::fixer of the gate::

I love it when my parents come to visit. It's so nice to spend some time with them and my dad always fixes as much of my broken stuff as he can fit in to his trip.
I had been saving our front gate for his expertise for quite a while.
I guess it's been rotting a bit on the inside, so it's been sagging and rubbing on the ground. The sagging effected the latch too, so it was really tough to open and close. And if it got left open because it was too tough to close, the wind would smash it into the gatepost and then it was impossible to open because the latch was buried in the wood. Anyway, you get the picture. I had friends standing outside and honking because they couldn't get in. My own brother thought I had locked him out when he came to visit and injured himself trying to climb the adobe wall.

It was about time for a repair!

So of course dad fixed it. And I took a few pictures of him because I couldn't resist. And it was just a good opportunity to document how he always takes good care of me.
And you're going to get to see all the photos because I like pretty much all the ones I took.



What do you think? Are these photos posed or candid?

And of course, wherever my family is to be found there is a surplus of cameras and camera-poeple. Look for the counterpart of this photo to show up here some time soon I'm sure!
(Mom was on her way to pick up Max from school for me so that I could take a little nap. Best nicest thing ever!!)


We lifted the gate back up and reinstalled it. The dang thing was so heavy.
Then while dad was on an adventure club bike ride with Max I located all the painting stuff and the right color of paint and painted/repainted the whole thing.
A finished project--amazing!! And now my life is seriously easier than it was before. I can go in and out of my front gate while carrying babyseats and such and actually close and open that gate. YAY!
So thanks dad, you're the best fixer dad ever.

These are pretty much the only pictures I took while my parents were here. We were busy running places and working a little and taking care of kids. Oh yeah and a little yummy eating out and some fun shopping. I didn't have much time for photos. So you'll have to go here if you want to see more. I like to see my house and kids through my mom's perspective, it's pretty fun. And she takes such great portraits!

So there you go. Happy green gate and happy me.

::house::

While at Sam's the other day we spotted the playhouse kit I'd had my eye on for while. Max and I saw it in April, but when I went back with the intent of getting the thing, they had been cleaned out. And I hadn't seen them in again. Until Saturday when we were getting all the food and snacks for Kari & Aaron's visit.

So we got the dang thing. And when we got home Kris got right to work putting it together. Bryans were due at around 3 and Kris got to work around 1. He figured he could get the things done and the kids could be happily playing by evening.

Hah. It took him ages just to get all the pieces untangled, then making sense of the instructions (which never really happened) took another forever. I think he had a couple of the bay windows put together when they arrived. He did a little more that night, but it still didn't get far.

But the kids were anxious. So he and Kari spent a bunch of time sunday afternoon working on it while the kids noodled around in the backyard and the babies napped.
Unfortunately they ran into a few snags, such as one of the roof panels being blown over by the wind and breaking into a bunch of different pieces, argh. But Kari is serious about building stuff and she didn't let Kris slack on it.


Closer, but still not done.

Then, memorial day, after we went out to lunch and had some fun, Kris manned up and finished the rest of the thing up. What a great dad, because it was a pain.

Happiness and joy ensued. Parker hollered, "This is SO AWESOME!!" and the house was chock full of kids from there on. Also, it has a working doorbell and the thing is LOUD. That thing didn't stop ringing all afternoon.



The big boys went and got Max's play food and made the house into a drive through restaurant. Such smarties.

Fun stuff!