Quarry Family Day

On Saturday, Martin Marietta hosted a Family Day at the quarry. Specifically, the celebration was for 500,000 hours with no lost-time incidents. In an industry where safety is paramount, this is a big milestone. The company served lunch catered by Shane's Rib Shack, and they provided coffee, hot chocolate and snacks.The quarry was open for tours - all the way down into the pit! Thankfully, the rain that had been predicted held off and though the day was a little chilly, it was dry.

Naturally, I forgot the camera, so all these pictures are from my cell phone. I apologize in advance for their low quality.

This is one of the haul trucks. It brings loads of granite up to the crusher plant. The tires are over six feet high.

Playing in the loader bucket.

Kaity, sipping hot chocolate in the cool morning air.

Jeff drove the van for our tour, and the kids really enjoyed seeing everything.

This is the system of screens that sorts the rocks.

Mommy and Lauryn!

The hammer. It breaks larger boulders into more manageable chunks.

Here you can see the lines where they've blasted the wall.

Our handsome driver and fearless tour guide.

The quarry provided a couple of bouncy castles, which the kids loved!

Star Trek & A Screwdriver

When I watered my plants this week, I discovered two explorers where no man had gone before. Riker and Data had apparently beamed down to the wrong coordinates. Kaity copped to this one.

Earlier this week I went around to my kitchen cabinets and tightened up all the loose doors - goodness knows I've got enough screws loose already. As I finished up, Lauryn began begging for the screwdriver. I handed it to her, curious about what she'd do.

She went straight for the hinges! What a clever girl.

Yes, I normally dress my children, but in this case she had just eaten a bowl of cottage cheese and apple sauce. Well, she'd eaten 85% of it. The other 15% ended up on her dress. Hence the relative nudity.

My Little Girls

Bedtime is typically something Daddy handles with the little girls, mainly because they request him. Mama's the one who is always there, so having Daddy put them to bed is special. For various reasons, though, ranging from me just wanting to do it to Selah wanting to hear Goldifuzz or for me to sing to them, I handle bedtime now and then. Tonight I bathed and dressed them, combed their hair and read them a story. We read a lot during the day, and Lauryn is at the point where she will bring me a book and climb in my lap. I love it! They were so sweet that I snapped a few pictures with my phone:

Lauryn kept poking Selah in the face.

I was reading Mr. Noisy - one of the Little Miss and Mr. Men books that were so beloved in my childhood.

And here's a bonus picture of Little Miss Lauryn chowing down on chips and salsa. I literally had to pry the bowl out of her little hands at the end of the meal. Yet she refuses to eat dinner every other night, because ... toddler. Sigh.

(Thanks for the dress, Aunt Leah!)

Put Me in the Zoo

Last Thursday, we took the kids to Zoo Atlanta. My parents gave us passes for Christmas and we've all been excited about getting to visit regularly. The last time we went to Atlanta's zoo, Kaity was four and Joe was still nursing. So, yeah. It's been a while!

I didn't take very many pictures, but we really enjoyed our visit. The kids are already looking forward to going back!

The parakeets were a crowd favorite!

Of course I had to take a picture of the panda. It was pretty funny watching him munch that bamboo while lounging back against the tree.

It was cold, especially when we first arrived. Kaity commandeered Joe's jacket.

 I really wanted to get a family picture, but this was the best we could manage!

Spring Break!

My three oldest little darlings have been staying at Grammie and Bobba's house for several days. While I miss their chatter and laughter and hugs, it has been lovely to get lots of things done around the house! I've done quite a bit of cleaning in general but the everyday chores have lessened greatly with only half the family at home. For example, I've run the dishwasher only once in five days when I typically run it twice a day. I've done one load of laundry in five days, when I normally have to keep it going every day just to keep up! Anyway, the lack of some chores has freed up a great deal of time to devote to other projects that have been on my list for some time.

I'll share a few pictures with you: some Before/After shots, and some will simply be sneak peeks until I can actually complete the projects.

First up is something that is eventually going to be part of a message board made from old windows. My parents replaced the windows in their former house and saved the old ones, fortunately for me! But this is the only picture because I'm not done with this project yet.

Next up, I saved this little guy from an ignominious death by yard sale. Thanks again, Mom! I used the opportunity to spruce up my fireplace, too, since this is a candle holder fireplace insert thingy.

I cleaned, sanded and painted this first. Then I got to work on the fireplace.

Goodbye, ugly fireplace screen! I unscrewed (which sounds so much easier than it was!) the bar holding this in place, then took out the entire mesh screen.

The next step involved scraping off all the duct tape residue from the marble, then cleaning it. Super fun! Apparently the former owners taped up plastic or something to keep the cold air out.

All done! Someday I'll even buy candles to go on it.

This last one is another unfinished project, but one I'm crazy excited about! This was another little something I salvaged (asked nicely if I could have) from my parents. It was languishing in their garden shed. I took it apart, cleaned it up and spray painted it the shiniest silver I could find.

Before!

After!

Of course, it's not totally finished yet; I haven't exactly decided what I'm going to use to replace the globes. I have a few ideas I'm kicking around but I want to live with them for a while before I decide. It will go in our dining room once it's complete. And I'll be sure to update you then!