos tight each night, you cannot say "I love you" too much and spend time making memories :)

 

So you will recall that our trip to Cedar Point was Megan and Joey's birthday gift (because they don't need anymore toys!!!) So the actual day of Megan's birthday, we stayed home and everything was low key. A perfect birthday in my opinion.

 We made "snow" for the kids to play with. (some magic crystal things that expand in water that resembles snow.)

 Nothing like a birthday bike ride! (simple pleasures...I love it!)

 And of course, a birthday cake made by me. The only thing Megan asked for was a rainbow cake. A few years back, I made a cake that was rainbow on the inside, so I didn't want to do that again. But if you search "rainbow cake" in Pinterest, that is all you will find. So again, I figured out a plan that would work and Megan loved it!

 We invited Grandma and Papa Schutte over for dinner (we had a b-day celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Berthold the night before.) Grandma found a crown and Megan and she was more than excited to wear it.

 Keeping with our simple birthday (we always do) Megan got a 1 of a kind gift from Grandma and Papa...a flower box to go on the play house built by Papa! Now, I know right now she sees it as just a cool flower box, buy as the years go on, Megan will understand how special this gift is :) She also got money to by paint for the play house (Do you see a theme here!?!)

And last, but not least, Happy 3rd Birthday to Piggie! Megan LOVES that she shares a birthday with her favorite stuff animal, so of course she asked me to make her a cake. Marshmallows and leftover frosting...quick and easy and it meant the world to Megan. Keeping things simple made this day extra special for all of us.

Cedar Point Trip!!!

Mark and I have been talking for awhile about taking the kids to Cedar Point and when we noticed that Megan could go on most rides, we decided this was going to be the year we took them for the 1st time.

 We planned on going to CP the week between Joey and Megan's birthdays, to avoid any favoritism. As our original planned day got closer, it was calling for rain and thunderstorms, but the next day looked perfect. So we delayed out trip a day, no big deal. We made the 2 hour drive the night before 1. To make the trip a little more special (This was our first trip with just the 4 of us.) 2. Because waking up early, driving 2 hours, playing all day, then driving 2 hours home...with 2 young kids...did NOT sound like fun. Our drive was uneventful and just as the "When are we going to be there?" questions started, so did the rainbows. It was kind of fun, the last 30 minutes of our drive we saw at least, 5 different rainbows. Megan loved it! This rainbow was over the main parking lot at CP, so Megan was going back and forth looking at a rainbow...roller coaster...rainbow...roller coaster.

 We got settled into our hotel room and then took a walk to "get the wiggles out." The path from our hotel to the other hotel with food, was along Lake Erie. I saw a perfect photo spot and asked the kids to climb up the rocks. They were too excited to take a nice photo, but I still think this one turned out well.

 Yep, that's a roller coaster feet away from our balcony. Obviously, the kids were too excited to go to bed right after dinner, so our compromise was that they could watch the roller coaster for a bit once they had pj's on. Soon it was bedtime and both kids settled in nicely. Shockingly, once the doors and windows were closed, we couldn't hear the CP noise at all.

 Finally...we are here! By staying at a CP hotel, we got in an hour early, so our first stop was Camp Snoopy. Side Notes: My phone was blurry thanks to the sunscreen still left on my fingers. 10 years ago, it would have taken a lot to be excited about Camp Snoopy!

 The hotel lied to us...Camp Snoopy was NOT part of the open an extra hour (I swear it was listed!!!) So we walked around the park looking at things and trying to find anything all of us could ride together. After 40 minutes of walking, Joey found a circle of chairs and was vary excited to sit down.

 Finally, Camp Snoopy...round 2. Megan and Joey's 1st roller coaster!

 We checked out the rest of Camp Snoopy, where most of the rides the kids could do on their own. Megan was a great big sister, helping Joey on and off the rides.

 Megan loved that she could control the plane going up and down. Joey didn't care, he was just happy.

 Not too many kids at CS early in the day.

 Needing a break from kiddie seatbelts (having to wait for a CP employee to unlock MY seatbelt got old real quick!) We set off to one of the "family rides" Megan wanted to go on the Antique Cars

 I didn't get to see her face, but Mark said the look of concentration on her face was priceless! She was so concerned with steering and not going too fast, that we had to tell her to go faster because the car behind us was catching up. We never told her the metal track would keep the car in place :)

 Joey picked the next family ride...the train. Both kids enjoyed

Now onto Snoopy Land (Snoop Doggie-Dog land according to Mark) Wonder what the difference is between Camp Snoopy and Snoopy Land? Yeah, me too. They are pretty much the same, except the rides are different colors/themes. Megan and Joey didn't care, they were excited to see a whole new area of rides just for them.

 Joey LOVED Peanuts Road Rally trucks We...yes WE rode this one a lot! And apparently, this video is illegal...no phones or cameras on ANY CP rides. Now keep in mind, I was sitting in the back of a fully automated kiddie ride, strapped in by my seatbelt (that only comes unlocked after a CP employee physically unlocks it) and I was 3 feet off of the ground. So after I took this video and had my phone put away...I was nicely reminded phones are not allowed on rides :) (Yes, I understand why, but it honestly never crossed my mind that, that rule was for kiddie rides with a top speed on 1.5 MPH)

 Joey was starting to "hit the wall" so we needed to move onto something new. So of course we shove him on a huge Giant Wheel Waiting in line he was getting really nervous (AKA tired) but once it started he was all smiles.

Megan was all smiles too...pretty sure she was smiling all day.

By 5:00, Joey was pretty much done. He never really got cranky, but he was ready to stop walking. Megan and Mark were off riding bigger roller coasters, so Joey and I were left in Snoopy Ville to pass the time. Snoopypolooza also included karaoke...kid karaoke! But being the awesome mom I am, I knew there was one more kid area Joey hadn't visited yet.

 He got another burst of energy when he saw more things for him to ride on!

 Trucks, lights and horns...this boy was in heaven!

 I am shocked he didn't get sick on this. The bar on his lap controlled the helicopter going up and down...Joey did NOT make smooth transitions. His quick "forward/back/forward/back" meant up/down/up/down on repeat, for the whole ride. It was funny to watch! But he loved it!

I am sure you noticed, that Megan was missing from a lot of photos, well that's because she wasn't with me (the keeper of the camera) for a good chunk of the day. Mark and Megan went off to ride the big roller coasters. Mark made sure to go in a certain order, slowly getting bigger, faster etc. By the end of the day, these were the roller coasters Megan went on. Mine Ride, Blue Streak, Gemini, Iron Dragon, Cork Screw, and she finish the night off with Magnum-XL200 The picture above, her excited/proud Dad had to buy after they got off of the Magnum. After each coaster Megan was excited, a little scared but quickly asked what she could ride next :) She is a little dare devil...our future trips to CP are going to be fun!