Boys with BIG Toys!

We had the Huntington's excavator at our house for several days and the boys couldn't resist "test driving" it (when it wasn't moving, naturally). Guy did let Caleb (in the very odd sunny-rain we had) control the bucket a little and he thought it was especially great. I had to laugh at Guy when he was disappointed that I didn't get any good pictures of him working the excavator. I think it's ok, though, because I chose not to take a picture of the minor damage he caused to the house, either. :-)

Adventures in Remodelling Chapter 23: Basement Windows

5-2-07: In order to make our basement lighter, and safer (in case of emergency), and to try and correct the drainage issues we've had with this house, we decided to put large windows in the playroom, the room right under the living room. On Wednesday, Mellissa came over and helped us remove all the bedding plants, then our friends, the Huntingtons, brought over their excavator to dig out where the windows would go. The first picture shows Guy, Marcus and Sheridan down in the trench. The next day, the concrete cutter spent longer than we thought he should, to cut out the two 4' x 4' holes in the concrete foundation, and the window well installer used this big crane (picture 2) to get the massive things into place. The last picture shows the window wells in place, but without the backfill, or windows--they came on Friday. On Saturday, Guy backfilled, and we got the bedding plants back in the ground. It was cold and rainy all the days we were trying to get this done, and now this week it is hot and dry. I hope the plants survive. I will admit that this whole project (which isn't done, of course) had me rather nervous, especially with excavators and cranes driving across my front yard, but I think that Guy actually really enjoyed himself (he took work off and was directing all the maddness). There is certainly a sense of accomplishment that we've gotten this far.

May the Force REALLY be with You!

Snake-Obsession, The Beginning

Sheridan found this snake on the front sidewalk one afternoon, and has been researching all about snakes, and making plans (non-parentally-sanctioned, as of yet) to own a pet snake ever since.

Rocket Derby (4-26-07)

Instead of a pinewood derby, our cub scouts held a Rocket Derby this year. From a parent's point of view, I liked the rocket derby much better. Pretty much, all the boys made their rockets at den meeting and then decorated them at home. It was mostly an issue of luck rather than engineering when it came to launching, and I thought it was much cooler to see these shoot in the air (and come crashing down) than it was to see the cars race. ANYWAY, I probably also liked the rocket derby because Sheridan's rocket ended up with the longest flight time of the 30 or so launched that night. He was pretty thrilled to "win." I also happened to see a list of other awards, and saw that they were going to give Sheridan "Best Design," but since he won "Longest Flight," (6.55 seconds) they gave best design to another boy. It's hard to tell, but his rocket is designed to look like a package ("This Side Up," "Airmail," "Caution: Contents Flamable," and "Fragile" are stamped or stuck on the tube) being sent to the star Rigel.