Back in February when we were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras I tweeted from the Race Track “Doing what every good parent does, teaching our kids how to win at the races.” and added the picture http://tweetphoto.com/11518070.
So yesterday Andrew finished up his school year and he came home with his art work and take a guess what was in the package. Race Track art.
Did our weekly trip out to the house and things are coming along pretty well. The brick is about 95% complete, the walls have had the texture added, the hardwood floors have been installed and while we were there a crew was working on putting up the trim and staircase hardware.
 Front of House, Brick and Stone is Up. |
 Back of House. |
 Hardwood floors in the living room. |
 Cabinets in the bathroom. |
We finally had Andrew’s birthday party the other weekend after having to delay it a couple of weeks due to me being out of town for his actual birthday and then conflicts because of sporting events. This year he wanted to have his party at McDonald’s and after Jen took him to see “How to Train Your Dragon” that’s what he wanted for his party theme.
Like usual Jen worked her magic with the cake and did a Viking village complete with two Viking cottages on the hill overlooking the sea with a Viking longboat and we printed out some characters from the movie to place around the village. Instead of handing out party bags we made Viking hats, swords, and shields to give out all the guests.
There are two pages of pictures. The first one is just Andrew opening his family gifts at the house and the second page is from the McDonald’s party. You can find the pictures here.
The work on the house is progressing well. Today we went up for a look and all the sheet rock has been installed and the taping has been done as well. When you walk through it now it really feels more like a house since you can’t take any shortcuts through the walls. They have also started on the brick work on the outside of the house.
According to the construction time line the next things up are to texture the walls, install the cabinets, doors, and trim.
 Garage |
 Living Room |
 Jen, the Boys, and Caroline in the doorway to the master bath. |
 Outside of house, brick work started. |
We went up to the house this weekend for a quick look around and they have finished up with the wiring, the extra gas line for the dryer, and the cable tv and internet wires. The insulation has been put up into a number of the walls and strategically placed throughout the house are stacks of sheet rock ready to go up on the wall. The construction manager told us they should start putting up the sheet rock this week and even through I didn’t see any brick at the house they should be starting with that as well.
 Sheet Rock in Living Room |
 Upstairs Living Room |
Back at the end of March we got a letter from the school telling us that last couple of months the kids had taken a series of two math tests as part of the Continental Mathematics League and that Alex was being recognised for doing well. They told us to keep it a secret from him since he didn’t know and they were going to hand out the awards at morning assembly so we could come and watch.
That morning we dropped him off at school, parked the car, and then walked into assembly with the other students and parents. He was pretty surprised when we walked in and was a little confused too. He didn’t have the panicked look like ‘Oh my god, what did I do? Am I in trouble?” First they recognised those in the audience that did well which included Alex and then they called all the winners up to the front to receive a special medal and he was the 2nd grade winner! I couldn’t believe it, he was the winner.
Here he is at the front of the assembly where the teacher is showing the medal they are about to hand out.
Alex getting his Continental Math Medal at Morning Assembly.
Things are coming right along on the house. The framing is complete, the roof is on, the rough duct work for HVAC is complete, and the plumbing is complete. We meet on Wednesday with the builder to go over the electrical details and since it looks like they have some stuff that isn’t quite right we’ll ask about it then.
 View up the front drive. |
 Living Room from Kitchen with Fireplace installed. You can see through to the master bedroom. |
 Back of House. |
 Jen standing in the kitchen. |
This week has been very busy with sporting events every night but Jen went and visited the house to take a picture of the progress. They have started getting decking the roof, windows have been installed in what looks like the majority of house, the outside insulation is going up, and you can see the outline of the chimney at the back of the house.
 |
 |
By now I’m sure everyone is familiar with website evite.com, the online invitation and party planning place. We’ve used it before to send out invitations and we have certainly received a fair number of invitations as well.
The other day we received an invitation for Alex to attend an open house/reception for a girl in his class who is celebrating her first communion. So last night we were preparing to reply but Jen started reading through the “sorry we can’t attend” replies and came across the mother of all excuses. I’ve removed all the names…
I’ve received a couple of questions wondering where Alex’s bowling party birthday pictures were and more importantly, where are the pictures of the “fart cake.” That’s right, you read it correctly, fart cake. It’s eight year old humour, you just wouldn’t understand. Don’t worry, I didn’t get it either but Jen was able to incorporate it into the overall bowling theme and it turned out alright. I couldn’t believe that she was actually going to do it but then Jen asked me,
“Do you remember your 8th birthday cake?”
“No…”
“You see, he won’t forget this one.”
It was hard to argue with that. So here you have it, Fart Cake and Bowling Party Birthday Pictures.