Basement: Phase One

We have lived in this house for a little over 3 years now.
And we have done absolutely nothing to the basement.
The basement was already divided into two sections when we moved in.
A big open room, and then what will eventually be a bathroom and a bedroom/office/playroom....whatever we finally decide it will be.
Since we really weren't using this space for anything but storage, we decided to turn the big room into a playroom for the kids so that all of their big toys could be down here & they could actually play with them.

Here is a before picture of the basement:

This isn't a true before picture though.
This is the cleaned-up version.
This basement was a MESS!!!
And technically the other side of those 2x4's is still a mess.....but one project at a time. =)

First thing we did was get some sheet rock.
Jeff & my brother Tom had a lot of fun taking it downstairs around this sharp corner. ;-)

The kids really wanted to help Daddy.

So he was nice enough to let them "help" him.

Then he kicked them out of the basement. hee hee

He got almost all of the sheet rock up in one night!

We have a storage area under the stairs where we put stuff and we had already gotten one door for that area, but we (I) decided we needed another door so we could close off the other room.
So we headed to Lowe's.

After Jeff hung both doors (and finished the sheet rock) he put up two new lights so the basement wouldn't be so dark.

Then we cleaned up the floor (the carpet was here when we moved in) and rearranged all of the toys.

Here is the kids' new playroom!

The kids are VERY excited about their new place to play!!

Jeff did a GREAT job on the basement!!

This is just "phase one" of our basement renovation.

But, we will not get to "phase two, three, or four" for quite awhile.

Right now we are just happy that this part is done and it is now a more usable space.

Our (Jeff's) next big project is to put a deck on the back of the house in a few weeks.

I can't wait for that to be done!!!!

I am SO lucky to have such a handy husband! =)

Getting Ready For Spring

We are wanting Spring around here!
So, we bought some tulip plants to plant in the backyard today!
First all three kids dug holes for their plants.

Then they all carefully put a plant in the hole they dug and covered it with dirt.

They all did a good job of being careful and not breaking the stem.

Even Lily! ;-)

Then Lily got to water them.

That's actually what she had been waiting to do......she didn't really care about the planting.

Hopefully we will have some beautiful red and white tulips soon!!

Hair Flowers

I love putting things in Lily's hair.
I have lots of bows and some headbands that I use.
She even has some cute hats.
I had seen big flowers on clips and headbands and thought those would be really cute in her hair.
So I ordered some headbands and a big purple daisy flower clip.
But when I got it, I was kind of disappointed.
It was not the color I thought it was going to be. =(
Then I looked at it and thought.....I could make this myself!
So I took Lily to Michael's and we picked out some cute flowers:

I also bought some hair clips and some headbands.
I clipped off the stems of the flowers,
got out my trusty glue gun,
and glued the flower to the clip.

Now Lily has cute clips for her hair and for headbands!

We even clipped one onto her hat.

(It is just clipped on, so we can change out the color of the flower.)

I made three flower clips.

(and have about 7 more clips left to make more.)

All for under $6.00!!

Jeff is happy that we are saving money on this. ;-)

Zoo fun!

Since yesterday was SO nice, Lily, Riley, and I decided to go to the zoo with my sister Dianna, and her little guy, Camden.

We started out feeding the sheep.

It was easier to let Camden and Lily feed the sheep through the fence.
We did go inside, but then the sheep started to get greedy.....and not so nice.

So we moved onto the barn where "riding" the horse and cow are always a must!

Riley wanted to make sure we did not miss the penguins.

All three kids really enjoyed the jungle.

Especially the waterfall!

We saw that they were feeding the giraffes, so we went to go try it.

Unfortunately, this little baby was the only one to come up......and he wasn't too hungry.

That's Lily's hand. She did get the giraffe to eat from her.


This is Dianna and Camden trying to feed the giraffe.

We always have to have a picture with one of the sautes!

The tigers were really close to the glass!!

He just ignored the kids.....even when they were roaring at him. =)

We had a really good time at the zoo!

Especially since it was so sunny and warm!

Thanks for going with us Dianna & Camden!

Tanganyika

On Thursday, we went to the Tanganyika Wildlife Park.
The kids had a lot of fun and they got to feed and pet a lot of animals.

While we were waiting in line to get into the park, the kids got to touch this Red Lemur.

This kids thought this waterfall was pretty cool.

These are Colobus Monkeys.

See the little baby??

We didn't get to feed the kangaroos, but we did get to walk through where they were.

If they came up to you, you could touch them.......but none of them wanted to come up to us.

Then we were off to the Lories. (Australian Parrots)

You could feed them nectar from a cup and one even let us hold him!

Feeding the birds:

Zach got it to sit on his hand!

Riley was a little nervous, but with Jeff's help, he sat on his hand too.

It didn't want to sit on Lily's finger......which I think was actually OK with Lily. =)

After looking at some more birds, we moved on to these cool animals:

All three kids had fun feeding a lama and some goats.

They also have bunnies that you can feed and pet!

Lily liked this.

This is a White Handed Gibbon.

It was swinging from these tall ropes.

It was really cool to watch.

Then Jeff noticed that there was a baby hanging on to this monkey while it was swinging!

White Bengal Tigers. These animals were huge!

The kids all got to pet this baby hedgehog.

Isn't he cute??

After waiting in a really long line, we got to go onto Lemur Island.

They have Ring-Tailed Lemurs that you can feed and pet.

You get one craisin (dried cranberry) for one token.

If you hold it in your hand and close your fingers, the lemurs will come up and open your fingers to get the craisin out.

It is really fun to watch.

Lily wasn't too sure about these things!

The Lemurs were really friendly.

They walked all over the "island" and would come up to you.

It was a lot of fun seeing new animals and getting to touch and feed them!!