Hunting for Trash or Treasures?

Kityee and Katyee are always looking for new supplies for their projects.

Recently, they learned that the local Habitat for Humanity had a place where they put scrap lumber and other building material that people could take for free.

One of the finds they came home with were the new flooring boards being used for one of our tables.  

They also discovered the flooring boards work well upside down to provide a different look.

The last time Auntie went for a counselor appointment Kityee and Katyee couldn't go.  Krystal chose to go to town with Nana and Auntie to see the materials site.

First, she came to a large plastic container with smaller scraps.  


Even after piling some boards to stand on Krystal wasn't tall enough to see to the bottom easily.  It was almost empty when she finished taking boards out.
  


It was surprising to her how much there was to look at and the amount of climbing around she had to do.  It took a lot of moving around to see it all and pull out what she wanted.

She found a large number of boards and scraps for them.

There are boards the twins have been wanting for bed frames.  Some of the scraps will work for their rock garden plans.  And some, who knows.  The kindling pile will get the scraps.


Her favorite find was the flat rectangular board with the routed edges that will be a great table top. It just needs refinished and legs put on.

Krystal said she wished someone had gone with her to share the adventure.  It would have been even more fun with a friend.

She wants to go again as soon as she can.  I think I would like to go with her.  

I can use boards for fencing and out around the barn and sheds.  It can be rougher than what the twins need.

She said one of the guys who worked there looked at her like she was strange, having her photo taken with a pile of scrap lumber.  Too bad, he'll never see how neat it turns out.

Do any of you have places you go for free building materials?  We could use more ideas.

Coming Home

Me again.

You won't believe this, but, I packed the camera and can't get to it in the back of the Trailblazer.

Kyle is going to make fun of me for months over the way I blew the picture taking and blogging this week.  And who knows when I'll get to try it again.

Coming home was a quick trip.  We stopped in Walla Walla to give some boxes to a thrift shop.

And we stopped a McDonalds in Milton-Freewater for food and drinks.  Reeces really likes their chicken nuggets.

And we stopped very briefly at Morning Creek Sno-park again.  Reeces didn't even get out.  Guess she was worn out too.

We had a lot of fun at Aunt Mary's; but it sure feels good to be home and to be going to bed in our own beds.

Pirate Party by Krystal

Sunday.  
We had our pirate party today.

We scrounged up pirate outfits for everyone who wanted one.  Two of the girls wanted to just wear their outfits made with a pirate print to show support without wearing costumes.

We had cupcakes and other great snacks.  We told pirate stories and laughed at each others attempts to talk "pirate talk".

Then, Mara was teasing McKenna by threatening to dump a cupcake in her clean hair.  And oops, she accidently dropped it upside down in her hair.  She is seen here running from the room, hoping McKenna doesn't have a good enough aim to throw it into her hair while she is on the run.

And poor Jose, got attacked by Emma and Taryn who had been sword fighting.  We couldn't believe it when they turned on her.  After all, she had been nice enough to loan them her sword so they could have their sword fight.  

After a week in this family Jose will never be the same.

It was so much fun.  I wish all of my sisters and cousins could have been there.

David's Birthday by Krystal

Saturday.  It's David's Birthday.

David stayed all night with his Grandma.

That gave the other adults a chance to set up for the party and to run the last minute errands.  Things like picking up balloons and the cake.

It was a Monster Truck party.  

His cake was a red Monster Truck.  It was very cute.

I got caught peeking under the plastic for a look at his cake before he got to see it.  It also gave me the opportunity to check out the flavor of the frosting.  Cherry frosting, it was good.

David got to be the first one to play in the bounce house.  There was time after his nap and before the party started.  At first, he was more interested in how the air pump worked than he was in bouncing.  But, he soon got the feel for it and then wore out the whole family getting them to bounce with him.

He insisted Reeces wear a party hat.  Auntie got a picture of them together in their hats.  Then he had his picture taken with me in a party hat.

They had a pinata for the party.  It was so well built the adults finally had to break. When they did, the candy went everywhere.  So everyone had fun with it.

His main gift was his car.  He did real well driving it.  He was thrilled that it had reverse and at first, he wanted to shift every few feet.  It was a very jerky looking ride.

By the time the party clean-up was done we were all worn out.  We went to bed early that night.

Camping 2 by Krystal

Hello

Here is more about our wonderful camping trip.  Friday morning, before we had even had breakfast, a big bunch of huge balloons floated over our campsite.

They were beautiful.  We were able to watch them for a long time.

After they flew away we had a great breakfast of blueberry pancakes, sausage links and yogurt.

Then, we cleaned up our camp and headed back to Aunt Mary's house.

That evening we played games and watched movies.  I let the camera batteries go dead and forgot to recharge them in time to get any photos.

Most of the girls were lounging in their pj's and had wet hair or rollers in their hair and were glad I didn't have a camera.

It was fun and we have our memories, even if we don't have it in an album.

Camping 1 by Krystal

OOOps!!

Kyle is pretty upset with me.  I talked him into letting me write on his blog while Morgan, Nana, Auntie and I traveled to the Tri-Cities to visit friends.  I promised I'd get blogs out each day.  But. there was so much going on.  I didn't get it done.  I'm going to post these in for those days and hope he forgets someday.

After traveling over there on Wednesday, Thursday we went camping.  There were 10 of us. It was chaos, but so much fun.

Most of us were sleeping in the three tents.  But, some of the girls wanted to sleep under the stars.  They said the sky was awesome in the middle of the night .

Almost all of us have sleeping bags made by Nana Kathie.  That way we get the choose the color and pictures on our sleeping bags.  Mine is Hot Air Balloons.  Morgans is Sailing Ships.  There were Polar Bears, Purple with Butterflies, Skulls, Whales, and Leopards.  The others will get theirs when they pick out their fabrics.,

After camp was set up, some girls went for a hike and then, we sat around the campfire talking.  Most of the talk was about what we want made to wear for the next parties and the holidays coming up.

After dinner we sang songs and told campfire stories.

Jose had never been camping before.  When the sun started going down she was a little afraid.  Mara gave her a doll to play with and Krystal gave her a lantern.  Everyone tried to reassure and comfort her.  It didn't take her long to relax and be an excited part of the group again.

It was a great day.

Traveling by Krystal

We're finally on our way.  It took Auntie TracyAnn forever to load the car.  It takes so much stuff when you travel with a cocker spaniel and four girls.


This is going to be fun.  David's 3rd birthday party, a pirate party, sewing for us, playing "hand and foot" and a camping trip.  If we're lucky we'll do some shopping too.

Tollgate is so pretty this time of year.  It is still green.  Some of the shrubs have started turning brown, but the trees are still very green.

Reeces likes to stop and play at the sno-parks every time we go across the mountain.  Our first stop is Andes Sno-park.  She, Nana and Auntie got out to explorer.  We four girls stayed in the car at this stop.  It looked awfully dusty and dirty here.  And we're in a hurry to see our friends.


Her next stop was a Meadow Creek Sno-park.  We got out here.  


This is where we like to go in the winter to play in the snow.


Reeces only got two stops today.  I guess Nana and Auntie are anxious to finish the trip too.

When we got here we went to the girls house and spent time visiting.  

Krystal and Emma were tying to decide what would make good "Gothic Pirate" outfits. 

 I was trying to decide what to put into this blog.

For dinner we had a birthday party for Aunt Mary's brother, Mike.  The cake was red velvet cupcakes.  They were wonderful.  This party was a surprise to us and Mike.  This is going to be a great trip.