Somebody who will remain nameless needed to see our improved chair in the context of the room. Well, here you go, the chair in its new environment.
It looks like it belongs, doesn't it?
And, just so you can fully sense the mood that the chair resides in, here is what was playing on the iPod when the pictures were taken. Hope that helps, Steph!
We had a little birthday party for Elias at Sophia's house (Sophia is Eli's birth sister, who was adopted and now lives in New Hope). The kids enjoyed playing on the swing set, here Milena and Sophia team up.
The Birthday Boy comes down the slide.
Milena climbs into the tree house.
Kelson (being very safe, with his hood up) takes his turn on the slide.
Time to finish decorating the cake. Sprinkles!
Kelson patiently waits to put his candle on.
Perfect placement!
Eli gets to open presents. Yikes!
Sophia being cute.
Koleman was there too.
Walter also came along, but at some point he was discarded onto the floor. Poor Walter.
Eli is excited to be able to blow out his candles and eat his cake. In the morning, he helped me make the cake, even cracking eggs and using the mixer.
Excellent air flow!
Saying goodbye at the end of the party. The kids had a blast, and it's always great to see Sophia and her family.
So we've had this old chair for a while. The chair comes from my grandpa's house on Summit Avenue. It was in the house when they moved in, which was ... (let's see, they moved from Starbuck to St. Paul when my dad was in elementary school, I think, so...) ... sometime in the 1880's. I might be off. Anyway, we got the chair, and it needed to be repaired, so I brought it down to our workshop, took it apart, and fixed it all up. I think it looks pretty nice.
I replaced the springs on the rocker, the springs in the seat, the cushions and the fabric. Here's a closer view of the new fabric that I put on the chair. It looks good and is incredibly comforable. We're quite happy with it.
Not sure why, but it seems that I'm only putting pictures up on Tuesday. I guess this week will be no different. Here is a picture of Koleman on his new bike. It's a small adult frame bike, which looked huge when he first tried to ride it. But it looks appropriate for him, now. He's just starting to get the hang of shifting gears, and learning why you would want to be in a low or high gear. It's much easier for him to keep up with us now!
Eli is still on his tiny, little bike. I'm working to get him off training wheels so he can ride Koleman's old bike. That will definitely help him go a lot faster.
Kelson is still happy on the big wheel, even though he hasn't figured out how to use the pedals yet.
Eli and Kelson taking a water break.
Kelson performing some quick repairs on Eli's bike.
Where was Milena this whole time? Teaching herself how to levitate. Getting pretty good at it, too.
I realized that I haven't been posting as much lately (conserving energy for the summer vacation posts which will certainly be coming), so I took some random pictures of the kids. This is Koleman, putting away his Jenga game. JENGA!!!
Eli with his backpack and goofy smile.
Milena also is wearing a backpack. The kids love their backpacks.
Kelson takes a break.
Two brothers, showing that they like each other (at least for this second).
What a cute group! Of course, standing on the bed isn't good, is it? Couldn't it lead to trouble?
Looks like one little monkey bumped her head. Too bad there wasn't a parent nearby to prevent the tragedy.
On Sunday, Michelle took Milena up to Aunt Beckey's house for some kind of girly party (I think it was a Creatively Pampered Tupper-Candle Club party. I think.) Anyway, Milena was apparently really good the whole time - right up to the point when they came home. She suddenly became unresponsive, and unable to open her car door (which she had been opening all day with no problem). Since Michelle wasn't going to give Milena the response she wanted, Milena stayed in the car. After a couple of minutes I went out to take a picture of her.
The boys were all very excited to see what Milena was going to do, so they watched out the window, reporting her every move and non-move. Eventually she did decide to come in, but it took her a long time to make it into the house, and then she just stood by the door with all of her stuff on. Since it was bedtime anyway, Michelle took off her shoes, and I put her on her bed, dressed with her coat on.
On the whole it was pretty funny. I'm not sure if she got what she wanted out of it or not. The tragedy in this kind of situation is the innocents who get hurt. In this case, Winnie the Pooh was discarded on the garage floor, left with only one of Milena's slippers as company, left to fend for himself during the long cold night. Poor Pooh.
