Happy Father's Day 2011

Cool Kids

Just a couple kids, hanging out on the hot tub.

Arabelle was wearing the blue shades first (they are her's), so of course Jeffrey decided that he "really wanted them". So I improvised and gave Arabelle the Mr. Potato Head glasses. She seemed to be satisfied with this arrangement.

There is something strangely alien-like about both kids in this photo:

Jeffrey has been getting lots of comments about his hair. Things like, "Wow, now THAT'S a head of hair!". Or "It looks like he stuck his finger in an electrical socket." Or, from older, balding men, "I wish I had that much hair!" We've just got to get him through this awkward phase until his hair is heavy enough to lay down flat.

The Potato-head glasses didn't last very long on Arabelle--I'm guessing she realized how much they were squeezing her head.

Tiny Slave Labor

And the #1 reason to have children is: free tiny slave labor!!!

John created this "quarry" in our back yard as part of the never-ending saga that began as a routine toilet replacement.

How does replacing a toilet morph into excavating concrete stairs in the backyard, you may ask. Simple, really.

1. We decided to do a quick replace of an under-performing toilet in preparation for guests.

2. Upon removal of said toilet it became apparent that the toilet had been leaking significantly for some time, soaking through several layers sub-floor, foundation, etc. It also became apparent that in the grand tradition of our complexly and strangely remodeled house, there were entire squares of the sub-floor that were missing, basically linoleum directly over the crawl space. This discovery led to:

3. The foundation/sub-floor beneath the bathroom needed to be replaced.

4. John, being the perfectionist that he is, couldn't fix the floor until the sloping/sinking laundry room/bathroom section of the house were jacked up.

5. We got a quote of $12,000 to fix the foundation/sloping problem of the house the "right" way, and decided we'd let John have a go at it.

6. John decided he to jack up the house and pump concrete underneath in some sort of maneuver to fix the foundation. But he couldn't do that until:

7. He broke up the concrete steps attached to that end of the house. As you can see, beneath the concrete steps were other, smaller concrete steps, and under that even older, tinier ones....

Jeffrey saw me taking a picture of Arabelle and had to run stand in front of her.