William's 13th Birthday

My baby boy is now a teenager!  His birthday was the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, so we were able to have family in town for several days.   They got to partake in a Little League game and we ate out for hibachi, which is his favorite food!  Other highlights were that I made an Oreo flavored cake, and we were dog sitting Rosie, so she got in on the weekend of fun, too!

On his actual birthday, William hosted a pool party for his school friends.   His three best friends couldn't make it (one boy was out recovering from COVID; one was hiding from COVID before their much delayed and finally rescheduled family vacation to Italy the next weeks; and one was at their lake house for the holiday weekend), but frankly with the 4 boys that were able to make it, we had a great entre into hosting pool parties!    

For his birthday gift, the week before he had chosen a trip to Target to pick out Lego and Halo sets, as well as powdered sugar and chocolate plastic glazed mini donuts!  He was in heaven!   Mom and Dad thought that was pretty easy, too!

It's crazy to watch him growing up, but wow, do we love this kid!

Ryan and Tarek were staying with us and so we had another pool party on Monday - ok, maybe you just call it a pool day when it's the people who live here....

Other Winter and Spring Happenings

Around all the big adventures and travels, we had some normal, everyday things to celebrate, as well

William had an ELA assignment called Book Report in a Bottle.  He decorated a water bottle with the main character of a book he read.    And he participated in another math contest.  This one at St. Francis High School.  He was also one of the highest scorers in the school qualifier for Mathletics and participated in the Regional competition.  Unfortunately it was online.  And then the competition day ended up being a snow day so he had to do it from our dining room table under odd circumstances (test on his Chromebook with his personal laptop set to Zoom to have eyes on him to proctor him).  He did not advance to the state competition.

The 7th Grade Science Fair was the culmination of the entire semester in science class.  They do a neat curriculum where the ELA class time is used to write the essay and supporting documents.   I had to prod him a bit in building out his foam board.  He had a great project idea and results; I just don't think he understood how to make it present next level.  He got a Gold but was not one of the projects to advance to state.  I had a great time as a judge for the science fair.   

On one of those really, really cold Saturdays, his Boy Scout Troop did the Klondike Derby.  Always a good time, and made better with snow to push the sleds.

I took a team to an Escape Room after work one day.  We made it out of our art heist themed room.

I built a second compost bin, so there could be a rotation.    The first compost bin was ready for spring planting!

William received the Tenderfoot Rank in Scouts.   His goal is to achieve First Class before 8th grade starts.   He should be able to get 2nd Class and 1st Class done with the activities planned for summer camp.   I sat on a Board of Review one month and really enjoyed hearing other scouts in his troop discuss their activities for rank advancement.    Two were Life Scouts which is the step immediately before Eagle Scout.

Baseball started in April.  It's an early season this year (mid-April to first of June).  I didn't mind the COVID schedule of the past few years where we played May/June/early July.    Fewer rainy, cold days.  Good or bad, the worst weather day (cold, sleet, 8 p.m. start time) was one where our neighbor Lori took him so John and I could go to a retirement party for one of my partners.  She may not forgive us for that one!

Over Mother's Day weekend, I requested my traditional herb garden planting and a clean out of the garage.   This year we bought new containers that sit over the deck railing to keep the herbs out of the bunnies and squirrels' easy access.    So far so good.   The tomato plants are on the deck, so hopefully they aren't too tempting for the critters.

The Kitchen

 We knew when we bought the house that we wanted to gut the aging kitchen.   Our first meeting with the general contractor, custom cabinet maker and designer were the day of the home inspection in July.   It was a good thing we got that early start because it was February before we could get slotted into everyone's schedule.   The project last roughly 8 weeks from demo to completion.   Though as of this writing, the stove was still MIA with a "not likely before August" delivery date attached.  This...for an appliance we ordered in late September 2021.   

Our GC was really good at getting all the subs lined up and in and out mostly aligned with the original timeline he gave us.   It was hard to be without a kitchen - and have a worksite in its place - for so many weeks.  Especially since the kitchen is in the center of our home.    But we didn't eat out as often as I would have guessed.   I did quite a bit of prep work in advance to have pancakes, seasoned taco meat, shredded cooked chicken and cube, ready to cook chicken breasts in the freezer, so we could make many of our favorite, quick meals easily.   We had an Instant Pot, Air Fryer (which was rarely used), large capacity toaster oven (big enough for a weekly frozen pizza meal) or a 9x13 casserole dish,  a microwave and an electric skillet.   So....really the hardship was boiling water for pasta and the lack of a dishwasher.  We did our dishes in the laundry room sink and mostly avoided using disposables.

The biggest changes in the layout are a freestanding stovetop/oven versus the wall ovens and the cooktop taking up half the island.    Our new island is HUGE and has seating for 6, so we moved our kitchen table to the basement for a game table.   We also gained a ton of storage with ceiling height cabinets, double pantries flanking the fridge, more storage in the island, and our old walk in pantry converted to a mudroom of sorts with a hidden door next to the new custom designed coffee bar.  

Before from the MLS photos.  I don't see to have many from the 6 months we had our things in it.  This was also before we had the wood floors redone in August.   

During (including our makeshift kitchen/prep area in the living room - complete with a plug where we could run either the microwave or the toaster oven but not both together - and the dining room that had to actually function for eating in addition to homework in addition to storage for the appliances that had arrived)

Our basement ceiling also had to be cut out for electrical and plumbing work.  So the basement wasn't even a safe place to hang out for a few weeks!   

After: