Tinkering/Crafting

We are all starting to feel settled back into a routine.  We all survived our first full week of school/work/volunteering, and now we're ready to do it all over again.

I didn't have a chance to share Ryleigh's gymnastics team pics before.  They came in super late, and well, other things took priority.  But, here they are.

Please forgive the poor quality.  I scanned them in.  The gym's photographer doesn't do digital files.  All the parents are trying to figure out if he checked the calendar to see that it is 2020.  Oh well.

Meanwhile, I did keep Jip busy with a few projects.  And, a couple more are waiting in the wings.  He built two boxes using furring strips and a cheap paneling.  Two types of casters, hinges, a hasp, and a handle made it so much better for storing my Christmas trees.

And, see that Noel sign in the last pic.  He helped me make that, too.  He used some of the leftover 1/4" plywood from the boxes for the porch and put some furring on the back to frame it/stiffen it up.  Then we painted it white paint, applied vinyl stencils that I designed and cut, painted the whole thing red, removed the stencils, and added a wreath that will light up.  I'm trying to use up some of the red paint that I bought waaaaaay too much of for the boxes for the porch, so if you have any more ideas, lay them on me.  Anyway, the sign fit perfectly on top of my white tree.

Jip's next two projects aren't time sensitive, but he has the supplies for when he is feeling ready.  He is going to make a display shelf/rack for gymnastics awards.  And, he is going to make a collapsible display for my Christmas village (obviously there is nooooo hurry on that one except to get the wood out of the way in the garage).

I spent a little time repurposing plastic trail mix jars into Lego minifigure storage.  We had outgrown the two I made in San Diego and those have been through kids drawing on them, guests scratching off the paint for fun, and more.  So, now we have three fresh jars.  Now if I could only get the kids to leave the heads and hands on the minifigs,  :/

Ryleigh has another meet this weekend.  She also has a playdate.  RJ has two birthday parties.  Jip and I have about 8 hours of scheduled gymnastics parent hours scheduled.  Good thing we have Monday off to recover!

As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Holiday(s) 2019

I know.  It's been awhile since I blogged.  So, here's what's happened since my last post.

The kids' dance studio hosted a parent observation of a class.  Here are my favorite dancers.

We had a lovely Christmas day.  The kids opened the stuff in their stockings and quietly played while Jip and I took our time getting up that morning.  We then opened gifts, ate pancakes, built Legos, had a late lunch with one of Jip's officers who was without his family, and then just chilled.

Jip and I had another holiday party on the 28th, so the kids got to hang out with Meghan that afternoon.  We hosted two sleepovers during the break.  And, we went to Cirque de Soleil.  We each had a favorite part of the show, which made it even more fun as we all reminded each other afterward about how awesome the performers were.

Ryleigh had a few gymnastics practices and RJ coded and went to an all-day Minecraft camp.  Then it was back to school on the 2nd.

We hope your holidays were as lovely as ours.  We are eager to get back to our routines--at least until we have some sort of weather interruption.  :)

Until next time, cheers!

Yuletide Meet 2019

Ryleigh had a stellar Yuletide Meet on December 8.  She was a bit nervous, but I think she figured out how to make her nerves work for her.  Check out how great she did!

In other news, I passed my Accredited Financial Counselor exam.  Phew.  So glad to have done well and to have it over with.  Now I have 32 months to finish up for my practicum hours.  I'm only about 10% done, so I'm hoping to really hit the volunteer hours hard after the holidays and hopefully rack up some counseling time.

This week is the last week of school for the kids until 2020.  They are already getting a little squirrelly, so I'm sure they'll be driving us completely crazy by Friday.  They are looking forward to their classroom parties and some time off.  Jip will be acting Commanding Officer for a good part of the holiday break, but hopefully it will be pretty quiet and he can enjoy tinkering on little projects around the house on the days he doesn't have to go in.

Until next time, cheers!

Road Trip!

We had a non-Traditional Thanksgiving.  We decided to motor to central Pennsylvania to take in some Christmas lights that have been on ABC's Christmas Light Fight, HGTV, and the Today Show.  The kids enjoyed it.  Mom and Dad thought it looked better on TV.  :)

The next day, we went to the Bethlehem Christmas Market at the old Bethlehem Steel Mill.  We walked around 4 tents of booths, enjoyed some yummy lunch, and then took in a tour of the old steel mill.  RJ was most excited that the mill was used as a setting in Transformers 2--they just put up some Kanji lettering to make it look like it was in Asia.  Jip and I enjoyed the history, but we were all glad when the tour was over--it was chilly!!

We drove home on Saturday and immediately got to work on Christmas-fying the house.  We ended up buying a new tree thanks to the old one (purchased in 2003) deciding to half-way die.  Thankfully I found a lovely one--but not on sale, of course.  Most importantly, Jip and I finished our beautiful new porch decorations.  Over the summer, I showed Jip a catalog picture of boxes that look like a stack of presents and then nest inside of each other during the off-season.  He engineered his way through making the boxes the right sizes and the right weight.  I made vinyl stencils to create the painted patterns and did a bunch of free-hand touch-ups when my stencils failed me.  We know what we would do differently next time (hopefully there won't be a next time), but all of the headaches were completely worth it!

This weekend, Ryleigh has another meet.  Jip and I have a holiday party and the kids get their favorite teenager, Meghan, to hang out with them.  As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Commonwealth Cup 2019

Ryleigh had her first truly competitive meet on November 23.  She was a little nervous, but we are all very pleased with her performance.  Ryleigh learned what it is like to use another gym's equipment (not always the best experience), which will be a valuable lesson for the future.  The best part of the meet was that Ryleigh's combined score qualified her for the State meet in May.  Go, RyJo!

After the meet, we stayed in Fredericksburg an extra day to let the kids swim and just enjoy being away from home.  Then we all took in Frozen 2 Saturday evening.