Mirra's Kitchen

Mirra will be receiving her birthday gift soon so I thought I would post how it came to be. I wanted to get Mirra a play kitchen but didn't want to buy a huge hunk of plastic that would eventually end up in a landfill. I found some DIY kitchens online that other moms had repurposed out of old entertainment centers. Anita happened to have one so I went to work.

Andy helped me saw off the top and bottom shelves to make it a more reasonable size. I took off the hardware, filled in the holes with wood filler, and used a jigsaw (for the first time ever) to cut a hole for the sink bowl. Then I began to paint. Having taken 9 cans of spray paint, it didn't end up being as environmentally friendly as I had hoped. I found a small shelf at Goodwill that I attached to the top. I took off the doors and attached new hardware and some wooden knobs with washers for the sink and stovetop. I glued some pre-painted soccer balls for the burners.

The oven door required a little more engineering than I had thought, but Andy helped me get that worked out by adding a lip on the bottom for the hinge.

I crocheted a dish cloth and towel and added some hooks. I added some felt food that I made after finding some ideas online and painted some decorations on the side.

Quotes

Drew: Mom, do boys have to look handsome for Mirra's birthday party? Me: I don't know. How do you want to look? Drew: Just regular. Mirra was singing "On The Road Again." I wondered aloud who sang it..."Willie Nelson?" I asked. Mirra responded "No. Mr. Weenie's parents." It had been a long, busy day and I found this to be quite funny.

School's out so we went to the races. We enjoyed an evening together as a family. Drew was sporting his Cardinals' shirt. Another spectator noticed and gave Drew a collectible glass with the World Series Champion logo on it, which was pretty cool.

On Friday we celebrated our cat, Chubby's 17th birthday.

On Saturday Drew ran his first race at our local concrete track. Andy says they still have a lot to learn about driving off dirt, but Drew did a good job. He even got a ride from another member of the track. He offered Drew a Jr. Honda car to run that day. As a family we spent a lot of time around racing, but now we are taking a little break while we prepare for Mirra's 5th birthday celebration.

Summer Is Here

It occurred to me that Drew's last day of school was my last girls' day with Mirra. We have become accustomed to being able to spend a lot of time together and the times, they are achangin'. So we decided to have a really special day together. We went to the zoo, just the two of us, visited the gardens there and took lots of photos. As we entered the zoo we were handed a flyer that announced that Indy car driver, Tony Kanaan would be there to flag the tortoise race. We were just in time! So Mirra got to meet a famous race car driver. Then we visited the animals, ate frozen treats, rode a roller coaster, and watched the dolphin show. We also visited the "mirracats". It was a really great day with my daughter.

Then we came home to make Last Day of School cookies for Drew: my great grandma's no-bake cookies and some gluten free peanut butter cookies.

Drew was so excited when he got off the bus. "Third grade is all mine!" We chilled out and ate cookies for a little while, then the whole family headed to the batting cages and go kart track. We thought Drew was tall enough to drive his own car this year. Andy was really looking forward to racing his son. But when we got there we were told that he is about an inch too short. We found this highly ironic with all of Drew's racing experience.

We had a great start to our summer together.

Another Full Week

Andy and I began our week by visiting our mothers on Mother's Day. Drew and I went to see my family while Andy and Mirra spent the day with his. It worked out very well and we got some great time with our families.

On Thursday, Drew's grade had a reading ceremony to celebrate their accomplishments over the last nine weeks. We were asked to bring in the quarter midgets for the kids to look at. We explained a bit about them. Drew was really excited to tell the kids about the cars and racing. He played the perfect host while letting each of the kids take a turn sitting in them. Andy commented that he shouldn't have mentioned which car was the fastest because the majority of the kids went running for that one.

On Friday, Drew had the day off school and Mirra's school had a festival to celebrate their last day. We spent the afternoon with our friends, The Halls. The kids got to make ice cream sundaes, get their faces painted, play games and ride a pony. It was a really great time.

Saturday was a double duty activity day. Mirra had her last soccer game and got a medal for participating in the season. Then we headed to the race track. Drew raced in Jr. Honda, where he qualified in the B Main and finished 3rd so he could advance to the A Main. He also raced Jr. Animal. Drew finished 6th in both of his A Mains. We rounded out our week by painting the trim on our house before we get a new roof this week. Aunt Anita was a HUGE help by hanging out with the kids.

Busted!

While I was mid-task, Mirra asked me if she could watch a cartoon. As I was was scrolling through Netflix, Mirra looks up at me and asks "do you have to pee?" She busted me doing a potty dance.