Home Improvements and Cape Cod

Hola!

This is the season for my head to spin just a little.  Just because of the calendar and end-of-year activities.  Add to the mix this year, that David is graduating this coming Sunday (yippee, David!) -- and that has some extra activities going on for us, too.

And, add to that our "second wind" of home improvements (yes, it's been almost 5 years since we moved in and did the first round)!  We have a few messy projects going on at the moment.

So when I think "what should I put on the blog," too many things are in my head!  So here is my "something is better than nothing" mentality.  I chose 2 things: the fireplace, and Kara's 7th grade Cape Cod trip.

FIREPLACE.  We are having the super-old fireplace remodeled, if you will.  The house is from 1950, and that's the age of the fireplace!  We'll get marble tile placed on the front--it will be pretty.

Teresa helps with the cement coming out

But the first thing was to break out the hearth, and of course Frank said "I can do that!"  Always a quick job to destroy things, right?  ...Right?  ..........ok, well, not really.

Let me just tell you that our fireplace...was built to last.  That hearth tile was NOT coming out!  Pounding and chiseling away with every tool we could find and borrow, Frank worked on it 2 hours and only had 4 of the 40 tiles out.  UGH!

Home Depot to the rescue, he went and rented a mini-jack-hammer.  Still took some time, but for sure that was a lifesaver.  Here are some pictures.

It's a work in progress.  I'll post again when next steps are further along.

CAPE COD.  The 7th graders go to Cape Cod as a class trip each year.  They follow Rachel Carson's example of studying the coastal and ocean environment, and how we affect it and how we can protect it.  They go to the tide pools, the sand dunes, on boats, take walks through marshes on boardwalks, journal things...I'm telling you this is a very. cool. trip.  They pack more into 3 days and 2 nights than I can imagine.  And the most amazing thing?  Are you sitting down?

Every. Teacher. Goes.  No, really.  They have all the students and all the kids and it is a wonderful trip where they take BIG buses down, and stay in cabins at night and do all this cool stuff together!

Then they have the assignment to gather all of their notes and photos and journaling samples and memories, and compile a "Project." It can be a memory book or a 3D type project.

Since I do so many shutterfly books, that's what Kara wanted to do for her project and memory book.  You can look at hers!  It's really quite good.

I'll try this and see if it works: Click KARA's BOOK to see her Cape Cod project. Sorry it's too small to really read any captions or journaling.  But you can see the photos.  :)


Have a great week!  Kari