Tag Archives: project

Party in the Neighborhood and Chores at Home

Does your neighborhood have a social (or any kind of) committee? Ours has a social committee, which Going Mom is a part of, and they planned an awesome summer kick-off party for all our neighbors to attend.

Being the husband of a committee member, I, along with a few other husbands, had the pleasure of helping out with the event. I loaded Avery’s Fisher-Price Basketball goal to bring  (it ended up being a “slam dunk”) and helped with the kid’s fishing station. We didn’t know so many kids lived in the neighborhood until our big party. It’s great knowing there are so many playmates right in the hood.

Hopefully they won’t become hood-lums as the get older and terrorize all of us parents. Just like I (neverdid when I was a kid. Sorry, Mom. Not that I’m concerned our little angel would cause any trouble when all she want to do is play with bubbles.

Bubble Play at Neighbhorhood Party

The bubble machine was THE highlight of the party for our little girl, and many others. Then there were the piñatas.  Going Mom was in charge of buying these, and she chose the coolest turtle piñata for little kids…

….and a giant flip flop for the older kids.

I’ve been part of a piñata massacre before, but never a turtle; it hurt to watch.

Pinata Party Meme - Stop the Violence

No pictures of the abuse, but if you’ve seen an mob of zombies hovering over a fallen human on the The Walking Dead, it’s basically the same thing. Only kids are the zombies and scattered candy is the fallen human.

Avery has yet to taste candy or anything that’s basically pure sugar, so she didn’t care much about what came out of the papier-mâché vessels. I know the day will come, but until then, we’ll enjoy her not begging to satisfy her sweet tooth unless it’s something we  ourselves.

The party was a major hit for the neighborhood and we’re all thankful for an awesome committee. I suggested another party with a Midsummer’s Night Dream theme. Sounds cool, but I guess I wouldn’t be the one doing all of the hard work, so I won’t push it.

The rest of the weekend was low key with us just taking care of chores around the house. Avery made sure to help when and where she could.

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I’ve got Mommy’s back….literally.

My wife continued her paint everything beige project around the home and enlisted the help of some non-toxic finger paint from Alex Toys to keep our toddler’s wondering hands busy.

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And guess what? It worked!

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After finishing in the kitchen, I sat down and painted with her to make sure she kept busy. The paints are nothing great, but they are inexpensive and colors go on paper. That’s all toddlers care about! I still have yet to help with the actual painting.

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Sorry, wife. Hope you still love me!

That’s about it for our weekend of fun, cleaning, and projects. This time next week, we’ll be living it up in North Carolina at the Outer Banks. It will be Avery’s first trip to the ocean and we’re excited to play in the sand with our beautiful girl. The sleeping arrangements, on the other hand, are something we’re not quite looking forward to. We’ll be in bunk beds with me on the top and Going Mom on the bottom with Avery. Sounds simple, but from what I posted on Instagram the other day, well, I’ll let you know afterward.

Getting Dirty as a Family

Going Mom loves taking on projects inside and out of our home. She usually takes them on by herself, but this weekend our family of three all joined in. There were several moving parts, but it all revolved around dirt, and lots of it!

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Kelley is full of great ideas for our home, but, much to her dismay, I tend to stray in this area. If it was up to me, I’d seek the the help of professional lawn care services. Something like https://www.lawncare.net/service-areas/california/ around where we live would be first on my list!

I focus more on what to cook for our family and of course keeping active. Good thing a big requirement of her backyard project entailed moving dirt, which fit perfectly with being active and working together as a family. Win-Win!

I made sure to stay on track with my squat every day program, and then it was time to get dirty together. Actually, compared to my hardworking wife, I didn’t get as dirty. I did the grunt work of digging  up our existing dirt soil crappy clay with rocks and carrying it out with a wheelbarrow to a dirt dump site nearby and then moving the 4 cubic yards of dirt you see in our driveway.

Half gone!

The first half felt like it took forever to even make a dent in the pile, but the second one went much faster. Kelley did the dirt-y work (I crack myself up) by getting into the dirt to spread it around in the 3 garden sections she made. Basically, my dirty level paled in comparison to hers. When she sets her mind on a project, she doesn’t mess around! (Seriously, I’m on fire!)

Speaking of mess, our little toddler, who’s growing more defiant each day, “helped” by getting in the dirt with Mommy and falling several times. I mean feet flying in the air kind of falling; it was hilarious, but only because she didn’t get hurt. As long as she was outside (one of her favorite words right now), she was all smiles.

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That’s a lie, of course there were a few meltdowns, but nothing that serious. Oh, and stopping everything to announce that a plane was overhead and waving.

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That waving, it’s serious business.

All weekend long, Kelley was hard at work with one mission; finish the project! She wouldn’t let anything stand in the way either. Well, besides this tree….

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….but only that was temporary. Although I claim to not care that much about landscaping, I’m impressed by and enjoy seeing what my wife created in our backyard. It was great working on the project together and I loved taking on the labor of moving out the old dirt and bringing in the new. But I can’t take all the credit, Avery did walk around making sure to stand right in the way as we moved around.

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She was just making sure Mommy and Daddy weren’t slacking. Which, I didn’t take the best pictures here, but obviously the end result looks good to me.

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Let me reiterate, all of the good looks come from Going Mom, I just took and dumped dirt as directed by the boss. Oh, and found humor lurking around the new trees…

Kelley had planned to tackle this project several weeks ago, but things kept getting in the way. Spending time together with my girls as we worked on a project together made for a quality (albeit dirty) bonding experience, and left good vibes throughout our home. I even installed a new faucet Kelley happened to pick-up at the store while I was away at the At-Home Dads Convention.

“Accomplished” is the word of the weekend in our home, with an equal side of love and happiness.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Are you the project planner in your home, or tend to avoid them as I do?