Fun on the 24th

We had a full house for the 24th! John, Sarah and their girls came up with their friends from California. We had a BBQ and then went up to "The Circle" for fireworks and fun!







They really got into the poppers--I think Sophia did 5 bags herself! This was Ian's first time with poppers. He was a little too gentle with them and couldn't get them to pop. So he just stomped on them! Emma liked the sparklers the best.






Sadie and Ian in deep conversation, with cookies in hand:

Welcome To Our Nightmare

MOLD and ROT
Two things you don't want to have in your new house!

So here is the whole story--we were painting the office and had taken all the boxes out and piled them in the corner of our living room. When we finished painting we finally unpacked the boxes and found a big black spot on the carpet where the boxes had been piled. At first we thought it was my art supplies leaking out of the box but that box was filled with my scrapbook paper not my art supplies! So then we realized it was mold. We called our homeowners insurance and they came out to take a look at it. The guy was really nice and said it was no big deal--just cut out the carpet in the corner and seal underneath it and we'd be okay. Whew! So we cut out the carpet and saw it was on the wall, so Michael cut a little of the dry wall off and the wood underneath was wet! So we cut a little more and found the insulation was wet. We cut that all out and found the wood crumbling all the way to the stucco!
So we called our insurance company and they came out again and said it's worse than they thought and there was an obvious leak from the stucco and that they don't cover stuff like that. So we are left with an enormous, expensive mess and no one to help us fix it. The insurance company said it's a pre-existing condition, a builder defect, and the previous owners fault for not fixing it when it started getting wet inside or even disclosing the problem to us when we purchased the house. So, yes, this is our nightmare!

Look Mom! No Wheels!

Emma and Sophia are now training wheel free! One of Emma's training wheels broke off and she has been one wheeling it for more than a week so we talked her in to "trying" to ride with no training wheels and she reluctantly agreed. It took a lot of coaxing from us but it was our neighbor Emily who finally talked her into it. Michael took off the wheels and she hopped on and rode away, just like that! No holding her first, no teaching her how to balance--nothing! She just did it all on her own. So of course Sophia had to try it! She was a little more wobbly but got the hang of it quick. This is such a big step for them and they did it right before they start Kindergarten. I'm so proud of them for being brave and trying something new. I love these girls!