Jason's Birthday

I am a little behind getting this post up. Jason's big day was the 21st. We had all of his family over for a combined party for him and his niece Cailyn on Sunday. Here are some photos.

Who do you think looks more excited to open those presents?

"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

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The finished product...finally

Just the beginning... what a mess!

I was looking back through photos to try and find a "before" shot of how the table looked before I began painting... and I found this funny photo. (That's kind of how I felt about 7 hours into the project.)



What I thought would be a simple Saturday project, actually turned into a week long project including 3 coats of the red paint, a return trip to Home Depot for more paint and more polyurethane, hours of touch-up work on the chairs, and a desperate attempt to speed up the drying process with fans overnight so that it would be ready for company the next day. Whew! Oh yeah, and I HATE polyurethane! We had nowhere to paint the table but right there in the kitchen. We would have had to take it apart to get it outside on our tiny back patio and with all the wind lately, we didn't want to leave it out there very long for fear of it getting covered in dust and dirt. The whole house stunk so bad and while luckily Jason did think to cover everything either valuable or that we eat off of in the area, I am still left with a yucky filmy coat of polyurethane on nearly everything downstairs. The chairs ended up looking great, the top of the table is not quite what I hoped for. The blasted polyurethane left a weird uneven texture of shiny and dull spots. I'm not really willing to sand it down and repaint, but I would gladly welcome any other ideas on how to make it look better. I do like it though, and it is a vast improvement of how the old table and scratched up chairs used to look. Mostly, I'm just glad it's done and we have a place to eat again besides the family room floor. :)

The Chicken Dance

Gettin jiggy with the Chicken Dance. Allary really loved this birthday card Jason got. Jason and I were a little bit sick of the song after the 15th time, but it was so funny to watch her open it up and bust a move.

The Carnival

Friday night we took Allary to the carnival here in town.

I think Allary thought she was the star in her very own parade on the merry-go-round. She was smiling and waving at anyone and everyone as we went around and around.

Here she is on the Circus Train (follow red arrow). I was a little unsure about letting her go on a ride by herself and how she would do. She looked so little riding by herself. She loved it and once again, was waving at everyone around, including the ride operator who smiled and waved every time she passed. When the ride ended, I was waiting at the Exit gate, the operator unbuckled her and helped her out. She didn't even look around for me, she just ran to the car in front of hers and climbed back in and proceeded to buckle herself back in. I went in to grab her and of course she cried, "Noooooooooo, bye bye Choo Choo!"

Here she is just enjoying the ride.

Cooling off

Is there any better way to cool off than with a nice cold fudgesicle?

Water Baby

Allary absolutely LOVES the water. She has never been afraid of the water. She will even dump a little bucket full of water right over her face, gasp for air, and then laugh and laugh and laugh. I finally gave in to her pleas yesterday to go swimming and so we took her pool outside in the blazing heat of the afternoon. The whole event (setup, sunscreen, swimming, cleanup) took about 1 1/2 hours, but the actual playing in the pool only lasted about 15 minutes before she said, "Hot, Mommy. All done!" I was frustrated with all the effort it took to get out there, so forced her to play for another 10-15 minutes to make it worth it.