Monday, November 14, 2011

Birthday weekend

This picture was just too cute to pass up. Aunt Sis's birthday was on Friday and Daddy's birthday was on Sunday so we spent the weekend with Grandma and Papa celebrating birthdays. Elise was really into helping in the kitchen to get ready for lunch. Here she is helping Aunt Sis get some jelly out for the yummy rolls we ate, along with all the other food.

Friday, November 11, 2011

New coat


These pictures were taken a few weeks ago when we had a cold snap. The winter/snow coat that she wore last year actually fits, but it is a little tight. We bought this Columbia interchange jacket last year for $20. It is perfect! We are all big fans of Columbia. We took this picture before we went for a walk one night. We are trying to go every night for at least a short one, until it just gets too cold (for mom). She is all about the 'cheese.' And believe it or not, she chose to put the boots on too.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Cincinnati part2

So, this entry and the pictures will be what you make of them. *read-contemporary
One of the other days we were in Cincy and wandering around we decided to go to a Contemporary Art Museum. Now, I am not much of an art person so I had a little more fun just trying to take pictures than actually looking at the art. Now, the artists are very creative and talented, but honestly sometimes I have no idea what they are doing or where they are going with some of the pieces.

The fun part was actually on the top floor on the museum. They called in an Un-museum. It was a place for kids to look and enjoy 'art'. They were encouraged to touch and explore the exhibits. 
This picture is exactly what it looks like...a trailer. I didn't read the little sign that said what it was really supposed to be, but I am sure we can all use our imaginations and come up with something. The best part was that you could go inside and it rocked/bounced. Elise really liked going in there because she could sit on a bench inside (padded, for everyone's protection) and 'bounce' around. Like I said...art?

This wall was interesting because the little gray box had buttons on it labeled with musical chords. Then when you pushed the button it made (was supposed to) the sound of that cord and it lit up one of the colored squares. It was fun to play around with, but Matt and I weren't really convinced that they were the right sounds.

This is what you saw when you got upstairs. It was just made out of all different kinds of materials.


This is the information about the next exhibit. It is kind of self explanatory when you read it, but definitely one of the more interesting things to see.
(my flash is over the word 'different'. just insert the word when you read about this exhibit and it will make sense)
Elise really liked this exhibit because she could open some of the drawers and see what was inside or it made a really cool sound. I bet we spent a good 10-20 minutes just playing with all the drawers. There was one drawer in particular that she wanted to open over and over. I'll load a video if it because pictures/video can say so much more than I could write.
This was a kind of story wall. It classic tales printed on the wall. As you can see it was pretty large because that is Aunt Sis looking at one of the books.



The rest of the pictures are just some other things in the museum. After one or two floors someone finally told me that I wasn't actually supposed to take pictures. The pictures with Elise in them, I know she liked making the shadows on the wall more that she cared about what was actually being projected onto the wall. (digital art)










Here is a link to the video. Dancing
Sara M-J, I know you will get a kick out of the video. Looks like we might have a fan on our hands. (you will understand when you watch the video.)

New Door

We have been talking about replacing our front door for some time now. For two reasons...1) You could see light underneath it when it was closed. So you KNOW there was hot/cold air coming and going. And 2) because our door was kind of ugly and boring. It didn't have a window in it so it made the foyer very dark.
Well, I forgot to take a before picture, but I did manage to take a during picture.
The best part about this 'during' picture was that it shouldn't have even happened. These pictures were taken when an electrician was rewiring our lights to the front porch. That's right...rewiring, as in a completely new wire because the old one had been cut in half. The guy that was installing our door accidentally cut through the wire when he was removing the old door frame. He wasn't able to remove it without using a saw, which in all reality should have been completely okay, except that it is OUR house and there is nothing standard, normal or run-of-the-mill about it. For some stupid reason, when they build the house they ran the wire right along the top of the door, instead of up and out of the way. That is why the installer accidentally cut it.
I actually felt kind of bad for him. He had no way of knowing that wire was there, and then he had to wait around while I found someone who could come out right away, then wait another 1.5 hours for them to rewire it. All told it took about 6 hours for the installer to finish the door. The other real sacrifice we had to make was that it got pretty chilly in the house, what with having no front door. I'm definitely glad we didn't wait any longer.
 TA-DA! The finished door.

I really do like that it lets in light, and we have the privacy of a solid door. We didn't want one that Leinie could look out either because he is bad enough with other windows in the house. If he was actually able to see people at the door, I don't think our door would stay as pretty. So project #15 of 2,000 is done. (note-not exact numbers, but that is what it feels like.)