A Busy Week

It has been a busy week with Grammy here. 

 Here are a few of the highlights.

Ice skating at the Dimond Mall with buddy Vivvy...again.  Had to show Grammy how well we skate.

A trip to Hatcher's Pass and Independence Mine.  

Yep, still snowy up there!

And this is the building we had lunch.  That roof has seen some weather that is for sure!  Great place to stop though.  Best peanut butter and jelly ever, and probably most expensive, but soooo worth it.

Made a Saturday trip to the Saturday Market.

Tuesday we packed up and headed to the forest fire in the Kenai.   We tagged along with Rob on one of his work travels and stayed in Soldotna with a day trip to Homer.   Didn't see much of the almost  200,000 acre fire in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge, but you knew it was there with all the media, fire signs and smoke smell.  It has just began raining (after only 2 days of rain in an 80 day period) and it helped a bit extinguish the smoke.  Whew.  We actually had tons of smoke back home for a few days from this fire as the wind was blowing just right.

In Soldotna lies the best playground...ever.  We walked there along the river walk from the hotel where we just went for a swim (trying to wear the kid out).

Armed only with my iPhone as the rain was quite drizzly, we headed to Homer the next day and did some shopping and rock throwing. 

After arriving home we headed to the Anchorage Museum.

Where the Imaginarium (kid section) was the highlight for Amelia, not the artwork.

However, the Plastics exhibition was cool!  Did I mention we brought Elsa and Anna along?   They were free to get in. :)

The pipeline exhibit is always a must...because of Dad.

 

A whole week to go! 

The Dance

It was dance recital time last weekend...

Rehearsal was on Saturday and got a few shots outside on yet another gorgeous day. 

I volunteered as class mom and put my camera away figuring I would get a few shots on performance day since she stood right by me.  It was difficult taking photos while watching squiggly kids (like I didn't already know that!)   

After the rehearsal, it was photo time.

The group shot took a bit...

and her individual shot was questionable as she said the makeup (I hardly put any on her!) made her eyes water.  Note:  putting the makeup on was a highlight of her getting ready.

She perked up though and we watched the rest of the other photos and then a few dances as well.

Sunday was showtime!

I got there early to get a few shots, but the lights were so low and she really wasn't cooperating, so this is all I managed.

We headed to the cafeteria and left Dad to watch the show and videotape.

All went very smoothly backstage and then it was our turn!

Did she stay in the same spot???? NO.  I gave up on pictures.

They came out for a bow and then it was time to head home.  Thankfully, another parent shared a few stage pics of Amelia and Dad had a video :) 

She received flowers at her bow and a gift in the car.

Will try to get a pic every year of the Ballerina and her flowers :)  This is year 2!

Another show over and it was time for Grammy's arrival.

Lots of adventures in the next couple weeks...stay tuned.

Chalkboards

As I said in my previous post, projects have been non-stop here.  Two of them are now done.   The Chalkboard under counter wall and the hanging chalkboard.

Here is a bit of the process with a couple in my previous post.  

Sanded and Primed

5 coats of chalk paint (I read the more coats...the better).

Ta Da!  I put the rug that was in front of our outside door,  that I recently replaced with a new one, down to protect the carpeting from chalk dust.  It's a hit!

I also made a hanging one (inspired by a post on Dear Lillie).

Bought 2 strips of 1x3x6, a 2x4 sheet of oak 1/4 inch thick, a pack of mending braces and screws.  I followed Dear Lillie's tutorial, but made it fit my wall.  Rob cut all the pieces after I marked them :)  Then he built me a raised flower bed...what a guy.  Will have more on the flower bed in a future post...oh and the deck too.  AND we are having siding done (more siding done that is..and will post on that too).  I wasn't kidding when I said we had projects!

Painted 3 coats of chalk board paint on the oak (got too antsy to do 5) and then conditioned the framing wood pieces and stained with Miniwax cherry that I had left over when I stained the baseboards in the remodeled bathroom.  Let it dry and assembled the frame with the mending braces and then screwed the chalkboard to the the back.

 

Ta da!  I had a bit of picture frame wire and eyelets and used those to hang.   I was going to wait patiently for my new chalkboard pens to arrive...but of course, that didn't work out so well.   This is with Amelia's chalk :P  Will do another when my pens arrive from Amazon.  

Did I mention we put in a new toilet upstairs? hahaha...I won't do a post on that until we have the upstairs bath done someday.  We did like the one we put in downstairs, so we bought 2 more.  Will do the 1/2 bath once company leaves in July.  Going to tile that as well.

I also sold our chairs on Craigslist for $200 for all (bought them for $300 about 9 years ago), as the seats needed to be redone andto replace the tape was $30 per chair, which I would have done if I wanted to keep them.  These chairs tip easily and the only way Amelia could sit in them was to have another chair behind it.  I have always wanted black windsor chairs..and will wait til I find a set I want to keep forever.   Want to get a few counter stools in black as well. Rob says I have a chair problem.  

Maybe he is right.  We now needed chairs, so bought these for $30 on craigslist (set of 4), prior to selling the others.  MUCH more sturdy, but a China made, so only temporary.  Not that there is anything wrong with China :)  Amelia likes a cushion on her chair.

Lastly...projects weren't the only thing happening this week.  Gardening was high on the list (another post on that at a later date) and fun of course...playing soccer in our side yard pretty much everyday.  Can't play soccer unless you have last years Christmas dress on and your cowboy boots.