Summer Is Off And Running... Boy Are We Busy!!

The last few days of school were jammed-pack full of end of the year activities.  Here are a few pictures of Addison's school market.  She made Creative Clips that hold pictures and papers from paperclips.  Each child made some sort of item to sell and then they held a market and sold their items.  I love market day...it's so fun. 

Here are some of the items from market that I purchased with the fake money the teacher gave all of the parents. 

As many of my friends and fellow bloggers know, I've been MIA for several weeks.  We've been projecting in our yard trying to get things cleaned up and ready for summer. 

As many of you remember not too many weeks ago Levi talked me into some baby chicks.  They are still alive, happy and growing like crazy.  They've out-grown the two larger boxes we've been keeping them in so it was time to revamp the old dog run for them.  They are thrilled and love this new ...and temporary space we made for them.  Having them in the dog run will buy us a few more weeks before we have to rebuild and revamp the old chicken yard that will be their permanent home.

Levi just loves the chickens and I've caught him twice inside this dog run terrorizing them for fun.  LOL 

Now these chickens are strong and I know they can survive my sweet little boy who loves to play with them....but Perdy is a different story... Just looking at my sweet boy napping on the floor, you would have no idea what shenanigans he's been up to.

 

Poor, Poor, Perdy....Perdy is the little chicken that my family begged me to buy weeks after the other chickens.  They argued that we needed a full dozen and not just the 10 we already had.  Well, I argued that if the chicks are not the same size and age, they older ones will pick on the babies and kill them.  I even looked to the sales man for him to back me up...But did he? ...NOPE!!   So we bought two little babies and within a few days, one was dead and the other was pecked so bad on the top of the head, her skin was gone and she was almost completely life-less.  I brought her inside and put her under the heat lamps.  Within a few days she was recovered but still very ugly so we decided to call her Perdy.  

"Warning for the squeamish" 

(She looks a bit like the skekies from the movie "The Dark Crystal".

I'm not so sure that feathers will ever grow back on her bald head...poor baby!

So... poor Perdy is doing her best to survive her traumatized little life when... wouldn't you know, I couldn't find her in her pen one afternoon.  We searched EVERYWHERE!!  I thought, did the cat get her? ... Maybe she somehow got out and is hiding.  ... Maybe she's been eaten or mangled by Bob. I had the whole family calling for her and looking everywhere for any sign of her.  Levi on the other hand kept getting under my feet and mumbling about something.  I finally asked..."Levi, do you know where Perdy is?"  He said ... "She's sleeping and walked me to his closet.  I said..."No Levi, not now... We're looking for Perdy."  I thought he just wanted me to play with him in his room.  Then, it hit me what he was really saying.... "Levi, where's Perdy?"  I opened his closet and he handed me a netted bag with a box in it. 

I again thought he must just think we're playing a game and handed the netted bag to Addison as I said... "No Levi, we are REALLY looking for Perdy, she's gone."  Addison then tossed the netted bag back to me and said... "I don't want this...Why are you giving it to me?"  LOL

I caught the bag and held it dangling from my hands when all of the sudden...it hit me, what Levi was saying... "She sleeping!"  I gasped!!!  "Levi, is Perdy in here?"... He just smiled..."She's sleeping!"

I ran to the table and opened the netted bag...opened the box and what do you think I saw.. Perdy?

NOPE!

There was another little box inside it.

And what do you suppose was in the little box?

YEP, YOU GUESSED IT!!!

PERDY

Poor girl, who knows exactly how long she'd been in there and then being tossed all around by Addison and I.  Addi took her back to her pen and I lectured Levi as to why it was not okay to play with Perdy and take her out of her pen. 

So, do you think this lecture was affective?

Humm....Well, a few days later... You guessed it, Perdy was gone again. 

It was late and everyone was sleeping when Richard and I discovered her missing.  We looked everywhere...I tried endlessly to wake Levi from his dead sleep, asking him..."Where's Perdy?" 

I never could wake the boy, he was way too tired and his eyes just rolled back in his head, as he turned over in his bed.  LOL 

Richard went down stairs to wake the girls to help find her.  While searching, my eye saw an, ever so slight, movement across the room... within the CD cabinet. 

PERDY!!!

(Tap, tap, tap on the glass was all she could do)

 

I was horrified to see her predicament.  The last time We'd known of her, in her pen, was the day before...had the poor thing been locked away in this situation for a full night and day?  I think so.  She drank  water until I thought she'd drowned herself. 

Again...Poor Perdy! 

This time Levi got a little more then a talk'in to.  LOL 

So, what other things have we been up to? 

Let me see...

We've been working on setting up our swimming pool (not an easy task..let me tell you!"

Around the pool is a weedy patch that drives me crazy all the time.  So, I searched Craigslist and found a person wanting a rock wall torn down in exchange for the rock given free.   Sounded perfect for our hard working family.  The girls and I spend two days digging, hauling and salvaging enough rock to fix our weed problem and keep the garden dirt from washing down.  I sprayed the ground first and put really thick black trash bags under the rock to keep it weed free.  It looks so good around our pool... (This is the pool that was given to us one summer from a job site of Richards.  The owner thought our kids would enjoy it and man, was she right.)

(I'm so loving Craigslist... It's perfect for our family)

Aside for working hard to get the pool ready...

We've also had an unfortunate miss-hap with Levi and our back patio.  Our back patio has been a disaster for far too long...

(Here is the horrid before pictures that I would never want to show anyone but for some reason decided to post here on my blog.) lol

Several summers ago we had the nifty idea to make a brick patio.  We leveled the area and spent weeks mixing, coloring and pouring cement to make this huge patio.  It looked nice for about one summer and then it started to sink..shift...grow horrid weeds and sunk way too low to easily step off of the cement step.

 

We've not had the funding to fix this problem and have had to live with it for several summers.  Anyway, a few weeks ago Levi tripped trying to climb in and bit the concrete with his teeth.  Poor baby had a bloody lip and rattled his front tooth.  He was so hurt that he couldn't even eat ice cream without pain.  The dentist said he had trauma but that the x-ray said his teeth are fine for now.  I was so upset at what had happened I started praying and searching for a solution.

Hubby and I talked about laying a new patio, building a new deck... something...anything!  But, everything just was way too costly and not possible. 

So, I started searching Craigslist

I typed in deck wood and would you believe, I found a person wanting their old deck torn down and was willing to lower their asking price so that we could afford to buy it for $200.00. I was so excited and we made a family outing of it. We took the entire deck apart, loaded it into our two minivans, and hauled it home.  :))

Then, within a week or so later, another opportunity arose to have another deck as well.  So, the family again worked like dogs and took it apart leaving us with tons of really great wood to reassemble in our own back yard. 

(Thank You Jesus!)

My wonderful parents came to help get us started.

...and before we knew it, my brother-in-law joined in.

The process has been huge but so worth it.

I just couldn't believe how nice the wood really was from these decks and we didn't have to purchase any new brackets or anything.  It was all there.

I've had the fun job of de-screwing the top boards

We've all been doing our part.

Addi and Levi were watering the flowers that have already found their home on the deck.

Addison was helpful with the rock moving but with the deck, she's been grounded. 

This past week when she was spending the night with a friend, tripped on a rock and broke her toe.  Snapped a clean break on the tip of it.  OUCH!

I've pretty much grounded her to the chair or light activities until it has a chance to heal a bit. 

We've had a great time teasing her about doing something so silly as tripping on a little rock and breaking her toe.

Oh the joy of razzing your children :))

And finally...

Today is Richard's birthday

He's 44  and still as handsome as ever...

Yep, that's my man! (and my dad)

So for his birthday, he and I got up early and enjoyed a yummy breakfast and coffee on the part of the deck that is semi finished. 

Such a sweet morning together  :)) 

(Cool fountain, huh... Yep, Craigslist LOL)

 

Tonight we will have a family bbq with just our family on hopefully the other part of the deck if it gets finished.  lol

Happy Birthday Sweetie...

We love you!!

Well, that's about it for now...Next week we have a whole new schedule of work planned.  After my parents saw the deck deal we found on Craigslist, and how great the wood really was, they had me find them one too.  Who would have figured so many used decks were available?  LoL

Yep, next Monday we are doing it again...This family never stops.  I think of us like worker ants.  We just go and go and go...always doing something! :))