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We had a pretty exciting week around here…

I had my 30 week ultrasound and Banjo continues to be very cooperative and consistent. Everything is measuring right on for dates and looking just like it should. And we got an extra bonus when they offered to do a 3d picture for us! It was fun to see Banjo’s face and see that he or she looks quite a bit like the girls did when they were born.

I was “snack mom” at preschool, which is always exciting since that means that CareBear gets to be the special teacher’s helper for the day. She’d decided weeks ago that we’d be taking strawberry muffins and they turned out to be very tasty and popular. We got the sad news, though, that our teacher will be leaving us for greener pastures in Seattle so we’ll have to break in a whole new teacher next month (well, not “new” since she taught there years ago, but new to us!).

Our biggest excitement, though, happened over the weekend. Early Sunday morning, someone missed the turn at the end of our road and drove into our yard! They destroyed part of our fence and flattened our mailbox. They also made it way too far into the yard to have been traveling at a sane speed… they jumped the curb and the tire tracks stop just short of our very large camellia. After that, they apparently backed around onto our neighbors rock wall, taking it down a couple of feet, before speeding off back down the road. We filed a police report for the hit and run, though it’s unlikely that they’ll find them. They did leave behind a section of their front bumper and at least one headlight so we have a good idea of what kind and color of car it was! I’m very happy that our yard is well planted and slopes upward so they had no chance of actually running into the house.

This week will be busy! We have a fun preschool field trip to the Children’s Museum in Olympia, I’ll be having my first non-stress test with Banjo, and CareBear has a birthday party this weekend! All fun stuff.

It’s a living room floor… no more step!

Check out the quality.

The floor finally reaches the kitchen!

The kids approve.

Chris works to repair the “professional” job.

The return of furniture!

We thought the girls might get a kick out of being immortalized during new floor install… so we traced their hands and feet on the sub-floor!

If anyone ever replaces the pretty bamboo, this is what they’ll see…

Well, we’re almost through week three of remodeling! We’re still living in one room, but the floors are done and furniture is starting to move back into the regular places downstairs! We had some challenges over the last week with getting the floor finished. There were still a couple of rooms left to do after Chris and his dad were out of vacation time so we hired it out in hopes of getting it finished in time for LiliBee’s birthday (remodeling tip: calling yourself a “professional” doesn’t necessarily make it so… stay away from Kings Flooring!), but after hours and hours of repair by Chris and his folks the floor looks fabulous! The girls love it and the critters are happy to be able to check out the rest of the house again. With any luck, we’ll be mostly moved back in by this weekend! Though then we’ll be moving on to painting and getting trim back up. It will be a luxury to be able to use the kitchen and get more than 5 feet away from the kids…

We had a pretty boring week for the most part, just the usual stuff. CareBear went to school, we visited the farm, we ran errands in the rain. Our big fun was going to Z’s third birthday party! Cake, balloons and presents are always lots of fun. The birthday girl got a big kick out of blowing out the candles and doing some quality control on the cake frosting. It’s fun to see all of the kids growing up and changing so much year to year.

I promised to share the ultrasound pictures of Banjo this week, but my scanner won’t talk to my computer. I’ll have to get my computer guy right on that… or I might wait until he’s not so overwhelmed with finishing the rest of the house!

This week will hopefully bring things back to normal. Chris is back to work after his unanticipated vacation time and I get to go to preschool on Thursday to play with the kids… I mean “work”. And we’ll be planning for LiliBee’s birthday! I can’t believe she’s going to be two years old next week…

Everything moved out of the living room…

And into the bedroom…

And then the living room floor went away.

We found a few strange things under the floor.

Chris has been crawling all over under the house to find/fix things while we have the big, giant hole in the house.

We’re finally in the “put back on” phase of the big floor project!

We headed off to Spooner’s Farms in the valley last week with CareBear’s preschool class. It rained something awful the day before, but we lucked out with a sunny (if somewhat muddy) day!

Tractor ride to the pumpkin patch!

CareBear got a little splinter from the stem of her pumpkin.

LiliBee is very proud of her pick.

Ride ’em, LiliBee!

Into the patch!

Pumpkin heads.

We meet a big spider…

And play in the rope maze…

And do a bit of sliding.

A good and muddy time.

We’ve had a busy and productive week around here…

In remodel news, the new floor is done in two of the bedrooms and part of the hallway. The guys have spent the past several days scraping up linoleum and working on the living room floor. We decided to raise it up instead of leaving it sunk-in and that led to all kinds of extra work on beams and ducts under the house. We made a few unexpected discoveries but the decking is being put back on today so we can move on! My kitchen is practically unusable and all of our doorways are covered with plastic, but at least the end is in sight.

In fun news, CareBear had her first field trip! Her preschool class took a trip to Spooner’s farm and LiliBee and I were able to tag along. We learned how pumpkins and corn grow and what bees and bats do to help. We took a ride on a tractor around the corn maze and to the little pumpkin patch that they set aside for school kids. We visited with goats, chickens, turkey and rabbits and climbed on straw bales. After a quick snack, we headed out into the main pumpkin patch to run around, which was really muddy! The girls checked out the spiders and mud puddles and the rope maze before we headed home with our little pumpkins and mud up to our knees. The weather was actually pretty nice and all of the kids had a great time.

It was, of course, Halloween on Saturday. We decorated our pumpkins with stickers handily donated by one of my former co-workers. CareBear made a great face on hers while LiliBee went for a more abstract use of almost all of the eyeball stickers. CareBear could hardly wait for trick or treating this year. She started asking to put on her costume around noon. LiliBee was unsure of what the big fuss was, but she’s always willing to go along with her big sister’s enthusiasm. CareBear debated for a few weeks before deciding on a costume this year… and ended up with the same dragon costume as last year! It’s a little shorter on her, of course, but she was thrilled with it. LiliBee dressed up as Darth Vader and impressed everyone with her jedi mind tricks. They made a pretty good candy run going to the few houses around us and over at my folks’ house. CareBear loved helping Pas hand out candy to their numerous trick or treaters while LiliBee used my camera to take pictures of each of her pieces of candy, for some reason.

LiliBee and I went to a fun little candle party Saturday morning. She charmed everyone and even found a little boyfriend who couldn’t stop hugging her! Meanwhile, Chris took CareBear to gymnastics class… he tells me that the holiday sugar high created extra chaos in the class but at least everyone had fun.

In Banjo news, we went to our first big ultrasound last week. Since I’m considered “advanced maternal age”, we automatically do the level 2 ultrasound at the perinatology office. Banjo has all of the usual body parts in all of the usual places! We’ll be going back in a few weeks so that they can get a really good look at the heart and face (Banjo stopped cooperating toward the end), but everything looks good so far. And, before you all start wondering, we’re still going to be surprised about the gender. We did get a few ultrasound pictures but I haven’t had a chance to scan them so I won’t be able to share until next week.

Onward to November…

Sometimes, someone gets to be the supervisor.

Other times, you have to do the sharp and pokey work.

Kids don’t really need furniture…

Getting rid of popcorn ceilings is cool, as long as you’re not the one doing the work.

The same could be said about painting.

Installing floors involves a lot of staring.

But, sometimes, taking pictures of the people working is fun and rewarding.

Greetings from remodel central. We’ve made the move upstairs, the bedrooms are empty of furniture, the living room is full of furniture, new doors and molding are ordered, some of the ceilings are no longer popcorned, the carpet is gone from most areas, some of the walls are painted fresh new colors and there’s pretty bamboo flooring in the master bedroom. It’s been a big week!

The remodeling is going pretty well. There have been minor skirmishes, but nothing too serious. All of us sleeping in one room has actually gone much better than I anticipated, though keeping the kids occupied while they’re awake is more of a challenge with most of the toys, activities and supplies packed away. The girls have enjoyed having Chris’ folks around, though! It’s always fun to have a new audience…

The animals are adjusting to the change in routine. Mostly, the cats hide and the dogs try to check everything out by getting in the way.

We had some fun, too, though. We got the house (the outside, anyway) decorated for Halloween! I haven’t taken any good pictures, yet, but I will. CareBear loved all of the spookiness and decorations, but LiliBee wasn’t too sure. She seems to be more of a “pretty twinkly lights” girl so far.

CareBear had a big sleepover with cousin H, which I hear was lots of fun and involved pony movies and baking cookies. LiliBee and I took advantage of the one-on-one time to visit my folks and get her some undivided attention.

Quick Fundraising n=Note: If you know anyone who’s planning on going to the “Magical Night of Giving” at the Supermall next month, we’re selling tickets to it for $5 each. I hear it’s fun and the savings are pretty good, but I’ve never been to it myself. More info about the event can be found here.

This week we get to go on our first, official school field trip! We’re heading to Spooner’s pumpkin patch with CareBear’s class to ride the Pumpkin Express (whatever that is) and visit the corn maze. Lilia and I get to tag along and the weather isn’t supposed to be too bad, so it should be a fun outing. And, of course, this weekend is Halloween! Too bad I don’t have a costume that fits this year… maybe I’ll figure something out.

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