Our Beautifully Sunny At-Home Week

It's been a while since we've been able to just stay home, especially when the weather has been nice, for a good stretch of time to get things done around here.  Well, we finally had that kind of week.  We didn't have a whole lot of errands, special activities to do, or people to see.  It felt like "summer" to me.

Here's our week in pictures.  There aren't very many because, well, we were busy enjoying the "hot" (80's) sunshine.  ;)

When we moved in to this house, there was lattice work between the posts.  With each consecutive
winter and northeast winds, however, they slowly started breaking apart and started looking trashy.
In May I asked my dad to take the lattice frames out completely because there wasn't anything left and they've
been looking like this ever since.  I finally had the time and attacked them--sanded them all down and repainted.
I still have one more coat to put on so I'll put up pictures of them finished next week.

Eventually we're going to put wire between them and put lights on top of them, so there is a purpose to fixing them up.

Brandon really wanted to help and at first I was a little leery, but after laying down some ground
rules he did really, really well and enjoyed it for about half and hour.

While sanding down the posts, I made the mistake of looking around the yard and over at the shed. 
The finishing/frame work on our shed looked like this.  So I decided while there was a mess to just
make it bigger and sand down the white parts on the shed as well, and repaint.  However, as I sanded, I
discovered that the wood frame on the door was completely rotten.

So took it off.

And Bryan came home for lunch to teach me how to use the skill saw and I re-framed it.  The things I never knew I'd do as a housewife.  Bryan was perfectly willing to do it for me, but he's been working extremely long days the last couple weeks so I didn't know when he would be able to get to it.  The frame's not perfect, but hey, it was my first time working with wood in this fashion.  I'm pretty proud it turned out at all!

The stripped door waiting for a frame.

 As it goes, all this started because I found one small wooden tray at 2nd Chance a couple weeks ago.  I've been looking for a sturdy tray for a while because we eat outside so much during the summer.  Well, this one had an ugly duck picture on the whole bottom of it, so I stripped and sanded it to paint...the sanding/painting projects kind of snowballed from there: tray, to recipe book stand, to posts, to shed...I'm not looking any more...

And of course, I played with the boys.  We got the bigger and more sturdy wheelbarrow out after this and both boys got a ride.

There are no words to the goofy-ness of this kid.  I love him!

Two (2) days of clothes for the boys!!  Whereas I absolutely love the boys getting muddy and dirty, I'm rather loath to let them in the house let alone their beds for nap time this way so they each had an outfit in the morning and one in the afternoon.

It was a fun, busy and productive week.  You will notice we did not go to a park this week.  We stayed home and enjoyed our own backyard which was just as fun.  Besides, I justified it in my head by saying we went to two or three a couple weeks this summer.  It was time to get things done at home.

Now it is time for me to go decorate a certain boys birthday cake.  He has chosen a 3-D Thomas cake.  I'm a little nervous but excited for the challenge.  I can't believe Brandon is turning four tomorrow!

Blessings on your weekend.