No More Floods

Two week ago we finally had sump pump installed outside our basement walk-up doorway. Of course it hasn't rained since. Looks like the plumber did a nice job, but truth will be told on the next bigtime storm and see if we avoid this another basement flood

How to Get The Kids To Clean The Basement

Two words: Lightsaber Fights

I motivated the kids that if the basement is kept clean they could have light saber fights down there. So tonight Jacob quietly finished dinner, ate dessert, put his dishes in the sink, washed his hands and then disappeared. So I called out, "Jacob where'd you go." Back comes, "I'm in the basement cleaning." Soon afterward, Reuben and Faith joined him.




Then the kids wanted to take some pictures:
Jacob's

Reuben's

and Faith's

Out Before The Storm

I'm really getting tired of saying how cold it still is. Where is spring? Tonight we are expecting a storm to move in and dump about 3” of rain over the next 24 hours with temps in the low 40's. We'll see how the basement hold up. Karen did let the plumber have it. They're coming back next week and will fix it with no labor charge. That deal came after they offered to come back and only charge us $48/hr (vs the normal $96). That's when Karen let it rip!!!
So before the rain Jacob, Faith, and I took Tipper for a walk and went to our local park. It really wasn't that cold, but still only about 50 degrees. Reuben went out with Karen on some errands and a quick stop at the doctor. Tipper is getting pretty good with letting the kids “walk” her. She's actually walking them, but she's good at letting the kids think they're in charge ;-)
What a poser!!! We did have a lot of fun at the park	Jacob loves to climb.
Tipper was very well behaved at the park. There were several other little kids and their Mother at the park who played with Tipper while she was tied up. Tipper even let the kids grab her tail without getting mad.

Cold Weekend

Cold Spring weekend in Virginia. We mostly stayed around the house this weekend. How cold was it...
This was Saturday morning. Yes that's snow! Sunday morning it was still cold so we went to see “Meet The Robinson's”. Good movie, though our showing was not in 3-D. It was probably better that way, considering that Reuben is still scared of movies in general. The 3-D probably would have ended any hope of him sitting through it. In the end, he “liked some of it.”	By the afternoon at least the snow was all gone.
On a Saturday I had a basement guy come in to evaluate the basement for flooding. We had a plumber in a few weeks ago who said he couldn't help us; he said we needed a basement waterproofing company. I was suspect because, as you can see if you followed the above link, the problem is related to the drain leading to the storm sewer backs up. The water doesn't come in to the house at that location but it indicates that the whole water table has risen and it starts coming at the corners of the house. So it was refreshing to hear from the basement guy that I should first try a plumber before spending all my money with him. He gave me a plumber's name that he works with who could snake out the drain and send a camera in to give a visual inspection. The visual inspection could be used, he told me, if my drain is clear. It then could be a county issue with their storm sewer. So stay tuned for what the plumber tells us. Also, I think the cold weather is inhibiting my grass from growing. So far 8 days and no germination. Here are some miscellaneous pictures from this weekend.
Our cold walk to the park.
Tipper, however, loves this kind of weather. We've hardly seen her this weekend. She's always in the yard.
	Faith is still is rarely ever out of her princess dress. The thing is starting to fall a part. Preemptively, Karen bought a second one which will likely be needed soon. The next faze seems to be this hat, which she insists on wearing all around.
Finally, when Jacob doesn't play nice with his siblings he now goes to his room for an extended period to play by himself. So far, he's spent quite a lot of time there ;-) My hope is that he starts to control himself, because he would want to play in a group. We'll see. Meanwhile, at least he showing some creativity in his room. Here is Jacob's cityscape. Our house is the one with the window.

More Presents

This morning we gave the kids a video game set "Vtech Smile" (from Uncle Marc of FL) that takes a slew of available game cartridges. Reuben and Jacob played it today with varying degrees of success. I think they will quickly master the joystick, but they still need some work. The games are pretty good. The one we played today was kind of like an early Nintendo Mario Brothers game, except with letters. I'm going to try out the other games during nap time for the sole reason of helping the kids later understand the games ;-) Tipper also got into the spirit this morning.