working on the furniture....

Well, Evelyn Joy is tired from all the sanding of the tables and benches...she went with me to Lowe's to buy some stain and polyurethane....and we went to Domino's and got two large bacon pizzas (they were excellent)(we had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon, of course), then I called the pizza place Ben works at and ordered a sheet pizza and 60 wings....with a coupon, of course...with the new tables being worked on in the kitchen, this was an easy and fun dinner....we don't do it very often, and the kids liked it.... Suzanne is finishing first grade, and she can read wonderfully well....Jon is entranced with this story....

Sonja Kathleen is reading, too.

I always put the pictures in the wrong order....anyway, here is one of the tables, sanded and stained....we still have to do the monotonous part: putting on the polyurethane, sanding, polyurethane, sanding....I don't know how many times we'll do it...

Here is one of the benches....

Oh joy, the tables are being assembled!!!

Kathryn Grace and Margaret Cheryl, work on sanding the pieces...

Aaron deserves a million dollars for being my helper...he sanded, and helped me stain...it took hours...

This is Suzanne Eleanor...she is so cute, even with her pool-messy hair.

Well, if you can imagine how busy and crazy today has been....first sanding all the table and bench pieces, and the lonely chair (how could I resist it? It was only $31...)......then putting them together, then staining them....with all the kids all around....and our original two tables in there...when I left to go to Lowes, Aaron kept at it, and had everything but one table top sanded when I got back...we took a break to eat and take care of Camille, then wiped it all down and stained it....it is actually fun....but it will be a miracle if we get it all finished without some major handprints....

Tomorrow is the last day of school....on a Monday? What are they thinking? The last day of school is so stupid anyway, but if they cancel it, then the day before it becomes the last day...so there has to be a last day of school....I tried to explain this to the kids....but I'm not making them go....so, a few are and a few aren't....and Aaron still has a test to take on Tuesday.

We just made up our list of things to do this summer: a trip to Fairhaven Beach on Lake Ontario, a trip to Southwick Beach on the east shore of Ontario, a visit to Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, for the Symphony on 4th of July...., a trip to the Chinese Buffet, go to the drive-in, some camping in the Adirondack mountains, summer conference at our church, and Aaron's surgery, in August...(I'll probably know exact dates tomorrow....)

I have a houseful of kids, but the wild card is Miss Charlotte Claire. She is so sweet and nice, but I have to know where she is at all times...I can never assume she is with someone, I have to know for certain...this becomes more difficult when the kids are home from school......I tend to have her with me when the older ones aren't here....pretty soon, though, Camille will be rivaling Charlotte for the most hard-to-keep-track-of child....she moves around the floor...when she starts crawling, life changes again for all of us, temporarily, until she starts walking, then gradually assimilates into a toddler.....the crawling stage is tedious for a mom, keeping all pennies and legos off the floor, and keeping the floors spotless......and the cereal cupboard! Every single child finds this at some point, hurrah for them and boo-hoo for mommy....and with each child I decide, yes, I will install a child latch on this cupboard....then, before I get around to it, they grow out of cereal dumping........

I need to go grocery shopping again....I wish my favorite store was closer than 26 miles away....