Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Abbie's Class

School has been out for about 5 weeks now and it appears the girls miss it.  Abigail's stuffed animals are getting quite an education....



Teacher Abigail
But it seems pupil Miriam needs a nap!


Last week we had box day, when all of our new school book arrived.  Abigail loaded up this rolling cart with the books and was reading some of them to her animals and little sister.  She finished the new Mind Benders book in two days so I guess we will be asking for more, for her birthday in a few weeks.  She is also enjoying her new multiplication audio CD and the Perables home Ec. book I got her.  I am so glad she enjoys learning and hey, they are keeping her busy!

Potty School Update and going up North

We have ventured out into the wide world and done pretty well with potty school.  There have been a few accidents but mostly that was because I was distracted and doing other things.  That would be why I put this off until the school year was over!  

Yesterday we went up to my sister's place in Vancouver.  They moved in a few weeks ago and I hadn't gotten up there yet.  She is doing a great job of making it cute and it has a nice open layout.  It is also only 3 min. from my Brother-in-law's work so that is a wonderful thing.  My younger niece took it upon herself to help Miriam with going potty.  This is Mim's favorite cousin and she loved having "Fia" help her.

I also had the privilege of hanging out with my friend Sarah and her brand new baby girl.  I went to the hospital and spent a few hours with them.  She is so sweet and tiny and it was great to hold her and I had a lovely visit with Sarah and her mom.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Potty Training Report

"Potty School" started Monday. 

Day one:  We only went through 3 pair of princess panties.  Pretty darn good for our first day.

Day two: Miriam was seen going on the carpet and then clapping and said "Yea! Me potty!".  Hmmm, we are missing a fundamental concept here....

Day three: Dry all day - Hurray for the Cinderella panties!

Day four:  Miriam has stay dry all day and for some reason is wearing 2 pairs of panties.  Hey, you don't question the 2 yo who is staying dry for the second day in a row!  This last time she even climbed up on her own stuck her hand out and told me "away" because she wanted to do it herself.

If she keeps this up I will be shocked but so far, so good.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

This Old Boat - Update

The floor is now in place, the trim wood has been fitted, and the standing rigging is installed.

Here the girls help celebrate the first raising of the mast since October!



Compared to the peak of the roof on our house, a 21 foot mast seems pretty tall!



The trim wood has been drilled and bolted. I'll be removing it for final finishing work, but even unfinished it gives the boat some elegance.



Still to do is painting the bottom of the boat, finishing the wood bits, putting together the running rigging, installing the centerboard, and some other miscellaneous stuff. Not too much to go. With the beautiful weather this weekend I was tempted just to dump it in the lake as is!

Miriam figures the boat is a playground, and try as I might to keep her safely in the cockpit area, she quickly crawls on the deck as soon as I turn my back. Just as we were packing things up today she had a mighty fall backwards off the deck onto the driveway, she's OK other than a big bump on the back of her head. Hopefully she'll heed my words of caution from now on to stay in the cockpit!

Sunday, June 01, 2008

This Old Boat - Update

This last two months my boat project has involved much body work and paint prep. After grinding off the old paint (see my previous post!) the hull was in pretty bad shape, you can see all the spots that needed filler putty:







After a number of rounds of putting the filler on, sanding it down, putting more on, sanding that down, etc... it was time to make it really smooth with glazing putty.

Pretty in pink?



And after sanding that down it's starting to look like a calico cat!



Then the primer went on, followed by more sanding, more primer, more sanding, paint, more sanding, and more paint. Now the boat is about the same color as the background of this web page, a beautiful blue that is dark navy in the shadows and bright in direct light.





Abbie was wondering why I painted my sawhorses...



The boat was wrapped up like a present while I painted the deck.



The deck paint was a different type than the hull and for some reason I didn't get it to go on nearly as nicely. But it is serviceable, maybe next spring I'll do a little more body work to the deck and paint on a better quality finish there to match the nice finish on the hull.



Next I'll get the boat back on the trailer, do some paint work to the underside of the hull and begin adding in the wood trim and fixing the rigging. We're not too far from getting out on the lake!