Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Playhouse is Gone!

We finally finished knocking down the playhouse in the backyard.

After the last picture I took of our project we finished taking the plywood off the sides. I wondered how we were going to get to the roof. Thankfully, Daddy had a solution. (That solution was knocking it over by pushing on it. We have a video which I tried to insert here, but which refuses to work. Oh well, you'll just have to imagine it.)

Once that was done we thought things would be easier. And they were, a little; at least as far as what we could reach. But it still took a long time to disassemble everything. Lyd made sure to take plenty of pictures of the process. Here's a few highlights.
The building after we pushed it over and did some work on it.

Ready for action!

  


Progress!

Atticus found this creepy fellow at some point during the project, probably before we pushed the house over. He brought it into the kitchen to show to me. I sent him back out rather quickly.

And it's finished! We managed to get it done before Christmas which was nice. I love how clear it looks, even with the big metal table.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Eeeeew

Look what Daddy found on the back porch yesterday.

Now that's a big slug!

Progress

While I was at the C's Thursday, the others continued working on the playhouse. 

And they cleaned up this area so that Daddy can build a new lean-to.
We're eating this elephant one bite at a time.

The Bookshelf is Done! (Mostly)

Here's my new bookshelf! Isn't it lovely?

He did a wonderful job! The two little white spots are wood putty I put in to hide the screws. As soon as it dries I'll paint those spots.

Daddy decided I should use the rest of the green I picked out to paint the trim in my room.

Lord willing I'll post pictures when It's all done. I'm excited!

More fun at the C's

One of the things I do nearly every Thurs. at the C's is take the kids for a walk. Well this last time we did things a little different. I took the boys for a walk first and then the girls, so I got double the exercise. = )

That J is a funny little man. One of the things that always makes me smile is the way he says 'some'. "I want yum mittens." "Can I have yum milk?" and so on. 

On our walk he he says "my mittens smell good." and proceeds to smell them deeply. He stopped before I thought about taking a picture, so I held up the camera and said, "Hey J, do your mittens smell good?" and hoped for the best. Sure enough he said "mmm-hmmm" and pressed his hand to his face again. Click!
Later he said, "I think it's going to rain!"

I was quick to reassure him. 
Flying the plane. Can you spot it?

The plane after it crashed. It nearly hit me on the way down! 
We went home shortly after the plane crashed and I took the girls for their walk.

K, lookin' cool.

H's scarf was so long she had to hold it in a bundle so she could run.

I loved A's getup.

And here are some random pics I took on both walks.








Wednesday, December 11, 2013

This past Monday I decorated for Christmas. I like trying to do something a little different each year, which can be difficult since I'm also the kind of person who likes to go through and get rid of 'unnecessary' decorations so that there's less to store (and consequently fewer decorating options). I guess it's a good thing I enjoy a challenge now and then. : )

Daddy took this buck on a hunting trip two or three years ago. We started decorating him the second Christmas after Daddy had him mounted I think. Doesn't he look festive? (While I'm on the subject, we've been thinking he needs a name. Got any ideas?)

It probably took me about two hours to finish the rest of the house, but it was worth it. It just doesn't really feel like Christmas to me until I get the decorations up. 

Now today, the project was demolishing the little playhouse that's rotting in our back yard. I forgot to take a before picture, so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like with a little roofed front porch.

See the bare patch? That's where the porch used to be. I got up on the roof to peel of the shingles, an easy job except for the fact that parts of the roof were rotting, and I couldn't really be sure if what I was sitting on was stable.

I also forgot to take pics of us working. By the time I remembered, Den was finishing the last board, so I snapped a picture real quick.
In case you can't tell, she's hammering out nails so we can burn the wood. 

Lord willing I'll post more as we go along. 


Saturday, December 7, 2013

Ahh, Christmas!

Some Christmas fun at the Johnson house!







Yum!



Yep, Christmas is in the air around here!
 

Friday, December 6, 2013

Shelf Building

Today Daddy built me a shelf. I only wanted a simple, single shelved, unadorned, bookshelf, and I was willing to wait for a while until he had finished his more important projects before I got it. Instead he made me this gorgeous, double shelved....art project, in one day, just 'cause he's awesome that way. = )


The plan.



The materials. (All of this stuff was leftover from other projects by the way. Waste not. ;D)

Measuring.

Measuring again.

 And measuring some more.

I learned what a dado is today. Here's Daddy cutting it.

And cleaning it up.

And voila! One dado.

Some more measuring!

Some assembly.

Some sanding.

One lovely bookshelf! 

All that's left is some wood putty in the cracks, some paint and it's done! I'll try to remember to post pictures of the finished product.