Carving Pumpkins for Family Home Evening

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening this week. The kids each designed their own and I helped most of them scrape out the insides and I helped them carve when they needed it. They are (from left to right) a half happy half sad face (Ella), an eagle (Valerie), a kind of happy/scary face (Scarlett), and Luigi from the Nintendo games (Dante).

My latest project

I had been looking for chairs for the table we bought last October (from Ikea) ever since then. Well, I finally found some chairs. In July, we were yard sale shopping and I found a set of 4 chairs with an alder table all together. I didn't need the table, but thought I could refinish the top and maybe sell it or something (the top was really needing to be refinished, it was scratched, drawn on with permanent marker, etc...). I guess that the table grew on me, because now it is in our kitchen! First we sanded the top and re-stained it. Then I took a break from the table and painted the 4 chairs. We have been using the chairs for about a month. I finally decided to finish the table, so in the last 2 weeks, I have been priming, painting, and sealing the table legs. I finally finished, and now we have a fantastic new kitchen table! I'm so happy with how it turned out. The table is stained with a mahogany stain, and the chairs and legs of the table are painted green (obviously) with a glaze over to antique them. I love it. We forgot to take before pictures but the table top was only polyurethaned and the legs were red. The chairs had a natural wood seat, the rest painted red. They actually didn't look bad, but I liked the green better. It was a fun first refinishing project for me.

Memorial Day Fishing

Memorial day was pretty fun. The morning began with some homemade cinnamon rolls, then I took the kids fishing in Provo canyon (Valerie caught a trout), followed by grilling burgers and then some Carcassonne after the kids went to bed. Becky had fun with her mom who visited with us for a few days.

Cherry Hill Competes at Amateur DanceSport Competition

Haircut at Home

Becky's mom gave Dante a haircut while we were at New Beginnings with Valerie.

Sledding

I got home early yesterday afternoon so we all decided to go sledding. I took some videos of the kids sledding with my phone and uploaded them to YouTube. Here they are!