Nate and Tanja: End of School Brings Lydia's Birthday, Summer Fun, and Basement Remodel

We took advantage of a nice Saturday to go to Sandy Point State Park right on the Chesapeake Bay. We took a little hike just outside the park as part of Maryland's Park Quest program that gets us into several state parks for free, and then were able to get inside for a day of splashing and playing in the sand. I think there is still sand in the minivan from the activity, but we had a good time (everyone except Derek anyway, who was pretty cranky there). It probably had more to do with him not getting enough sleep or possibly the vaccine he got the day before, than wearing his sister's hat.

The girls were all smiles as they played in the sand and walked along the water's edge.

Derek is such a good helper. He takes his job of putting people's shoes by the front door very seriously. He will also help put away toys one by one as you hand them to him (though you have to be careful that he doesn't dump them all out so he can do it again). Here he is vacuuming to make sure the floor is clean.

Lydia's a good big sister and Derek thinks it's fun to do things the big kids do, like wear helmets.

Lydia made this tie-dye shirt at preschool and it has made its way into her regular wardrobe rotation.

Lydia turned four and is now officially a "big girl." She was so excited, as expected, and got exactly the cake that she wanted - chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles.

She managed to blow out her four candles after four or five tries.

Lydia's birthday happened to coincide with Karina's last day of school (Lydia's last day happened the previous week). It is apparently tradition around here to have a water fight and attack the kids (and the bus) after they are let off on the last day of school. I came home from work early for Lydia's birthday and to be there when Karina got off the bus and was greeted by Tanja asking me to fill up a bunch of water balloons so we could hurry to the bus stop. A silly tradition to be sure (and probably not very safe if everyone is throwing things at the buses too), but everyone had a lot of fun with it. After the initial volleys and barrage of water, the school kids get the rest of the balloons and squirt guns and go after each other. Maybe next year, we will send Karina to school wearing her swimsuit on the last day of school, just so she is prepared. Here are Karina, Lydia, and all the other kids before the water fight got too messy.

Lydia and Derek had fun with their water balloons.

And here's Karina, a little wetter than she started when she got off the bus, getting in on the fun.

The girls were playing super heroes one day and making capes. Lydia decided to turn hers into a hood and became Little Pink Riding Hood.

We had been talking for a while about remodeling our basement. The guest bedroom down there had no windows or overhead light, which kind of made it a dungeon, and we didn't like that you came down the stairs into a hallway. Our plan was to a) use the existing sliding glass door to provide natural light for a new bedroom that we would put a wall up to create, b) knock down the walls that were creating the existing guest bedroom so we would still have two sizable living areas downstairs, then c) add a second sliding glass door to still allow exit to the backyard from the downstairs living areas and provide more light. Ultimately, we decided the time had come, so we solicited some bids, found a contractor that we trusted and are moving forward. Once it is done, we will rip out the old carpet that had seen better days long before we moved in, and will install engineered hardwood flooring ourselves. So the next time we are entertaining overnight guests, hopefully they will have a nicer place to spend the night.

For frame of reference, here is the wall that was framing in the old guest bedroom.

And here is a picture from the same spot on the stairs with the wall that was removed.

Once the wall was removed, we realized that there was a six-inch deep difference between where the adjoining wall connected on either side of the old bedroom. After initial inspections, the contractor couldn't find any reason for that stretch of wall and we were going to move forward with knocking it down and adding about two square feet to our basement footprint of living space. Karina got to color on the wall with markers since it was going to be knocked down anyway, so here is a picture of her and her artwork.

Unfortunately, further inspection revealed that this section of wall enclosed our waste pipe for our water line, so Karina's artwork is still there and since it would be cost prohibitive to move the pipe, we are just going to deal with the jutting out section.

Here's a picture after they had framed the wall for the new bedroom and cut a hole through our concrete for the new door. Notice the two sliders right next to each other with the studs in between them. The red poles in front of the hole are holding up the brace to maintain structural integrity since there is no longer concrete to keep things up, and they hadn't installed the support beams yet.