Another homeschool year underway…

Zoo Day

The waning days of summer found us taking some time to visit the zoo.  We picked up our friend William to join us.

We got there for members opening time and the docents were already out and about.  This one had a chinchilla for us to meet.

The alligators were in for the summer visit.

And we were super impressed with the snow leopards’ new digs.

The sea lions especially liked the kids.

And we left and ate a later lunch in the car on the drive home.

(Somehow) Stewart is 18!

I’m not sure where the days have gone, but somehow, my little boy is 18 years old.
He started his day at a different church service than the one the family attended as he has been doing some video work for a pastor in Newark.

Dinner was something new; I tried to make steak fajitas.  They were pretty good.

It was beautifully HOT outside, so we opted to open gifts in the crowded living room.

Johanna made him a penguin card.

The boy who made me a mommy, made her a grandma.

We tried EIGHT times to get a decent photo.  Someone was always being silly.

There was nothing silly about lemon cake.  From scratch.  Oh snap.

Out with Nan.

Nan took the girls out for a treat while youth group met here.

They look quite pleased.

College Visit #2

College Visit #1 was to Houghton a few weeks ago.  We didn’t take any pictures.  Today’s visit to Canisius got a photo, if only because it seemed noteworthy that we walked around Buffalo in the rain.  It’s just funny to me.  Because it is Buffalo, and it is raining. 

Laundry room update!

It took almost an entire month.
Although their was nothing actually wrong with the laundry room the way it was, I wanted to spruce it up a bit.  It was actually my second choice for a summer project, but it was likely to be cheaper and faster than redoing the powder room so John moved it to first place.
My friend Emily and I painted it > 11 years ago when we first bought the house.  I picked the color Flan, and John put down new flooring and some wire racks.  It has worked just fine for all these years.


I removed the doors and John helped me set them out around the basement.
I thought I had ordered the paint I needed and while I waited for it to be delivered, I painted the walls “Fencepost” white by Glidden.


I washed the doors with TSP substitute and on 7/12 realized the paint had not been ordered.  I went to Woodcraft in Henrietta to buy what I needed.
I used General Finishes Gel Stain in Gray.  It was a long process.  Each side needed three coats, and three days to dry in between layers.  Then we needed three layers of Seal Coat.  It was a long process, but worth every moment. 

Meanwhile, in the midst of this, John started working on the “ship lap” wall.

Yes… they sanded in the family room.

Cut outside.

It went up quickly.



Doors were finally finished and we ordered hardware from Amazon.

It’s beautiful!

And now that i spent that much time in the basement... I now have some ideas for updating that area.  :)

Throwing stones.

 

Camp day two 2018

I didn’t sleep a wink or more last night.
It is definitely a party campground with a seasonal crowd that abides in bedraggled trailers with poorly maintained additions.  The closest bathroom was way too far away, and the one with showers is so far away you have to DRIVE to it.

But – the morning air is always an awesome feeling and we were going to make the best of today.

I actually very much enjoyed sitting down to cook and cooking over the fire this way.  We had pancakes and sausage.

We had a family game of Bible Outburst.

And headed for the Lockport Cave and Underground Boat Tour.

Stewart didn’t get the memo that we were all going to be repping ButlerFilms today.  He’s only the director….  (we’d told him.)

We had to wait for the 12:30 P.M. tour, so we poked around a bit first.

We finally did the tour and it was decent.  I don’t rate it as a Do Not Miss like last year’s tour of Fort Niagara.

I honestly don’t know what it was we were in.  Some old tunnels that the factory that had been there before had used to make its fire hydrants or something.

We rode a boat underground.  So that was a thing.

We went back to Tom’s Diner for lunch.  We had a fabulous meal.  We DO highly recommend this place!

Back to camp.  It was hot.  There were some table games and some lawn games and some time at the play ground.

We had another meal over the fire and more desserts.

And I wore ear plugs when I went to bed!