Otto's First Night in a Twin Bed

I have done really poorly at writing the blog this week. Here it is Saturday and I haven't posted all week... To rectify the situation I will just post several entries tonight to catch up with what we did this week.

Sunday night was Otto's first night sleeping in a twin sized bed. Rachel spent the time that I was at Black Belt class trying to clean out his room to make space for the mattress. When I got home, I took apart his youth bed and help her clean some more. Otto was very excited to have a new bed with new Spiderman sheets. However, I think that every night since then he has been sleeping with all of his Monster Trucks next to him in bed. Some kids sleep with stuffed animals, Otto sleeps with Monster Trucks.

Otto's Birthday Party

So today was Otto's birthday party. I cannot believe that he is going to be 4 years old tomorrow (probably today by time I actually post this). This morning we got up and were going to go to iparty and get balloons for the party but they don't open until 10 and the party was at 10. We ended going to the grocery store to get some. The lady at the grocery store took forever blowing up the balloons so I had Sam leave and go pick up the cake that Pam (Farley) Ortel made for us...she is the best cake maker ever!




After Sam came back and picked us up at the grocery store we headed to Blackbeard's for the party.







After the indoor activities we went out to do the go-karts. I drove a go-kart for my very first time EVER!







DRIFTING





Once we finished with the go-karts it was off to a game of mini-golf. The girls went one way with nana, papa & Grace.






Sam, Otto, Ken, Robbie, Mike & I went the other way.




Angela, Michael and Kaley waved to us from another hole.





Some pictures of Otto and Robbie playing mini-golf together









The batting cage came after mini-golf. Who knew you needed to get so dressed up for the batting cage?







After much fun we went home to play with all of Otto's new stuff. I washed his new Pottery Barn Spiderman sheets that grandma & grandpa got Otto. Thanks to the new sheets Otto was moved out of his toddler bed today and into a twin size bed. It is about time he was too big for the toddler bed! Soon we will be re-doing his room. I am hoping it gets done by the end of the summer...new carpets, 2 new windows, new walls, the works!

-R.I.P.

Monster Jam!

This blog was posted just after midnight...so although it was technically written on June 1st it is really from May 31st.

Today was a very long day.  We got up at 6:30 to go to a yard sale at the Weatherbee school.  The yard sale was to benefit Rachel's sister and her friends who are raising money for breast cancer.  Susan called last night and told us that there was a bunk bed and a twin size bed for sale at the yard sale and that we should come early to get them.  We went early, but the mattresses were given away last night.  She didn't know that we needed a mattress she just thought that we needed the bed frame.  Otto needs a new bed because he is still in a toddler bed and he is getting some new Spiderman sheets for his birthday.  So, we didn't get a bed.  Otto got a couple of John Deere tractors and we got Lexie and elephant candle holder.  On the way into the yard sale I saw a clip on tandem bike.  We have been considering getting one for Otto, because he doesn't want to ride in the trailer anymore, but he's not fast enough to keep up on his own bike.  Unfortunately, the bike didn't have the clamp that would hook to the lead bike.  I spent all morning trying to fabricate something, but it isn't finished yet.  I had a universal joint from a Jetta that bolts on to the trailer good, I just need to figure out how to hook it to the bike.

We went to Monster Jam today...  in the rain.  We had raincoats, ponchos and plenty of plastic bags, but we still got completely soaked.  We had a good time though.  Near the end GraveDigger was doing a donut right in front of us and some mud got splashed onto the camera.  It was a fun show.  Afterwards we stayed to get autographs from the drivers.  The kids all got folders signed, and Otto had a Backdraft truck to have signed.  We have been telling him for about a month that he had to keep that one in the package so that it could be signed.  As soon as it was signed Otto ripped the package open.  

After the monster truck show we went to Pizza Hut.  Ken went through much difficulty to print out a coupon for $5 medium pizza mia pizzas.  When we gave the coupon to the waitress she said it was a current deal and it didn't require a coupon anyway.  The pizza was pretty good.  Rachel ordered a pineapple and pepperoni pizza, but the cooks messed up and made just a pineapple one.  The waitress gave us that pizza and said that another one was being made.  We finished eating, but the replacement pizza was not finished yet.  The pizza got messed up two times more while we were waiting.  Finally the waitress gave us a refund for that pizza and told us we could wait around for the right one if we wanted to.  We decided that we would go to Lowes and then come back to pick up the pizza.  When we brought the pizza home it basically wasn't cooked.  I guess we can't complain too much about it.  We did get a pineapple pizza and an uncooked pineapple pepperoni pizza for free, so I'm not upset about it.  The waitress was nice and handled the situation well.

Had a bad day...

Ok, it wasn't really that bad, but I'm not happy about what happened today.  I went out to my workshop this morning to carve an apple box for Lexie's teacher.  It went well, but just as it was finishing the final cut-out it had a z-axis stall.  I checked the z-axis and it wasn't stuck so I removed the work piece and checked to see if there were any self tests that I could run on my system.  As I was navigating the menu, the machine shut off.  It wouldn't turn back on.  It did the same thing to me last night, but I unplugged it for a minute, then it turned back on.  It wasn't coming back on today.  I looked closely at the machine and right on the corner by the switch was a telltale sign.  There were carbon deposits.  I had let out the smoke.  You know the magical smoke that makes every electronic device work.  I called the customer support line and they are sending me a new power supply.  I have to pay a $40 core charge, but I get it back when I send the defective part back, so I guess it works out ok.  However, my machine will be out of commission for three to five days.  So sad.  I probably needed a break anyway, I have been a garage dwelling hermit for the past week and a half.  It will give me a chance to finally mount my TV and fix my tin house.

Bella and Lexie had a dentist appointment today.  It went well, no cavities.  After the appointment we went to the Bangor Forest to go biking.  Otto is getting really good at biking.  He rode Lexie's old bike today.  It goes faster and he doesn't have to pedal at such a feverish pace to keep up, but it was harder to pedal up hills.  Since I didn't have to pull the trailer with Otto in it I had a chance to play on some of the sand and rock piles that are along the sides of the trails.  I had a good time and Otto thought it was fun to watch me jump off the piles on my bike.  On the way back to the car I noticed a big pile of dirt right in the middle of one of the trails.  I rode over it and it was a nice smooth camel hump, I got some pretty good air over it.  We went back to the car, but Otto was not done riding.  We had brought his bike along in case he wasn't capable of riding Lexie's old bike, and he wanted to take his bike for a ride.  We rode back to the camel hump and took turns riding over it.  Rachel rode over it once and declared it to be a little too scary.  Otto needed help getting up the first part, but he loved riding down.  Lexie went right for it, but had a little trouble getting up.  Bella didn't dare to at first, but after I helped her get into the right gear she got pretty good at it.  Even Ken went over several times.  I tried to clear the middle dip, but I never managed to.  One time I caught my tire right at the rise of the second hump and almost went over.  Luckily my suspension absorbed the blow.

Last weekend we found Otto a new power wheels truck at the dump.  The switches were burned up, but the motors were still good.  I had to do a little rewiring and replace a wheel to get it going.  The truck still doesn't have reverse, but Otto has been having a lot of fun with it.  His old power wheels truck died last year, so he was happy to have another one.  His first day driving it he ran over his tonka dump truck and flipped the truck over with he and Lexie riding in it.  He didn't get hurt, he just thought it was very funny.

Carving and carving some more

Well, Rachel says I have been spending too much time in my workshop lately, so I better take a break!

I have been learning the carvewright designer program and I can finally get it to do exactly what I want it to do without having to yell at it. I have been making some carvings just playing around with scrap wood and they have been coming out really well.

The first real project made was a maple cross. It took about 40 minutes to carve out and then another half hour to clean it up by hand, but I am really happy with how it came out.



One of the first designs that I thought of was a wood case for my Mac Mini. I don't feel up to that challenge yet, so I made a new faceplate for my workshop PC. I carved my logo into it, and it looks really neat!



I have a new apprentice in my workshop. He sweeps up the sawdust and brushes the sawdust out of the carvings. He is doing a very good job so far. Good thing he's cheap though!

The Marble Game (Wii Fit)

Augusta

Today, daddy drove me and Lexie to school. After that daddy came to my school for a field trip to Augusta! On the field trip we had a scavenger hunt and we did petraglyphs. We saw a train and we saw other things. We also saw the governor's office. 

Only 6 kids total got to go into the governor's office.  Daddy took our pictures in there and we even sat at the governor's desk in his chair. After that we had to go back to school.  Daddy drove me home from school!  I got to leave school 15 minutes early.  I beat Lexie home by an hour!  She had to take the bus!

When I got home I got to play Wii Fit!  I am in first place on the hula hoop.  I had 307 spins.  I also did some of the yoga poses.  The tree pose is my favorite yoga pose to do.  I did the running but I kept running faster than my trainer. 

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