Cincinnati Reds Baseball game

Daniel had a good time at the game AND it was a winner!! With a water bottle and a fan - we were still HOT HOT HOT!

Babushka and Dadushka!

We went up to the Cincinnati area to visit Jason's Aunt and Uncle this weekend. Daniel calls them Babushka and Dadushka. We had a great time visiting with you guys - thanks for having us! The visit was just too short!

Puzzling

New bedroom

Who remembers the great paint debate right before we adopted Daniel? Jason wanted to paint the 'kids' room before we left for Ukraine and I wanted to wait until we knew what we were getting and could really decorate the room for the specific kid. Well, wisdom prevailed and 2 weeks before we left we painted Daniel's room a boring bland taupe color.



So now, here I am 2 years later - finally getting around to doing Daniel's room. It took me awhile to come up with an idea, then to gather the bedding, details, etc. And now we are in the execution phase of the great bedroom re-do. I didn't want to do something too childish since Daniel is a big 7 years old now and getting bigger and bigger by the moment. So I decided on an astronaut / outer space theme. First step, paint the ceiling dark blue - like the night sky:


This turned out way brighter blue than I expected. I said to Jason, 'I think we accidentally painted Daneil's room U of K blue! YIKES!' (of course - this is with the flash on my camera, but still - Geesh!)






And then Daniel decided he wanted bunk beds. Well, he didn't need 2 beds so we got him a cool loft bed from Ikea. It is a full size bed on top and empty underneath for a desk or storage or play area or whatever. This weekend it was time to put the bed together. What a big job! The good news is - I am married to an Engineer. I can just leave all this to him. He can design and fix an electrical problem on an Explorer - surely he can put together this little boy bed.




We broke it up into 2 building sessions. It was a family affair - we all pitched in. Here is brave Pop, letting Daniel use the mallet:








Daniel was so excited. An hour into day 2 of the bed build and we discovered a screw is missing. It's just one screw. One tiny (big headed) screw. But it's a weird shape and has a purpose. So, I called Ikea and in 9 - 14 days we will be able to finish putting up the bed. UGH!!!









And then for the ceiling - my plan is glow in the dark stars. But after some reading on the internet, I guess those stars lose their glowy stuff after awhile. The sticky stuff wears off. It didn't sound very good. But I found some glow in the dark paint. And - it comes with stencils for the constellations. How great is that? Cool and Educational!! And they send a CD rom that explains how to make your own ceiling mural. Exciting and a bit intimidating. Will I be able to pull this off? Hmmmm...only one way to find out. More to follow...





And then on Sunday for a nice treat - Jason decided Daniel is finally grown up enough to inherit his army men that he played with as a little boy. Mom went shopping. Pop and Daniel had a big time playing, scheming, setting up, destroying, plotting, sorting and battling with the army men. Too cute:

Bless you!

We're sitting at dinner last night and Daniel sneezed into his hand. Then he says, 'Mom, I need to go wash my hands because I Bless You'd into my hand.'

We're still filling in our English!

:)

Weekend visit

Daniel and I went with my mom and dad over the holiday weekend to visit relatives in Northern Ohio. We didn't make it last year, so it was great to get up there and see everyone. Daniel had a great time......

Riding the Four Wheeler:

Catching Lightning bugs:

Visiting family:

And of course, trying not to catch anything on fire with our Way Cool sparklers!

Riding without training wheels

Happy Fourth of July!