Pool Party

Sunday Sarah spent the day over at a friend’s house. She was invited to come over and go swimming and stay for a cookout with her family and friends. Kris and I didn’t know who this girl is and I am starting to get confused with all the friends that Sarah is making.

We are so proud of how well Sarah has adjusted to middle school. We were worried it was going to be like kindergarten where she was so shy and didn’t want to be away from us. Now it seems like we’ll be struggling to have her want to spend time with her family. But that is understandable, especially at the age she is right now. Check back in 4 or 5 years and we’ll see if this prediction comes true.

Driveway

Over the Memorial day weekend, I decided to seal the driveway again. This has to be the one duty that gets done every year that I just absolutely hate! However, I also realize that this is necessary to prolong the life of the pavement. The driveway has actually probably need to be replaced for the last few years, and I just keep trying to patch and seal ti in order to get a little extra life out of it. A couple of years ago before the garage was replaced I had a blacktop guy come and quote it out for me and the cost then was in the neighborhood of $4500. I have to believe that concrete is going to be more expensive.


But you can see the cracks are getting pretty bad.



And this is what it looked like right afterward. Over the next couple of days, I am sure the cracks will come back, especially with the heat from the sun. But it has to be better than not doing it right?

Kids Choice Day

Today was kid's choice day at Riverside, Ali's last one. She got all of her choices, which were:

Cheerleading
Center Stage Dance
Clay Pens

And luckily the cheerleader that they had was Leah, who happened to be the girls' babysitter last summer. I think that was her favorite thing of the day. She said that there were a lot of girls who picked cheerleading, but I think that Ali got some special attention because she knew Leah (which makes me happy).

I didn't get a summary of the Center Stage workshop, though I am pretty sure that she enoyed it. Ali has a couple of friends who participate in Center Stage, and she loves to dance, so what could go wrong right?

The clay pens was also fun for her. She'll be getting her pen back tomorrow once the clay is hard and dry. Maybe I can post a photo of her pen when she gets it home.

Maple Seeds

I remember one of the things I hate about spring in Wisconsin, the helicopters, aka maple seeds. They get everywhere! I sucked up a ton when cutting the grass this past weekend, then vacuumed up more off of the patio, and blew them out of the gutters and off the roof of the garage and house.

A day and a half later you couldn't tell. Kris has been vacuuming them up on almost a daily basis, and today I spent almost another hour doing it again. Not to mention the fact that they have coated the cocoa mulch and I can't get them out without removing all the mulch as well.

I will be glad when these things are done dropping.

Hornets

Last weekend while getting the lawn mower out of the shed behind the garage, I was welcomed by being buzzed by a wasp, or was it a hornet? or yellow jacket? I can't tell them apart. There was a nest being made in the ceiling just inside the door. I sneaked in, got the hornet and wasp spray and shot it down. This was the second time in two weeks I have had to get rid of a wasp's nest.

So tonight after getting back from our walk, Kris was tending to her flower pot on the front porch. As she was, I noticed a wasp land on the porch railing and proceed to walk into the opening in the siding where it is mounted to the house. I walked a little closer to take a look, and yep... There was a nest being made just inside, under the siding.

Another shot with the wasp and hornet spray took care of it, but now I think I really need to give the exterior of the house a good once over. I have a feeling this is going to be like summer three years ago. We had wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, bees... everything. I think I knocked down five separate nests that year as well as cleaning out traps very two days. I'm not going to be looking forward to this summer if this is going to be the case.

Toy Story

Sunday Night, we decided to, as a family, watch the greatest PIXAR movie ever, Toy Story. I have been trying to get the girls pumped up for the release of Toy Story 3 for the past couple of weeks. However, Alison knows nothing about Toy Story. We had it on an old VHS tape which I bought when it was first released about 10 years ago. However, since the demise of the video cassette, we haven't had a VHS player so all the Disney videos have been sitting in a cabinet collecting dust.

So first, I have to say that I am VERY partial to Toy Story. I absolutely love the concept. Who else but Disney would have thought of this idea? It is more than just "what if children's toys had their own lives when the kids aren't around". It emcompasses the relationship between the toys. How the child's favorite toy is essentially "President" and what would happen to that hierarchy should it ever change. AWESOME IDEA!

So I promised Alison that we would watch Toy Story and Toy Story 2 before The third installment came out June 18th. She totally loved it. In the final sequence when Woody and Buzz are trying to catch up to the moving van as Andy's family is moving, she was actually "rooting" for Buzz and Woody to catch up to the van, out loud! I think that is the mark of a really great movie. To get the viewer so involved in the story that they feel like an extended character.

Sarah, while I am sure we watched it with her when she was a baby, said she had never seen it either. And while not as excited as Alison, she enjoyed it as well. So the original Toy Story gets two thumbs up from the Hahns. Next up, Toy Story 2. I thought I had a copy of it on DVD, but I can't find it. So I need to track down a copy within the next week so we are prepared for the big screen release of Toy Story 3 in a few weeks.

Cleaning the Gutters

I decided to clean out the gutters yesterday after cutting the grass. There were lots of maple seeds stuck in the covers I had on them that I couldn't get out, so I ended up taking the covers off. I haven't had them off in two years so I decided to go all out and completely clean them out.

There was a nice layer of dirt and dust on the bottom of the gutters as well as a few leaves and seeds around the wire traps I have in the downspounts. The worst was doing the one up on the second floor dormer in the back. It took forever to get the covers off and Sarah was freaking out that I was going to slip and fall. I told her not to worry because the life insurance was paid up. She didn't find that amusing.

After about three hours, I had all the sludge out, so we should be good now for another two years.