Before and After

Wow, An exciting day here. We came back from breakfast (at Boulangerie du Monde- we were very excited to find a French pastry shop nearby) to see the unveiling of our dining room. What a great annivesary present. :)

Potty training

Aaron is the first kid I've potty trained using American methods. The others were trained around age two the African way... take off the diaper and spend a week at home following them constantly. We had no carpeting, no upholstered furniture and no where to go. It was perfect. That doesn't work so well here. It's not just the carpeting and couches, it's the interruptions too. We never have a whole week at home, especially in the summer. Aaron has been showing interest though, telling me when he needs to be changed. So we got the potty chair out and are talking about where the potty goes... He's got the idea, but is still looking for a way around it. Today, he tried putting the potty in the chair- after it was in the diaper. Sorry, Aaron, it just doesn't work that way!

Breaking through

Tomorrow is our 14th anniversary, we'll be seeing a different view when we look through our kitchen starting tomorrow morning. We're headed out to breakfast, the hole should be cut by the time we get back. Here's the before picture. Also in the works for tomorrow is finishing the shed painting we started this weekend. I included a photo of the kids at work.

More construction

In the last few weeks we had the breaking down concrete in front of our garage replaced, had the hole cut into the basement part of the addition, and had the basement bathroom and upstairs closet and half wall framed. (These photos are for you, Dad. :)

Playing with friends

They also had fun playing school with our homeschooling friends in Minnesota, and drawing self portraits with the neighbor.

And more summer fun

Playing at the beach (Lake Michigan), and a timeline reenactment (they got to thresh and grind wheat). It's been quite a summer.

roof and shingles

Here's the view from the outside. Ron put his sweat equity into the construction by shingling with his friend and coworker, Jason. They did a great job.