It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

We've had a busy week this week. The weather has been cooler, so we've been able to get outside and do some things. Sunday afternoon while Russell mowed we finally filled up our kiddie pool. Charles LOVED it. The dogs did too, it was their giant water bowl!

Lillie insisted on playing Frisbee. Charles thought that was hilarious.

Barely a year old and already he's got plumber's crack. Is it inevitable?

Monday morning we got a call from our friends Kirsten and Merril. Kirsten and her husband Jeremy were in a small group with us and have become good friends. They moved this summer and are now live really close, just on the other side of 13th street. Merril was sick last week so they were ready to get out of the house. We met them at the Zoo and then went to get the new home tour. Merril and Charles have fun playing together and, of course, played with things they shouldn't!

Tuesday afternoon we got a call. Would we be available all day Wednesday to have our new windows installed? I said yes! Russell took the day off (he still had to be in class from 2pm-8:30pm) so he could be here to ask questions and watch how they do installation. The workmen were wonderful and we love our new windows. We just replaced the main floor windows, the two in the stairway, and the front bedroom. We'll probably do the rest in the near future. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before:

The trim around this window and the two front windows was rotten and was one of the main reasons we decided to go ahead and get new windows. The two front windows were pretty bad, but this one was the worst.

See what I mean?

They were quick and we had Charles and the dogs to keep out of their way so this was the only picture I got during the installation.

After:

We decided to do these triple ones in the stairway. I think they looks nice, and we can open them for more circulation. We need to get new blinds. Thankfully the late 80s/early 90s mauve blinds don't fit the new windows! We've got to get some new ones soon because these get direct sunlight during the hottest time of the day, and the dogs can see out and they bark at everything and anything!

We did something different with the stairway picture windows and the single windows to make it a little different. I think I like them, but they will all take some getting used to.

No more rotten wood!

Most of the windows in the house look like this.

This was such a funny sight. We heard Russell get home from class and the three "kids" ran to greet him!

Thursday we met cousins Carissa and Elena at the Zoo. It was a nice cool day and an outside walk sounded better than walking at the Mall. Aunt Lola came to town to join us. She wanted to see Charles in his beginning walking stage and also see the penguins. There are some new donkeys in the barnyard so we made sure to stop and see them.

Riding a "horse" in the barn. I tried to teach Charles and Elena "giddy up" and "whoa!" They thought it was funny to combine words with actions.

These are the new donkeys. They're from France and extremely rare. Also kind of odd-looking.

After the Zoo we rushed to Grandpa and Grandma's house to meet the "bug man." They saw some strange bugs in the flowerbed so called to have the house inspected. Thankfully all they found were ants.

Charles took a LONG nap in his portable crib so we didn't get home until after 4:00. Russell needed the software for his class loaded so he could work on it when he got home. After being frustrated with Charles getting into the desk and throwing disks all over the office I decided to try turning on a video. We had one we got at a bookstore convention. Something along the lines of Baby Einstein and Praise Baby.

It had the creation story with hymns as background music. Charles hasn't taken much interest in TV (thankfully) until he saw this program. It kept him entertained for quite a while--he didn't even head to the dog's water bowl when I opened the door so Casey could get a drink. WOW!

The week's finally over, hopefully we'll get to do something fun this weekend. Today is our 5th wedding anniversary. It's gone so fast! It's a long weekend so Russ might have time to get all his homework done and still do some fun things.

Have a happy Labor Day Weekend!