The Playstation (aka Spring Project 2009 update #3)

The weather this past weekend was beautiful - each day was filled with sunshine and temperatures reached into the mid-eighties. This of course meant that Mr. Crackers had the perfect weather for another weekend of work on Spring Project 2009 - the clubhouse.

This weekend the roof went on thanks to a lot of assistance from our friend and neighbor. He is a tall and energetic 13 year old who happens to love outdoor building projects as much as Mr. Crackers. It's nice that Mr. Crackers has someone who loves participating in these endeavors. C is still a little too young to focus on any project for more than about 20 minutes and I am usually running around trying to keep K out of trouble.



It's looking really good isn't it? Mr. Crackers will tell you that the roof isn't quite centered on the house - but from this angle you can't tell. Actually I probably wouldn't have even noticed it at all if he hadn't mentioned it.

I'm glad we found a use for all that old wood from the deck. I hope the kids have a blast playing in it this summer. Now I just have to put on a coat of paint. We've decided to stick with red. It matches the trim on our house & both kids preferred red over any other color that was up for discussion.

On Sunday, Mr. Crackers put some gravel over the dirt in front to serve as a walkway and we bought 4 cheap plastic chairs and a couple of side tables. You'll see those additions in the pictures I'll post once I've gotten the thing painted.


After the roof went on, C named it The Playstation and we Christened it the only way we knew how - a Popsicle party inside our new clubhouse.


It's official - we have a clubhouse. Bring it on summer, we're ready for you now.


Thanks again Mr. Crackers, your boundless energy for projects around the house is both impressive and fearsome!

It's (almost) a clubhouse!

I thought I'd give you an update on our "Spring Project 2009". As most of you have already guessed, Mr. Crackers is using the wood from our former deck (see Spring Project 2008) to build our two hooligans a clubhouse in the back corner of our yard.

This weekend he built the walls (did I mention that our old deck was stained red? We opted to put the painted side on the exterior of the house because we feared that being in such a small space surrounded by bright red walls might have been psychologically damaging to our young children. Mr. Crackers was afraid the kids would start screaming REDRUM in their sleep .)

He worked all day Saturday putting it together. The kids and I helped out when we could, but as usual Mr. Crackers did the lion's share of the work.

What a beautiful railing. Isn't it amazing how level & evenly spaced those rails are ? (yes, that is what I spent my time doing while Mr. Crackers assembled the walls.)

The clubhouse now has a front porch & a window in each of its 4 walls. It's currently missing a roof - according to Mr. Crackers that is on the agenda for next weekend. It looks a little rough now, but after the roof goes on & we slap some paint on it, it should be a really fun place for the kiddos to play in all summer. Now we just have to pick a paint color. Hmm, any ideas?

The kids had a blast playing in the house once the walls started going up. They spent Saturday evening playing fast-food drive up window. C stood inside the house & K would walk up & give him her food order. This went on for at least 30 minutes. I can't wait to see all of the other ways they use the clubhouse this summer.

Did I mention that the front of the house faces to the west? I only tell you this to explain the pained look on the faces of my hooligans. They loved the clubhouse, they didn't however love staring into the sun while their kooky Mom tried to snap a few pictures. "Seriously Mom, can we stop with the photography so we can get back to playing? Geez!"

A well deserved break at the end of the day. Thanks Mr. Crackers, it's looking good.

Best friends at the zoo - then and now

Today was a beautiful warm and sunny day. Since it was the last day of C's spring break, we decided to head down to the zoo to soak up some sunlight & take a look at all the animals. Once we got there, we met up with C's best buddies who live down the street.

I snapped a bunch of pictures (which should be a surprise to no one) while we were there and I went ahead and uploaded them into my computer as soon as we got home. Something about this picture of the 3 boys standing together seemed familiar to me...

That's my hooligan on the left

As I looked at it, I remembered a similar spring morning when we met our friends at the zoo. I looked through my files & discovered that the last time we all went to the zoo together was also in April, but it was 4 years ago.

It's amazing how much kids grow in just 4 short years. This is a picture of those same 3 boys taken on that trip in April 2005. At that point, C was still an only child and his two best friends had no idea they'd be getting another brother in a couple of years.

Look at those chubby cheeks! I know I am biased, but dang that kid was cute (he still is).


Yep, it's a wonderful thing to have 2 buddies to grow up with. They see each other almost every day. Honestly, they know each other so well that they seem more like brothers than just friends. C is always sad when we leave for vacation because he is sure he'll miss them while we are away.

But thankfully, they have welcomed the two additions to their tight knit group with open arms.


K has become younger sister and additional playmate to all 3 boys. She may love to dress like a girl, but she's not afraid to mix it up with the boys.

And all of them dote on Baby M (which is good, because Mr. Crackers and I won't be providing my hooligans with another sibling despite their pleas for a baby. We just tell them to go play with Baby M if they are feeling the need to be near a child who is still in diapers.)

It was a good day. Sunshine, warm weather and best friends - you just can't beat it.

P.S. To those of you who have been following the progress on "Spring Project 2009", Mr. Crackers will be working on it again this weekend. Stay tuned - more pictures to follow next week.

P.P.S. Lisa & Linda - you guys guessed right!

Spring Project 2009

In yesterday's post I wrote about Mr. Crackers' construction projects of Spring Seasons gone by. I had a little teaser at the end of the post that revealed that he has already begun construction on this year's project. In fact, he's already spent the last two weekends working on it.

Lisa, also known as my friend, neighbor and reader of this blog (I used to have 2 readers, but Mom is still traveling in Ireland this week) wanted a hint about what project Mr. Crackers was working on this Spring.

Here are some pictures of the project in process. See if you can figure out what it is...

Week 1

As I alluded to in yesterday's post, almost all of Mr. Crackers' projects involve bags of Quickcrete. This endeavour is no exception. I'm glad that he is using a level...that has sometimes been a problem for us on past projects.

Hmm...what could it be? I'll give you another hint: he decided he would put all of the wood from the old deck to good use by recycling it for this project. The flooring he is standing on used to be part of the support structure for our old deck.

Week 2

That's our neighbor's son helping Mr. Crackers last weekend. He is the same boy who helped Mr. Crackers build the playset in our backyard 4 years ago. It's nice to have an extra set of hands around, especially when they are attached to the strong arms of a 14 year old boy with limitless energy. C is there in the picture too, but at 6 years old he's really more of a spectator than a real help. Someday though, I'm sure he'll get bitten by the same bug that seems to have affected all of the men in the Cracker family. I can only hope that he finds someone to share his life with who will appreciate his need to build large structures in the backyard.

It looks like they are framing in some walls doesn't it? Is that the beginnings of a railing on the front?

Nope, it's not another shed. It's something more fun than that. Something that will (hopefully) get a lot of use by my two hooligans as well as all of the other kids who come over to visit us here at the House of Crackers.

Got a guess yet?

Spring Projects - a retrospective

I think I've made many references in the past that Mr. Crackers is a "doer". He never sits still, he's always doing something. Every Spring brings with it not only the promise blooming flowers and the greening of grass - it also brings a new project for Mr. Crackers.

These are normally not small projects like planting a couple of flowers or cleaning out the shed. No, Mr. Crackers thinks on a grand scale. His endeavors almost always involve Quickcrete and large amounts of either wood or stone (they have on occasion also necessitated new shocks on the vehicle used to haul these weighty materials). He inherited this penchant for large construction projects from his paternal Grandfather who built his own home. Yes you read that correctly, the man built his 2 story brick home himself (Just as an FYI, he was a firefighter not a home builder by trade). He must have done a good job, because I have seen the house and it is still standing. Mr. Crackers' father also inherited this family trait and put his skills to good use by working in the construction business for more than 35 years.

Mr. Crackers (thankfully) has never felt the need to build our family a home, nor did he choose to enter the construction field like his father. He is a recreational builder. By day he works on web based marketing programs for a large corporation but on Spring and Summer weekends he gives in to his biological imperative to build something. Other than a good game of Lego Star Wars on the Wii, nothing is more fun to Mr. Crackers than planning and building something in our yard.

These large enterprises have been a part of my life ever since I said "I do" almost 12 years ago. Our first projects together started when we moved into our home in suburban Atlanta. We had a sizable lot in a very wooded area that needed some serious TLC. We didn't have kids then so we had the time to get the aging landscape back under control. We spent the 5 Spring seasons we lived in that house taking on jobs like constructing a 6 foot high privacy fence, building 5 retaining walls around the perimeter of the house and putting in a brick patio.

Here are 2 of the 5 retaining walls we built. They happen to be the 2 smallest - yikes!

I'm sure Mr. Crackers had more grand plans for that house, but our son C was born and then 16 months later we moved back to Ohio. So the rest of his ideas for that home were never realized.

We moved in the early summer of 2004 and had a relatively calm year as we settled into our new home & concentrated on painting and making the house truly ours. But then, spring came once again and the urge to build could no longer be contained.

Project 2005 - The playset

Mr. Crackers decided that we needed a playset for C (K was still baking in the oven at that point). No kit would do for Mr. Crackers. Nope, the man had a vision. He knew exactly what he wanted and he built the set entirely from his own design. He even did almost all of the work himself (with a tiny bit of help from a pregnant Mrs. Crackers & from the 10 year old boy who lived next door to us.) He built it right outside the kitchen window so I could keep an eye on the kids while I was cooking & he built it close to the house so I wouldn't have far to go if someone hurt themselves. Cool, huh?

Project 2006 - Baby K

Mr. Crackers is a very intelligent man & knows it's never a good idea to take on a giant construction project with a small baby in the house.

Project 2007 - The Landscaping Job
We replaced most of the landscaping in the front of the house
(no pictures here....you've seen bushes before, right?)

Project 2008 - The Patio

Mr. Crackers decided in January of 2008 that he HATED the red deck that was attached to the house. Not only was it a maintenance issue since the dogs were constantly destroying the painted wood with their nails, but the railings blocked his view of the yard. He told me one night at dinner, "I'm thinking of building a patio. What do you think?" I thought it was a fine idea. If the deck irritated him that much & if he was willing to do the work (which he always is), I was happy with whatever idea he came up with.

It took some time and some of help from both of our Fathers...

and a little help from C.

But mostly it was a lot of muscle and sweat equity from Mr. Crackers himself.

He is a do-it-yourselfer, no doubt about it.


Finally, after a month of weekends (and a month of tired muscles) Mr. Crackers finished it and it was beautiful. I was really proud of him - he did a terrific job. We've lived with our new patio for almost a year & I'm really glad he did it. He was right, it's a big improvement over the big red deck that once stood in its place.

The Cracker Family & patio - Easter 2009

So you might now be thinking to yourself, "Hey Mrs. Crackers it's Spring again. Does Mr. Crackers have a project on tap for this year?"

Yes, my friend, he does and it's already begun....

Aloha

This week my oldest hooligan is on Spring Break. K's Spring Break is a distant memory, having occurred more than two weeks ago. I spent most of her vacation sick with some kind of virus that left me without a voice (which was an occasion of great joy for my two hooligans) and with a very low energy level. We did absolutely nothing special for her break as I spent much of the time in the house trying to recover. I felt a little bad about that, but since she only attends school 2 days a week anyway, I'm not sure she noticed that she got a little ripped off in the Spring Break department.

I really want to tell you that the picture above was taken at the Honolulu airport as we arrived for a week at the beach for C's Spring Break. But, if I told you that, I'd be lying right through my disproportionately large teeth. Honestly, I took the picture in our kitchen about an hour ago as my two hooligans were messing around.

With the exception of a very fun night spent at our local Great Wolf Lodge this past Friday, C's spring break is proving to be almost as lackluster an event as K's. It seems pretty likely that one of highlights of his Spring Break may just be the purchase of the leis pictured above at the Dollar Tree earlier today.

Yesterday was spent inside due to never ending rain. The only time we made it out of the house was when C accompanied K and I to her weekly Kindermusik class. At 3 1/2, K is the oldest child in her class by about 7 months, so you can only imagine the thrills that awaited my 6 year old as we sang and danced our way through 45 minutes of such toddler favorites as "Little Liza Jane" and "The Donkey Goes Kick". I was a little worried, but he was a trooper & threw himself into the activities with his usual enthusiastic gusto even though I am sure he would have much rather spent the time doing something else.

Today's schedule of events was even more exciting. After dropping K off at school, C went with me to the salon so I could get my haircut. Wahoo! I know, I know. It would appear that I am not so good in the pre-planning department. Clearly C won't have to take up too much time with his recap of "What I did on Spring Break" when he returns to school next week.

He was really good about it, especially once I told him he could spend the 45 minutes I was in the salon playing his new Leapster game. ( I have already told him he can play Leapster again tomorrow when I will be dragging him along to K's morning swim lesson.)

Once my hair was done, we still had an hour to kill before we needed to get K at school. It was still raining, which eliminated going to any of our local parks to play. Since C has had a really great attitude about the lack of anything interesting happening on his Spring Break, I told him that we could go to the Dollar Tree so he could pick out a prize for being such a good kid.

Unexpectedly, he spent most of his time finding just the right present for K . When he saw the multi-color lei set, he knew he had found perfect gift. He then got himself a coordinating orange lei & also talked me into buying him an 8" plastic viking axe (not pictured above). Once I secured his promise that he would not get the axe anywhere near his younger sister, we made our purchases and headed to pick her up from school.

As he predicted, K was thrilled with her gift. Both hooligans have had a blast showing off their mad Hula skills (or doing the hoopda doopda dance as K calls it). While it may be chilly and raining outside, at least we can all dream we are somewhere sunny and warm. Maybe I'll work on my Photoshop skills so I can create some Hawaiian Spring Break beach photos. What are the odds they'll remember that we didn't go to Hawaii in 10 years?

On second thought, it's probably a better idea to keep those Spring Break expectations low.

A pink and sparkly Wednesday

On Wednesday, C's school had their annual White Elephant Sale. Kids in grades K-8 were asked to bring in toys that they didn't play with anymore to donate to the event. All of the toys were then priced and put on display for the big shopping extravaganza. All the students were allowed to bring up to $3.00 with them to school that day & were given about 15-20 minutes to shop the sale. All the proceeds were going to benefit "the Missions" (I am not sure which missions these are, but I it is held at a parochial school. I'm like 95% sure that they are sending the money to a worthy cause of some sort.)

K was really upset to learn that she was not allowed to shop at the sale. We pacified her by telling her she could come with me to Target that morning & pick out anything in the dollar section at the front of the store. Oddly, what caught her eye was not a toy. The item that she had to have; the item she clutched lovingly to her chest & would not let go of was a small bottle of pink glitter hair gel (or jelly as she called it). No amount of cajoling or other temptation would turn her attention from the pink princess glitter jelly. "Isn't it beautiful Momma?"

I put it in her hair once we got home & I learned that there must be a skill to get the glitter from the bottle into the hair that I do not possess. The gel part went into her hair no problem, but the glitter just didn't want to make the leap from my hands to her hair. No matter what I tried, my hands just kept getting more pink & sparkly and her hair just got more and more stiff. I think in total I probably only got about 5 pieces of glitter into her hair. On the upside, at least her hair stayed out of her eyes all afternoon. By the time I was done, I looked like I had raided Michael Jackson's glove drawer.

Once I was finally able to get all of the glitter off my hands it was time to pick the boys up from school. I got a little nervous as I waited in the carpool line & watched the teacher helping the kids out to the buses with giant shopping bags full of toys. I started wondering how much crap many cheap toys C would be bringing home with him. I felt a little bit better as he walked to the car & I noticed that he had no shopping bag. Whatever he had bought was small enough to fit in his school bag.

He got into the car & immediately started digging in his bag to proudly show off his purchases. The first thing that made it out of the bag and into his hand was a 4" high metal bee bobble-head figurine holding a shovel.

"Hmmm... is that what you picked out from the sale buddy?" (I thought that perhaps he had just grabbed the first items he saw once he got to the sale.)

"Yep, Momma. Isn't she cute? I got her for you!"

Holy Cow! I was in shock. I couldn't believe he used his money to buy me something at the sale. Not that C isn't a thoughtful boy, but I figured if you gave a 6 year old money and put him in a room filled with toys that he could buy, picking out gifts for family members wouldn't be something that would pop into his head right away.

"Did you get anything else? Did you get something for yourself at the sale?"

"Oh yeah, I got this too." he said as he pulled out a pink sequined phone with marabou trim.

"Wow...that sure is pink and sparkly." (even though it was the girliest thing I had ever seen, I was trying to assure him that he had spent his money wisely.)




"Yep, it sure is. I bought it for K 'cause I knew she'd love it."

Again, I was stunned. "That was so nice C! What a great big brother you are."

"Want to see what I got next? Look!!" He then pulled out 2 Batman figures. "One is for Daddy and one is for me. Which one do you think Daddy will like best?"

"Daddy will love whichever one you give him sweetheart. It was so nice that you thought of us while you were shopping today!" (Honestly the whole thing completely blew my mind).

"You want to know something else cool Momma?"

"What buddy."

"I even still have money left over!"

That's right. My son brought $3.00 to school and came home with gifts for everyone in the family & still had $1.25 left over. Truly shocking! Clearly I can learn a few things from my little man. I would have kept shopping until every last penny was spent. Perhaps I should turn over the household budget to him (of course I'll probably have to wait until he learns how to add and subtract...).