Warner Nature Center

Luke getting up close and personal with the swamp!

Group picture

The kids got to watch birds being banded.

Saying good-bye to their tour guide

After school treat

It was Luke's turn for a field trip today.  I took off to go with him.  We went to the Warner Nature Center at Edwin Warner park.  I had never been there and it was really fun.  The kids are learning about habitats in Science so this was a perfect trip. It was also a great segue into their first large project of the year.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed hiking and looking at the different habitats at the park.  The guide was great and I learned a few things!  One of the neatest things was getting to see a group of people working on banding birds.  There is a volunteer group of people that catch the birds and measure them and take notes on them before banding them and releasing them.  They had caught two birds that day so it was neat to learn about them.

After the guided tour we went to a shelter for a picnic lunch and free play for the kids.  It gave the parents an opportunity to get to know each other, too.  We left around 12:30 and did a couple of errands before we picked sister up at 3.  We had some things to pick up at Target so we got an icee for our shopping pleasure!  I was so glad I got to share Luke's field trip with him.

Making a Dent

Looking from K's room into what will be
her bathroom and closet.

Starting the last of the demo in our bathroom

After church and lunch we went back to the house to do some more work.  We concentrated on getting the rest of Katherine's room taken down and cleaned up.  It takes more time cleaning everything up as it does to demo it all out.  Paul carried numerous loads down the stairs and out to the dumpster.  The trash can is too heavy for me to wag down the stairs, but I will say we both got quite the workout between yesterday and today.  When we finished upstairs I was ready to go.  I told Paul we didn't need to stay up there all day again today.  He agreed at first and then he got in the master bath and started tearing out the tub surround and he got in a zone.  So, I called Mom to see if she would come pick us up because we were so tired. By the time she got there we had the tub surround out and one of the tile walls.  She had made roast, potatoes and carrots for our supper so we stopped by her house to get it before going home.

Paul made it home a couple of hours later and sounds like he made a ton of progress. He got all the walls out in the bathroom.  We have decided to try to re-use the tub in Katherine's bathroom.  We just have to figure out how to get a cast iron tub up the stairs -- they are very heavy!!!

I don't know that we will make it to the house during the week this week or not.  There are several things going on so we will see. The week after that is our Disney trip so things might be on hold for a couple of weeks.

Playdate and Workdate

Luke's game this morning was pretty good.  He had a good defensive play and a decent run.  He still doesn't seem to quite grasp what the plays and what to do each time.  He has continued to play the center position which seems to suit him well.  Katherine and I left the game early to meet one of her little friends from her old school for a playdate.  We met them at a playground close by.  The girls were shy for the first few minutes but quickly starting running around.  They played and played. There was also a festival going on at the park supporting pet ownership and adoption.  The girls wanted to look at the different dogs and they had bounce houses for the kids.  We spent a couple of hours there and then it was time for lunch.  We parted ways, but I think we will have another meet up soon. She and Katherine get a long well and the mom and I have lots to talk about.

We headed to Gallatin after we picked up lunch for the four of us.  Luke and Paul had been at Bill's watching the UT game and had just gotten to the house when we did.  We got a lot done today again. We started demo in Katherine's room to make room for her bathroom.  After we knocked out all the walls I commented how big the space looked.  Turns out we took out one too many walls!  Oh well, you live and learn.  We also worked a little bit on the porch.  If all goes according to plan the framer should start on opening up the porch next week!  I'm getting excited to see someone besides us working!  We stayed up there until close to supper and came home and had a "fix your own" meal. All four of us are absolutely exhausted and are going to get in bed way too early for a Saturday night!

Busy Friday...

The last couple of months I have been off on Friday which has been fabulous!  I love it, especially when I am off the weekend.  Today was busy, busy though. I did lots of errands and housework before it was time to pick the kids up at 3:00. Somehow I got talked into taking Luke's flag football pictures.  The league does not provide a photographer and the coach asked if anyone on the team had a photography hobby.  Of course, no one responded so she asked me. I told her I had no experience with taking any type of photos except candids but she said it didn't matter.  So, I tried my best to get individual shots of each player and a team photo. Most of the boys did not cooperate which was frustrating.  I did the best I could though!

After that we freshened up before going to Davidson's Homecoming game.  Luke has been begging to go to a game all season so I figured it was as good of time as any to go.  I know now why he has wanted to go so bad -- all the kids just ran around playing the whole time!  He had a lot of friends there and it was neat to see them all hanging out.  The Homecoming was good.  There were a lot of people there but only two others from my graduating class so that was a little disappointing.  The school provided a bbq supper for each alumni and their family.  We stayed until the game was almost over but Davidson ended up losing to an undefeated team.  It was a fun night and I am sure Luke will be begging to go again soon!

First Field Trip!

That's a whole lot of pumpkins!

She loved the three little pigs

Her favorite thing at the farm, surprisingly,
was "milking" the cow!

Bouncing on the "corn popper"

All the kids loved the storybook corn maze!

Sweet girl

Making corn "angels"

All the kids got to pick an apple from the orchard

Katherine has been counting down the days until her first field trip!  The children are too young to ride on the bus so all the parents transported the kids to Honeysuckle Hill Farm.  It ended up being a really warm day but that didn't damper the fun!  The kids were all so well behaved and loved having their parents along for the fun.  I was really surprised about how much Katherine enjoyed the animals.  She petted them all including the pigs, goats, donkey and chickens!  We went for a hayride, watched some pig races, enjoyed a picnic lunch, picked apples and played on the playground.  She was worn out when we left and fell asleep in the car pretty fast!  We went to Opry Mills after that because this mama is in desperate need of a wardrobe updated.  Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck but she was a good helper!

We picked Luke up at 3:00 and came home for homework and supper.  Last night we met with a cabinet maker at the house to get his opinion on the current kitchen cabinets.  Our hope was to re-use the boxes and just have him make new doors. Turns out that is what he recommended.  In his words, "they just don't make cabinets of this quality anymore".  His opinion was that they were custom solid wood cabinets and they would stand the test of time even with a heavier counter on them.  His is going to give us a bid for replacing all the cabinet doors, constructing a new (smaller) island and installing a small row of glass front cabinets at the ceiling.  It's getting exciting!!!

Most Nights....

Most nights the kitchen table is where the kids do their homework.  Katherine is still having one assignment per week and usually does it willingly.  Luke is such a good little reader!  He is assigned a chapter book and then usually one book per night.  You can take as long as you need with the chapter book and he is really enjoying them. He is even choosing chapter books at the library now, too.  Katherine is coming a long with her "reading" as well.  She can pick out simple sight words and of course, knows all of her capitol and lowercase letters.  I like having them close enough when I am cooking supper that they can ask me questions if they need to.

Lots of Progress

Surveying the progress

Looking from master into old master closet
and kitchen pantry.

Our little worker

Katherine getting in on the action

It didn't take too long to get the dumpster filled up!

I had to work today.  The last few months Saturdays have become a full work day at the hospital.  It is kind of frustrating, but considering I only work one Saturday a month I shouldn't complain.  I recently accepted a promotion and I am over the scheduling now. I think I will continue to work weekends for now, to be fair to everyone else.

While I was working Paul hauled the kids to Luke's ball game this morning.  Mom came to the game and then she offered to take Katherine to do some errands and then go home with her.  Paul let her! He and Luke got so much done at the house today! They finished the demo in the master bathroom and pantry with the exception of some tile, the tub and electrical.  We started tearing out the foyer closet. It was kind of arranged odd. When  you walk in the front door you are looking right into a closet door. We are going to tear it out and open the foyer up some more to make it a true entryway. I honestly can not believe how much has been accomplished this weekend.  We are going to take tomorrow off from the house and try to do some things at our "real" house!

"Camp In"

This little guy loves to work!

Ready for our "camp in"

Watching a show before bedtime

After Luke's football practice tonight we stopped and picked up sandwiches and headed up to the house.  Paul and I decided during the day today that it would be fun to spend the night at the house tonight.  The kids were ecstatic when I told them in the school pick up line!  We came home and got everything packed up we needed.

We did a little work tonight, mainly focusing on the current master bathroom and master closet which we are going to completely reconfigure.

Special Treat!

Katherine got a special treat from Nonna!  Mom found Ana and Elsa dresses for Katherine's dolls. They are so cute and great quality!  We had to dress Felicity up as Princess Elsa and Molly as Princess Ana.  Katherine was so excited!  She decided that Felicity and Molly need to go to Disney with us...good thing we are driving!

A Little Sunday Work

Doing some demo in the mudroom

Working on removing the soffit and upper cabinets

Upper cabinets gone!

The kids stayed busy with sidewalk chalk

We headed to the house today after church and lunch.  It was another gorgeous day here!  One of the things we need to do is add a powder room on the main level.  Currently the only bath is in the master bedroom.  I am not too keen on having everyone use it all the time!  Demo was done today in the current laundry room so we can make room for the powder room. We plan to still use that room as the laundry and mudroom.  We will have to maximize the use of that space!

The kitchen is very large and has lots of cabinets.  The one thing we will have to adjust to is not having an open concept floor plan. In our current house the kitchen, breakfast area and living room are all open to each other.  This allows the kids to play or do homework while I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen.  There really isn't a way to open up the kitchen to the living area because of the stairs.  So, we removed some upper cabinets that obstructed the view into the breakfast room. It made a huge difference right away.  We are hoping to use the existing cabinets and just have new doors made.  Obviously we will pain them.  Country blue was the big thing in the 80's apparently! Paul is going to have his cabinet maker come and look at them to get his opinion before we make a final decision.

The kids played and played today.  Sidewalk chalk was a lifesaver.  The drew, colored and spelled their names.  The corn was a big hit again today!  All in all, it was a productive day again.

Memories...

Combining the corn!

Katherine loved "shucking" the corn

We had a fun day today!  It was cooler here and actually felt like fall in Tennessee.  The day started with Luke's flag football game.  He does really good in practice but when it comes to the games we're not sure what happens. He gets so excited, he doesn't really seem to know what is going on.  Jon and Kristen came to watch the game and then we went to Cracker Barrel for brunch.  We wanted Jon and Jim to have the opportunity to see Kitty's house before we really got deep into the demolition.  Jon and Paul had fun reliving old memories.  Kristen helped me make some design decisions which was fun!  There was some work to be done at Bill's as well.  By the time that was all done and we were back to the house it was late afternoon.

The big machines had been combining the corn most of the afternoon, but the kids got a real treat when they came right up by our driveway.  That was up close and personal!  They were so excited to pick up the leftover corn.  Katherine loved popping all the kernels off.  They made maracas out of empty water bottles they filled with corn.  We did a little work late today, but weren't really in the mood to get to involved in something.  We will be back tomorrow...

The Countdown is On!

Paul and I have been talking about a Disney trip for a couple of years now.  We knew we wanted to wait until both kids were out of diapers, old enough to hopefully remember it and young enough to still appreciate the magic that Disney has.  So, we are heading to Orlando for Fall Break in a few weeks.  I have been working with a Disney planner someone recommended to us.  It is a free service which makes it even better!  She has booked our rooms, character experiences and restaurants.  She has also provided us with a detailed packing list, must-see events and an itinerary based on what day each park has the lowest volume!  We all realized how close our trip actually is when our Magic Bands came in the mail today!  It also made me realize everything I still need to do before we leave!!!

Building on a Firm Foundation

One of our first meals at our new house!

Bye-bye old green shag carpet!

Luke getting in on the demo action!

Paul and I have been talking about the possibility of us moving to the family farm in Gallatin for a few years now.  Our comment would always be the same when someone would ask us when we were going to make the move "in three to five years"!  And now

The house was built in 1974 by Paul's grandparents, Doc and Kitty.  Kitty lived there until the Fall of 2012 when she moved to Assisted Living and it has been rented to a friend of the family's since that time.  They moved out last weekend and we were so anxious to get started!  We have been working on the floor plans and ideas since the Winter so we have a good idea what we want to do to make it our "forever home".  It sits about a 1/4 of a mile off the road so there will be plenty of privacy.  The kids are so excited about their new house.

We went up there tonight after work and got a lot of work done.  We pulled up all the carpet upstairs which will eventually be replaced. We also enjoyed sandwiches on the front porch!

Paul and his brothers have so many memories of growing up on the farm going back and forth between their house and Doc and Kitty's.  I can't wait for our to kids to have the same experiences! Paul estimates the renovation will take 4-6 months.  We are going to do some of the work ourselves, especially the demo part of it.  I am going to try to do a better of job of keeping the blog updated on our progress!

Daddy's Girl

Luke started Upward Flag Football through our church this fall.  Their practices are on Friday nights at 5:00.  Thankfully, I have been off most Fridays so that has helped tremendously.  Tonight and last week Paul was able to meet us at practice.  Luke's first game is tomorrow morning so we will see how it goes!  We met Bill for supper at Cracker Barrel when practice was over.