Playhouse - Phase 2

It was really cold and rainy in Houston when we returned from Broken Bow but the weather has cleared and it has been cool and sunny over the Thanksgiving week-end. I have been in Kuala Lumpur the past 2 Thanksgivings so poor Roger has missed his favorite holiday meal. Kyle, Heather and the girls are in Biloxi with Kyle's family so I cooked a small turkey with dressing and mashed potatoes for the 2 of us. It was delicious - not that I'm that great a cook - we were just really hungry for our traditional meal!
This has been a great time to work on the playhouse. The girls spent the night with us on Tuesday and we went to Home Depot to pick out supplies on Wednesday morning. Samantha and Emily were a big help and used their math skills to help us count and figure out cost. Everyone they saw was told all about how Grandpa is building them a playhouse!!
I was looking at fresh Christmas wreaths on the way in and said I wanted one for my house - Emily said "Excuse me, you don't have a house!"
Roger does the building and I do the carting, carrying and clean-up - sort of the work sight squaw! We are making progress....

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Wall #1

Wall #2

Broken Bow, OK

We spent last week at Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow, OK with friends - Gary, Ann, Dan and Pam. Beautiful fall weather and color until Friday when winter blew in! Dan and Pam are younger than we are but just got fed up with the stress of jobs etc. so sold everything, moved into their motorhome and are now "full timers" like us! Gary and Ann are getting ready to do the same when Gary retires next October. Proof that we are not the only crazy people out there!

Good friends, good food and plenty of good laughs!



We played golf - sunny but cool - this is the 16th "island" green

Dan, Gary, Pam, Ann, Roger



We camped along the river where the eagles dived for fish

 

Superhero - Bepa

"Bepa" is what the girls call Kyle's Dad. Samantha is studying about Superhero's at school - not TV/movie ones but everyday hero's. Wendell was interviewed on the local TV station recently for a story regarding driving while using a cell phone. Sharon posted it on Facebook and I showed it to the girls when they were here visiting. This essay is the result. She had to point out that only 5 essays out of the whole second grade were chosen to be displayed in the hall and that the second grade at Hubenak is bigger than Emily's entire school! I know I am prejudiced but her writing, spelling and penmanship - compared to the others - was amazing! Just a bragging Tima!!

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Playhouse - Phase 1

I talked Roger into building a playhouse for Samantha and Emily for Christmas this year. We knew we had to get Kyle and Heather's approval (think Kyle was afraid his mother-in-law might move in when the kids outgrew it!) but, we also had to get the Homeowners Association to sign off on the plan, the size and the location in their yard. After much research and discussion, I bought a plan online and we got everything approved - ready to buy supplies and get started - right? - wrong!! Seems we (all 4 of us) didn't communicate as well as we thought and we ended up starting all over again. New plan, new location, new permission from the HOA.
Roger wanted to get started setting the blocks it will sit on so we started before we got the formal OK. He and Kyle figured it was low risk - we didn't change that much in the plan - figured it would be approved again so we dug out sod and leveled the blocks yesterday morning and built the floor.

The approval came in the mail in the afternoon with one caveat that was not in the first letter they sent  - "It must be located 6 feet from the property line." Guess what?! Yup, today we filled in what we dug up yesterday and moved the playhouse to a different location! Hopefully, this is the end of our problems. Why don't our projects go as easily as the ones on the DIY network?

The girls are excited and Heather and I are anxious for the decorating stage!

Stay tuned........

Top Golf

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

We all went to Austin this past week-end to celebrate Kyle's birthday (11-10) and an early Thanksgiving. It was beautiful weather so we (us women!) decided we did not want to stay home cooking all day on Saturday and ordered a fully cooked turkey from Luby's cafeteria. That way all we had to do was make the side dishes. Not the best Thanksgiving dinner we've ever had but...we were all together for the first time in several years so we were thankful anyway! My gravy was a total disaster without turkey fat - should have bought a package of gravy mix! We all thought of Izetta - she could make delicious gravy out of nothing!!

We went to Top Golf on Saturday afternoon. What a unique place! Those that have never heard of it should check it out on the Internet - most of them are in Texas. In a nutshell - it is a 3 level golf driving range with computers that allow you to select different games and that keeps score for everyone. You can bring your own clubs or they have clubs available - even for "lefties" and kids. Fun for the whole family!

They have other games; serve food and liquor and cater parties. Carlos said they have the 3rd highest booze sales in Austin! I guess bars are typically open at night and here people drink all day long!!

On Sunday, we went to a Farmer's Market and then went Geo caching at a nearby park. The girls were so excited to explain it to Grandpa and I and when we actually found the hidden "treasure" they went crazy! Another fun family activity.

Kyle's best friend from college, his best man at the wedding, and his wife now live in Austin so we brought the girls back to Houston with us while Heather, Kyle, Megan, Carlos, Jennifer and Rod all went out to dinner and to a taping of "Austin City Limits" on Sunday night. It is so nice to be close so we all can get together often!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Hard to believe Emily is 5 years old! Her birthday was Tuesday, November 5, but her party was at her gymnastics club on Saturday afternoon. All her friends from school and the neighborhood were there to bounce in the blow up choo-choo train and have fun with the instructors. It was a great place to party - the kids played, ate cake, and went home - we did too - left the clean-up to the staff!!

Samantha and Emily in the Chuggy Choo Choo

We topped off the day with dinner at Lupe's and a Spanish happy birthday song!

 

 

Halloween 2013

We passed out candy while Kyle and Heather took the girls trick or treating. They found "costumes" for us too - I was a cowgirl and Grandpa was a clown! They were so cute when they came home - they were excited to tell us they "got plain M&M's for Tima and peanut M&M's for Grandpa because we know you like them!!