Kalahari & Moving

Last week we had planned to spend a week at Kalahari in Sandusky, the world's (or maybe the country's) largest indoor waterpark, as part of the first annual Unschooler's Winter Waterpark Gathering (UWWG).

We went last Monday, and before we even got there Taipan wanted to come home. He changed his mind for a bit after we got there and he got excited about some of the things to do there. There's a huge arcade and a great climbing/play structure, and candy and ice cream, and UWWG had a craft room set up. He was not interested in the waterpark. And he always came back to me saying he wanted to go home.

Our original plans were to stay until Friday. We came home early Wednesday morning - it seemed to be what Taipan needed, and I figured I could help Yuta with packing and moving. Yuta got so much moving done early last week that we decided to move to our new house last Saturday, instead of waiting until Feb 2nd, which was our original plan.

We're living amongst a bunch of boxes still, but we're settled in fairly well given that we've only been here a few days. Our painter is finishing up the laundry room right now, then he'll just have minor touch ups and he'll be done. I love love love some of the colors we picked. My favorites are a color called Serape, which we put in my office and a color called Aqua-Sphere, which we put in our laundry room.

Our goal is to have the house in shape enough for us to feel comfortable hosting a small get together on Feb 9th. We'll be celebrating Taisim's 2nd birthday and our new house!

House tour

This is not our house, but it's the same layout and just down the road. This listing has a virtual tour of the house that does a good job of showing what it looks like.

Go here and click on "Featured Tour"

The major differences between the one in this listing and our house are that ours only has hardwood in the foyer and kitchen, and the brick on the front of our house is a different color. And the price we paid is way less than what this one is listed for.

We bought a new house (almost)

Tomorrow we get the keys to our new house. Over the holidays we decided that we wanted to move to a new house - to get more space for the kids to play, a house that had room for a dedicated office for me, and a house with a bit more of a yard. We were fortunate to find something that we love right away, and it's only a couple of blocks away. We got a great deal on it too - the kicker was that we had to do a quick closing. So we close tomorrow. We've already signed the paperwork, and the title should transfer by end of day Wednesday.

We're very excited. We've been working with a painter to choose colors, and he'll begin painting on Thursday, and we hope to be moved in by Feb 1st or 2nd.

I'd post a link to the realtor's site with pictures, except those pictures don't really do the house justice, so I'm going to wait & post pics that we take after we move.

Oh, and it has a HUGE basement - it's not finished, but some day we'll finish it and have a huge rec room or office space or something.

"Lightsavers"

I said I was going to blog more often, and it's been less than a month since I've posted, so I guess that's technically more often, right?

Anyway, Yuta got the new Lego Star Wars game for Christmas. Taipan has been enjoying it a lot. We all enjoy it, but Taipan certainly has a certain affinity for it.

Here's a conversation we had the other night at bedtime:

Taipan: Mom, I want to go to the lightsaver store and buy lightsavers so we could fight with them.
Me: Ok. Um... maybe we could make lightsabers.
Taipan: Ooooooooh! We could make them?
Me: Sure!
Taipan: I want a white lightsaver.

So, my mission yesterday was to figure out how to make a lightsaber. We could have used the lightsabers that Yuta has stashed in a closet somehwere, but I know that those would be quite painful if anyone got whacked with it. I decided to find pool noodles & reinforce them with colored duct tape.

We first made a white one, with a silver handle for Taipan, then Taisim wanted a white one, and then Taipan asked for a blue lightsaver. Taisim really liked the pink noodles and didn't want us to put any tape on them.

(p.s. Taipan calls them lightsavers with a "v" that's not a typo. At first he called the game Lego Starburst too)
Y: He also calls Chewbacca "Chewpapa" and Boba Fett "Bobo Fett".

"Look Mama, Taisim is Darth Maul!"	Saber Duel!
BZZZT! CRASH! BZZZT!	Heads up!
Use the Force Taipan!