First Day of School

Our little one is now a FIRST GRADER {She wouldn't let us call her one until school started}. Here are a couple of pictures from her first day and our special treat to celebrate.

Ms A's first day of school outfit. She loves "Tangled" and Princess Rapunzel, so I found the "Tangled" sun and "Dream" from the song "I've Got A Dream", cut them out with my Silhouette and then we painted them on the shirt.

At her desk

I found this delicious peanut butter frosting via. I figured Ms A loves peanut butter and chocolate, what a better treat to celebrate her first day of school.

She asked if I could sing her a "First day of school" song, when I finished, she grinned and blew out her candle.

Demo Videos

Here are a couple of videos of the demolition of our rental house.


Firemen Training on Rental House


Excavator Demolition

We had a GREAT time watching
the house come DOWN!

Our Extreme House Makeover - Demo Stage

After the fire crews finished with their training, we had the excavator come and finish the job. What an amazing experience!!

The front of the house.

Lifting up the floor to the front bedroom

There it goes!!!

Our excavator found a beehive in the English Walnut.

He pushed the tree into the debris

All done!

and cleaned {mostly} up!

The Next Day

Reed sent me an email from the fire department. It said:

"One of our crews would like to head out to the structure today, before the tear down if it is possible. If so can you shoot me an email that this would be ok." ..."Great, I will have Station 6’s crew out there around 9:30….Thank you again for the opportunity."

Since we had an easy day, Miss A and I headed over to the property.

At one point there were three fire engines.

The fire crew had a race to see who could create an opening fastest with the windows {practicing when the door is not available to get inside}. They also used different tools {no chainsaws, only pickaxes, sledge hammers, axes and other hand tools} It was interesting to see the way the fire crew opened the areas.

Three other windows

Cutting Ventilation holes in the roof. They find the truss and cut a rectangle saddling the truss with a chainsaw. Then they use their axe/pickaxe to push or pull it down or up. They use ladders, pick axes and a pole with a fork or claw-like end to give themselves footing and to keep their balance while cutting.

The lieutenants had a race to see who could get inside first.

This one won.

How about a little transparency?!?!?

A Little Fun at our Rental House

Last week, we had a little old paint that we needed to use. Ms A and I went over to the rental house and played a little Tic-Tac-Toe. We painted smiley faces, wrote names and at the end, Ms A dipped her hands in the paint and put hand and fingerprints ALL OVER THE PLACE! She had a GREAT time.

Today as we left church, we went to check on our rental property.
This is what we saw when we drove up to our property! We have been waiting to have the firemen come to the rental house and do some trainings. They had a couple of rookies who needed practical experience. We had a great time watching them tear our rental house to pieces.

This is Mike the fireman. He explained to us what the rookies were doing and why. Mike was great with Ms A and explained so much at her level.

The first crew cut four ventilation holes in the roof to release heat and vent the smoke.

Some smoke coming out the back.
Entering the house.

The rookies had a race to see who could "escape" out of the house fastest. They did this training to practice in the scenario that all the normal exits {windows and doors} were unavailable. They each picked a place and went to town pounding on the exterior wall.

Here is a picture of the siding becoming loose

Peeking through the siding.

He found his way OUT!

The two holes they exited.

The interior view of their escapes.

One of the things the rookies practiced was to go into the house, find a smoke bomb, extinguish it and then ventilate the house. One of the ways to ventilate the house is to used the water hose to break out the windows. We were on the opposite side of the house, but still saw the smoke and then the water coming out of the house.

They also had a race breaking into the house. The front door was pretty easy, a strong kick and it popped open. The back two doors were a little more work. They each took a door and broke it down. The whole in the second door was a wood panel. When we walked through after the firemen did their trainings, all but one of the doors were broken off their hinges.

Tuesday is demo day with the excavator...
can't wait to see this house come down!!!

Intel Party

Reed's job had a family get together at the local county fairgrounds. They brought in a few water slides and bouncy houses. Ms A had a BLAST! She wasn't too sure about the high water slide, but the slip and slide was her favorite. I think she went on it at least twenty times.