Too many fun activities to find a 'good' title for this post!

Enjoying ice cream at Great Grandma Reta's retirement living dining room!! 

KTK, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jim

Great Grandma Reta, Kennon, and Maddox. 

Playing the piano in one of Great Grandma Reta's community rooms.  My kids' first experience with a piano!! FUN!!

Riding Grandpa Jim's 4x4 and John Deere tractor. Right up KTK's alley. 

Grandpa Jim and KTK

So two weekends ago Grandpa Jim was supposed to come to our house to assist Eric is burying our sump pump discharge hose and one of the gutters on the front side of our house....but with all the rain we've been having we had to 'ditch' that plan so we loaded up and headed West for a visit to their house instead.  We had a nice time hanging out at Great Grandma Reta's apartment. She lives in a retirement community that has independent living, assisted living, community restaurants and dining rooms as well as a nursing home. Her apartment/facility is beautiful, complete with an elevator and a self serve soft ice cream machine ( which is a common item....I run into these machines a lot in my work travels). The kids loved the ice cream, piano and Great Grandma Reta's neighbor's dog Harper. After our visit with her we headed out to the Knowles homestead and had a great lunch, played with all the cool toys and Deuce, Grandpa and Grandma's big black lab, and then headed outdoors for a little riding toy experience.  We had a great time!!  

Finally warm enough for pig tails. 

Pink polka dots, pink skirt, and pig tails....off to church school. 

Leaning in to give Great Grandma Berg a hug

Sunday, Mother's Day, we spent the day up at Grammy and Papa Dick's after I completed the 1/2 marathon I'd be training for. The day was a bit breezy and chilly but I ended up having a great race and got to spend some good quality time with my running buddies. We then loaded up and headed East for the Berg homestead. Grammy looked great and had good energy. She and Papa Dick and even Great Grandma Berg got in on some hugs and toy playin' and ipad watchin'.  We had a nice lunch and most importantly it was nice to spend the time together as a family.  

Ipad time and Grammy rest time

Not sure why KTK has his mouth hanging open....the kids were on the bed almost motionless for almost an hour....a record 

So we are almost at the finish line with the basement.  Everything is basically done they are just touching up some paint issues and making final adjustments on the cabinet doors etc. We are REALLY happy with it.  I can't believe it is almost done.  

The new bathroom.  We haven't quite hung up the shower curtain as the paint hasn't cured yet for the rod, but ya get the idea.  We arrived at this curtain after searching at MULTIPLE stores right Eric??? :) 

Just missing the mirror for above the vanity. Should be here in the next week or so.  

Our new STORAGE closet at the foot of the steps.  Mostly shelving for supplies/stuff and a little hanging room for out of season coats which we desperately needed. 

Our new super duper double sump pump with battery backup!! We take so much pride in this thing that it gets it's own nice wire shelving :)  I didn't realize the carpet was going to completely surround the sump. Gives it a nice and clean look.

Treadmill still covered with plastic.  There are a few imperfections in the paint the painters will be back to touch up so we haven't uncovered it as of yet. 

The contractor has happily agreed to order 3 new doors and re stain them as there are 3 doors that don't belong with the others ( hmmmmm that reminds me of some IPTV kid song). I'll let you decide which 3 doors we are not happy with :)  We are glad he didn't put up a fight and wants us to be happy with the final product. All the little white tape spots have been ear marked by the contractor for the painters/dry wall guys to come back and fix up. 

Don't need a caption for this one.....!! We love it.  Art supplies in the drawers on the left and garbage in the cabinet on the right....wine to be store in the 'X' above the sink!! No need for explanation as to what goes in the fridge..... :) 

The new playroom!!  

Already in use.  I love this happy blue color.  

The kids have been doing well.  Kennon is a talking fool when he gets on a roll which is usually daily post a meal and while we are playing.  Tonight he said 'Daddy put lotion there'.... pointing to his leg!  He is getting very good at telling us what he wants AND what he doesn't want! He loves to be outside and lets the neighborhood know when we have decided it is time to come inside.  Today he found the mud puddle between a couple of our neighbors houses and fell down in it and was completely COVERED in mud and sidewalk chalk before we ended up making him come in.  His jeans came off right at the laundry room.  Maddox barely had a lick of chalk on her....such different kids.  She is doing ok.  I actually took her to see Dr. Delessio, our new pediatrician as Dr. Anderson is retiring :(   today. She started complaining her right ear was hurting early this AM.  She just got over an infection in her LEFT ear about 2 weeks ago.  Sure enough though, Dr. Delessio said her right ear was infected. So this will actually be the third infection since about mid to late February. She advised sometimes this happens with preschool age children and if she got another infection in the next 6 months we'd be visiting the ENT.  Kennon went for his 6 month check for his tubes last week. The tubes are still in place and functioning well. No plans to remove them at this point in time. Maddox only has 1.5 weeks left of church school. Then she will be off for the summer. She is signed up for several camps including a dance camp at the Children's Museum which she is VERY excited about.  Tonight the tractors were moving about the farm to the East of our house. Maddox was very quick to TEACH ( as she does so often) Kennon all about tractors. She said very educationally 'the tractors go down the row in the field to spread the corn so that it turns into flowers'....eh??  Not sure how she got the flower part but it was super cute how she telling Kennon and I all about how the corn and tractors work.  KTK is still a construction fool.  He knows what roads in town likely having scoops, construction equipment and gets upset if I don't turn the van onto the particular roads. 

The playroom closet. Shelving on the left for toys and a hanging area on the right for when we actually turn it into a 5th bedroom in the future. 

The closet under the steps.  Eric put in these nice wire shelves for paint/supplies. This is a solid door rather than a hollow door. We have designed this to be our storm shelter and will have a bin with a weather radio/supplies/flashlights etc.  Never can be too sure with all the crazy weather we have been having over the last couple of years.