Archive for January, 2012
Shawn’s birthday party
Friday, January 20 was Shawn’s actually birthday but because Saturday was a better day for everyone especially our families we decided to have his party today. And what a party it was.
As we were waiting for many of the guest to arrive Shawn opened many of the gifts he rec’d. We all enjoyed our newly renovated basement and Shawn’s new Thomas the Train set. Lots of pictures to prove it. Please take note of the first picture of the train set, that is what it looked like before the kids got a hold of it, that’s the second picture. haha!
When everyone finally arrived we enjoyed a fantastic meal De-Ann prepared–lasagna, bruschetta and veggies and cupcakes for dessert. Shawn even got his own cupcake with 2 candles on it while we sang happy birthday to him.
After supper Shawn opened open some more gifts and cards and you can see from the pictures he thoroughly enjoyed himself. As well some of our friends got into the act in helping him unwrap some of the gifts. Shawn patiently opened up each gift and shared each piece of paper with anyone nearby. It was cute to watch.
One of the many gifts Shawn rec’d was a remote control crane from De-Ann’s Dad (Grandpa to Shawn). You’ll see that Faith really took to actually operating the crane.
Another gift I wanted make mention is also highlighted in the pictures below is a card from Denita (a very special lady to both Shawn & Faith–they love her) with 2 loonies in it. This was so important because it showed how great a gift DJ gave to both kids this past Christmas. He gave them each a piggy bank that was designed specifically for them. So Shawn got to go upstairs with DJ to put the loonies in the bank. As DJ says, this is Shawn’s college fund. Love it!
It was a fantastic day altogether and one of the highlights was the meeting of two grandpa’s (Grandpa Nykiforuk and Opa DeGraaf) for the first time–it only took 19 years.
A huge thank you to all our friends and family for a fantastic birthday party for Shawn. I can’t believe Shawn is 2 years old and has been with us for over 6 months!
Shawn’s reaction
As many of you know I purchased a Thomas the Train set & table for Shawn for his birthday. I wish you all were here when Shawn saw the set for the first time, his reaction was priceless. Check out the video below…
Basement reno update
I know it has been a long time since I have posted about the basement reno. And there is a good reason, it has been on hold for a long time, more than 2 months.
As you know the contractor we hired back in March has had a number of things happen to him that has stalled our reno from completing, well just before Christmas he suggested I take the remainder of the money we owe him and hire someone else to finish the basement. I hoped he would be able to finish the job himself before the new year but that never happened so reluctantly I started to ask around for a new contractor. One of the guys in my small group has a son that is a contractor so I contacted him to come in a take a look at what needed to be done and give me a quote. He did so, and he only quoted $600 more than what we owed the original contractor. So, again reluctantly, we hired this new guy.
I have to say though, that it was the best thing we have ever done for this basement reno. Today is the third full day he has been working on the basement and he is almost done. I will take pictures when it is complete but I was so excited to see what he has accomplished in two days I had to share it with you all.
Here is what he has completed so far: grouted the stone tiles on the fireplace, put the butcher block counter top on the dry bar, cut it to fit the corner, sealed it to the wall and put the kick plate and handles on it (it looks like a piece of furniture). He repaired all the walls that had imperfections in them, using drywall compound–then he painted over them–you can’t tell where he did the repairs or painted. He put the sweep on our cold storage door so the cold stays in the storage room. Then he finished most of what needed to be done in the bathroom. Shower wall tiles installed and grouted, vanity is put in with water working, shower fixtures put in and water works, and the light fixture is installed.
The only things they still need to complete: in the bathroom install the thermostat for the heated floor, finish grouting the floor tiles near the door and grout the shower tiles on the ceiling. Then last but not least put a door over the electrical box where we are going to put a picture or bulletin board over to conceal it. Then the basement reno will be complete.
As you can see there was a lot to still be complete on the basement when we hired the new contractor, but he has been excellent, fast and efficient. So thankful for this new contractor and we are definitely going to be hiring him back again when we need him.
Shawn’s birthday gift
I can’t contain myself and I already tweeted about this last week but I just have to share with all of you what I was able to get for Shawn’s birthday. De-Ann thinks I’m more excited about it than Shawn will ever be…maybe.
Take a look at the cool train set with table I got for Shawn. It’s got a construction site, a crane, boat, airport with airplane, a helipad with helicopter, fire station with both a truck and man, an elevated track, a number of bridges, trees, road signs and a bunch little wooden people and cars for the road. Not to mention all the cool trains from the Thomas the Train TV show. Take a look. I can’t wait to see Shawn’s face when he sees the whole thing set-up on Saturday.
The very last picture is the whole thing set-up at the person’s house where I bought it from. What a great thing Kijiji is.
