4 Miles

Tonight we went to a baseball game at Victory Field, the home of our local AAA baseball team, the Indianapolis Indians. It was a work event, they got tickets for anyone who wanted them. We had debated about taking Alex (late night + how interesting would he find it?), but decided he wouldn't like being left behind, so we brought him as well. We figured we could spend the money we'd spend for a sitter on ballpark food!

The stadium is beautiful! And we were blessed with a beautiful night! It got up to the high 70s today, so it was a warm evening, but not too hot. We were comfortable in the shade as the sun went down.

We enjoyed hotdogs and cotton candy. Will was amazed that cotton could taste so good! Oh, and we did get some cracker jacks as well. The cotten candy was the favorite.

I was nice and didn't post the "after" pictures of the boys when they were done with their blue and green cotton candy (they were a mess).

Will enjoyed a game of Uno with the other kids. Alex had fun going up and down the stairs of our section. They both enjoyed the music being played, and cheering when the team scored (when we left, they were up 4-0).  We had great seats!

But the best part for them? Behind the stadium, in front of that brick building, was a train track and we saw at least 4 trains go by.

I'm so sorry I didn't keep you updated on the floor. I know you were ALL waiting in suspense!  For those of you who were on pins and needles, here we go:

In the dining room, after the carpet was pulled up, James had to really work to get the carpet adhesive off the tile that was under the carpet. (That took several attempts/products and part of the delay.) Then he had to patch up some spots and then put a leveling agent down–the grey looking stuff. (You can click on any picture to see it bigger, of course). 

Then he had to sand it down because the agent started drying faster then the guy at the store told him it would.  And so it started going down a bit, um, unlevel (for lack of a better word).  Finally, it was time to put down the new floor…we went with peel & stick tiles. We're trying to balance fixing up the house, but not putting in more than the house is worth. Ceramic tiles are out of our price range, and a bit silly for a house that most likely will get torn down if/when we sell the land.  

So, the tile is the one I liked best in our price range. I put in a picture of the process on the right, and then the finished product with the white table and chairs on the left, because I think it looks better next to the white than the brown cabinets. Since we're planning on painting the brown cabinets white, I know it'll look better.

Last night, while the boys and I were up north, James did the hardest part (I think ). He moved the fridge and the cabinets he put in last year and put the flooring down. He had just moved them all back when we got home! Those cabinets had just been placed on the floor, so they had to be moved (and cleaned behind, I haven't done that in a year!) 

I took some pictures tonight–they don't quite do it justice because of the lighting. But, on the left is a picture of the floor with the white cabinets. The right is a picture of the new floor with the old floor, just so you can see the difference. I'm not too sad to see the flowers go–I prefer real flowers to pink ones on my floor. But it could have been MUCH worse, I didn't mind that floor as much as I first thought I would. It worked well (and hid dirt well) for us for the last two years!  

Last week we were given a free bike trailer–quite exciting since Will has gotten pretty good on his bike and wanting to go on Family Bike Rides. Now that Alex has a trailer we can do that. On Saturday James got our bikes out of storage, pumped up some rather flat tires, put the trailer together and get everything ready for our family bike ride.  I realized I have not ridden my bike since before Will was born (4+ years). Thankfully, it WAS like riding a bike, you don't forget. (I remember I sprained my ankle really badly trying to get that bike down from a hook in our storage shed of our apartment and I didn't ride it the rest of the summer out of spite–I showed that bike–and because it took time for the ankle to heal. Then I got pregnant and the bike stayed in storage.)

The day was a cloudy, cooler day then we've had during the week. But, that worked out well because the trail wasn't that crowded. We discovered it's hard for Will and his tiny wheels/tiny legs to keep up with the bigger bikes. I felt I was spending most of the ride just trying to keep the bike upright. So we may do our next family bike ride with both boys in the trailer.

Here are the boys, trying to wait patiently for us to go. 

 Alex was quite sad he didn't have a bike helmet, so he pulled out his winter helmet and called that his helmet.

We rode out to a bike store and got Will a bigger helmet, and Alex (once again) got the hand me down. He's content with having one and wears it when he "rides" his tiny bike. The combination of his tiny body and the big helmet is so funny, I keep meaning to get a picture, but haven't.  I'll be sure to share it when I do get a picture!