Mother's day

Connor playing with Maylee, our newest next door neighbor. She loves Connor.  OMG she just watches him and smiles.

 Kaiden playing with monster trucks.  Declan, Connor and Kayla playing a board game.

 Science project- mixing baking soda and baking powder with different acids

 I woke up on Mother's day to a card from each of my boys, tulips from our front yard and a huge breakfast made by Jason.  Then the boys all helped me to build some raised garden beds for the backyard.  We're making 2 beds 10'x2'.  We completed 1 of the beds, but then I needed to get ready for work.

 Another project: The outside of our 1999 RV is weathered, which annoys Jason.  I personally don't care.  It's cosmetic.  But we found a vinyl wrap that Jason wants to cover the outside to give it a fresh look.  We rented a covered storage spot for the month to give us the space and sun/wind protection to work on this project. 

 Another project: Since Jason decided to start brewing his own beer... he had planned on bottling the beer, but that just seems like a lot of work and hassle.  I had planned on building a buffet/console table for the dinning room with 2 barn doors and open shelves in the middle.  So, I suggested that we modify the buffet table that I was planning on building to include 2 mini refrigerator on each side (hidden behind the barn doors).  One of the fridges would have 2 mini kegs inside with a tap plumbed up through the top.  The other mind fridge would be mainly for the boys.  Connor is going through a huge growth spur right now!  He's literally grown 2+ inches in the last 6 months.  He drinks 1 gallon of milk in 2-3 days.  Even before this whole Covid19 thing started I would go to Costco every 2 weeks and buy 4 gallons of milk.  And I would still have to stop at the grocery store in between Costco trips to get extra gallons of milk.  Jason said when he was a kid he did the exact same thing and couldn't drink enough milk.  He craves it.  Jason happens to be the tallest person in his family too.  At the rate Connor is going he might end up being taller than Jason too.  Jason didn't hit his growth spurt as early as Connor has.  Anyway the boys mini fridge would mainly be to store all that extra milk.  Plus Kaiden loves the chocolate milks and they both like gateraids.  I might even get some space to chill 1-2 bottles of wine too.  Jason loved the idea and immediately got to work planning it.

 

pencil project

Connor lost another tooth with a bracket attached.  We cut the wire as close to the next tooth as possible but it's been bothering him so we went to the orthodontist for them to fix it quickly.  Masks due to covid.

 Newest project... I'm making the boys decorative wooden pencils to hold their pencils.  Plus one for my friend, Kim who asked for one.  I have them painted, but I'm out of the yellow paint I need.  The stores don't have any either.  So, I'm stuck waiting for amazon to deliver.

 The boys and I started a garden.  We can't wait to start getting some veggies to pick.

 

Sofa table

After sanding Jason used a torch to lightly burn the wood.  We both liked this look but wanted the wood to be slightly darker...

 I stained the wood with Gunstock wood stain, but it looked too orange

 Then I put Kona wood stain over the Gunstock.  I love the rich dark wood color, but Jason thought it was too dark and you can't see the torch anymore

 Then I lightly hand sanded the wood to show more of the contrast.  I liked this look, but again Jason wanted to see the torch

 So, I ended up completely sanding it down and starting over

 This time I torched the wood.  I torched way more than Jason did so you could really see the wood grain.

 I sampled a few wood stains on the underside of the table, but we didn't care for any of them and decided to just leave it with the torch look.  I put 4 coats of polyurethane on top, painted the legs black and we screwed it together.  I still have a few things to add to finish it up, but it's mostly done.

Long hair

Kaiden has wanted his hair long forever.  He says he wants his hair to be just like mine.  Jason made a deal with him when the quarantine started that he wouldn't cut his hair until it was time to return to school... this was when we thought the boys would only be out of school for a few weeks.  Washington has decided not to return to school until next fall now.  Kaiden was very excited that his hair is finally long enough to put in a pony tail.  Connor doesn't care if his hair is long or short, but he hates getting his hair cut, so he's happy to skip a hair cut too.

Master brewer

Our latest project... Jason and I wanted to replace our sofa table in the livingroom, but we're having a hard time finding one we both like.  So, once again we decided to build our own.  We found a plan for a table we both liked and made some modifications.  Jason wanted the table to be a foot longer than the original plan and 3-4 inches taller.  Jason cut the pieces of wood and screwed them together.  I did all the sanding, staining and top coat.

 Below is the candle light center piece that I made for our table.

 The boys doing another science project to see which liquid cleans a penny the best- vinegar and salt.

 Below is the pencil crayon holder that I made for Kaiden

 For Christmas this last year I was going to buy Jason a beer making kit, but at the time he said he didn't want to try to make beer.  He thought the process was going to be hard and messy.  But his friend, Paul is brewing his own beer and it's actually a pretty easy process.  So, Jason decided to buy a kit and give it a try.  Here is my master brewer on his first attempt.

Kaiden's quarantine 6th birthday

Jason and I picked up a load of bark for the flower beds

 Kaiden didn't get the party we had planned on having since we're still on quarantine.  His classmates sang happy birthday to him on zoom.  We made a cake and he decorated it.  He got to pick all the meals for the day.  And we just enjoyed the day as a family.

 Jason is working on removing some of the decals from our RV.  We're going to recover the outside.
I'm working on building a wooden shelf for above our washer/dryer.