Ant Man

Ant farms today are so different from what we had as kids growing up.

Mr Blue Eyes was obsessed with the ant farm he had in his class this year. We decided and ant farm might be fun for the kids at home so we got him his very own ant farm for his birthday.

Instead of dirt, modern day ant farms are made from this gel material. The gel allows for you to watch as ants dig 3-D tunnels in illuminated nutrient-rich gel. No feeding or watering needed!

Of course, the ants are not included with the kit. Mr Blue Eyes and I went online and we ordered our ants to be sent to us. I was watching our mail box daily for the ants to finally get here.

Our mail man delivers mail 6 days a week. Most every mail person in the US delivers mail 6 days a week. Do you know what day the US Postal Service does NOT deliver mail? On Sundays. Mail is not delivered on Sunday. For as long as we have lived in this house, mail has never been delivered on a Sunday.

The kids and I were headed into town on one particular Sunday and we noticed the mail man delivering mail in our neighborhood. How strange. Well, guess what day our ants came in the mail. On a SUNDAY!!!! Our ants were delivered on a Sunday!!! On a warm, warm Sunday afternoon.

Sadly after sitting in our mailbox for a few hours until we got home and realized the ants had been delivered, most all of our ants were cooked to death. Major mom grimace.

We made the most of it and decided we would give the remaining little guys a wonderful new home.

The kids were so excited the ants had finally arrived. We opened our kit and made three starter tubes in the gel for the ants.

The instructions said we needed to put the vial of ants in the fridge for 15 minutes to calm and slow the ants down enough that they could be safely transferred from the vial to the farm. Those poor ants were probably thinking, "Armageddon has arrived!" Hot then cold. Surely the end of the world was upon them.

When the timer went off, I opened the lid on the vial and dumped the contents of the vial into the farm.

There were a lot of dead ants...

But we estimate about 18 were still alive and moving around.

There really wasn't a way for me to separate all of the dead ants from the live ants in the vial. The next day Handy Man helped us remove all of the dead ants from the farm. This was not an easy task. I wasn't able to photograph the ant round up because it required all hands on deck. 

These are harvester ants - ie short tempered, very defensive, red ants that like to bite, HARD! We took the lid off the top and it was mass hysteria! Ants were climbing out. I was trying to put them back. They were biting everything. Attacking us. It was chaos. Secretly happy there were less than 20, we finally had to get a little jar and round up each alive ant one-by-one into the jar. Once they were corralled, Handy Man was able to scrape the dead ant out of the farm. 

We then placed our very angry survivor ants into the fridge to calm them down a little bit before returning them to the farm. 

The verdict was in and Mr Blue Eyes had 15 ants in his farm that survived the dramatic adventure. Two appeared to need medical attention... I hope one of the remaining 13 ants had some first aid training.

Each day, the little ants dug and built a few more tunnels.  

With proper care the ants should live one to three months. Every couple of days we noticed another dearly beloved ant was no longer moving. All-in-all, our poor little ants made it just over three weeks... 

Now, I am not really sure what do do with the ant farm??? Do we buy more ants and try again? Can we even put new ants in the old ant farm? What to do...

Overall the experience was exciting. After a week the kids did kind of lose interest. I wonder how long it would take them to notice the ant farm is gone? I mean what do I do with an ant graveyard anyways???

Parenting struggles are real most days...

I Can DIY My Kitchen (Part C)

The painting is DONE!


Step Seven: Hardware & Hinges
Finishing touches and all that fun stuff... not so much.

I picked out about five different options for hardware. I tested them on the existing island and hated them all. Everything fancy and awesome I picked out was too big or just didn't look right mounted in the original holes already drilled in our cabinets. I had no intention of trying to refill those holes since everything was already all painted and ready to go.

Back to the drawing board, I had to chose some smaller door pulls.

There really were only three choices that worked with our cabinets and existing holes. 

We decided to go with the pull on the right. Yeah!!! 

Hinges were another story. I bought the same hinges we had, but in brushed nickle. Unfortunately, they were a disaster. When we tried the set I purchased on one of our freshly painted doors, the door wouldn't close all the way. My frustrated Handy Man started prying and bending the hinges to retro-fit the door to get it to close all the way.

Slightly scratching the hinges, I told Handy Man that this was not going to work. I mean honestly, what a pain in the hind end if we had to manhandle every single hinge for 20+ doors. Not to mention, each time he manhandled one of the hinges it looked like he was on the verge of stripping the screws from the wood as he cranked on the hinges in frustration. Come on Buddy I just spent weeks painting those doors!!!

We decided that we might have to consider hidden hinges in order for this to all work.

Hidden hinges involve using a 35mm drill bit with a drill press to cut out the depressions for each of the cups of the hinges. We would have to drill to the depth recommended by the hinge manufacturer in each door. Each perfectly painted door.... Most importantly, we had to make sure not to drill all the way through the cabinet door. 

Drill through one door... we are toast! Dead in the water! All that work for nothing!!! 

Since we knew we were getting rid of the kitchen island, I suggested that Handy Man experiment on the little door for bake ware cabinet. If he messed it up, we knew the hidden hinges weren't going to work. I am not really sure what our plan C was going to be then...

He got to drilling. 

The dry run was a success. We had a new plan for our hinges and Handy Man was soooooo excited that my DIY job was suddenly becoming his DIY job! hahahaha

I went and laid down some more $$$ and bought a gaggle of hidden hinges.

Fingers crossed.

Drink in hand.

High blood pressure meds on order... we started to drill a finished door!!!

The moment of truth....

No turning back now!

Two very large holes stared up at me from the garage floor.
The hardware nested in each hole perfectly. Please let this work!

A couple more screws retrofitted to the cabinet boxes...

And ta-da!!!

Hidden hinges were our answer! And the hardware we picked was also a winner!

Oh my goodness I was soooooo excited! It's all coming together!

Handy Man now had a lot of drilling to do. The next night after Handy Man got home from work, the family got busy on our manufacturing line. Handy Man was our driller (better he mess something up and not me!)

Our Brown Eyed Girl was the saw dust vacuum queen!

She's pretty handy with a shop vac!

Mr Blue Eyes and I were in charge of wiping down all the doors after they were vacuumed. I also got the awesome job of removing these white, molly like, plastic fittings from every screw. They were greasy and annoying. 

Handy Man and his little brown eyed helper also worked on pre-drilling the hinge screws. He ran the drill and she worked her vacuuming skills some more.

Can I tell you how much my heart sings watching Daddy and Daughter build stuff together?

We took a break for dinner and I think Handy Man lost his marbles. The first door he went back to pre-drill ended up as a major casualty... My loving husband forgot what he was doing and drill All. The. Way. Through. The. Cabinet. Door.

Not once...

Three times before he realized he had made a huge mistake.

For some reason, I can not find the photo of evidence. But I assure you, it happened! Considering all things, we really only had one casualty and I was successfully able to putty, patch and repaint the door.

I started installing the rest of the hardware as the doors were mounted. I came across another bump in our road. Each pull comes with two lengths or mounting screws for you to choose from. A shorter screw length for the doors and a longer length for the drawers. The lengths are standard in every package.

Huston we have a problem...

The drawer length screws were too long for my drawers.

Ohhh Handy Man???

Handy Man was even MORE excited that my DIY job just gave him an additional DIY job which involved custom grinding each drawer screw down in order to fit perfectly.

I sure do love and appreciate that Handy Man of mine! xoxo

We installed the final cabinet door that needed three band-aids.

And...

We were done! 

What a difference!

Painted cabinets was a success!

I love how bright my now looks. I love the gray wall color even more. It really pops! 

This DIY project isn't really over quite yet. We have a few other plans in the works before our DIY remodel is completed:

1. Remove dated kitchen island and replace.

2. Add a kitchen pantry and desk area so that my laptop and files are not always sprawled out all over the kitchen island. 

3. Replace existing counter-tops with granite - I will just be observing this portion of the project. 

4. Install some back splash

5. refinish the hardwood floors and add carpet to the living area in our great room. 

Geesh, I better get busy!

End Of The School Year Shinanigans

Help!
This mom is over committed and time strapped!

Can you believe that another school year has ended. Another Summer is in full swing and we really have been doing lots of fun things!

The kids both participated in Run4Funds again this year!

Of course it was raining that day so they had to move the whole event indoors. They both made 36 laps around the school running through the halls. We were not as on the ball this year with our fundraising efforts... But we still had a great time.

Grandma Rhonda helped the kids create this awesome Mother's Day surprise for me!

Hand painted, with love. My new Lady Bug Garden!

I volunteered to chaperone my Brown Eyed Girl's field trip to the zoo. 

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My!

It was perfect weather, a beautiful day. AND I lucked out and skipped out of having to ride the old non-air-conditioned school bus both ways!

We were sad to say goodbye to Mrs Forsythe, my Brown Eyed Girls amazing first grade teacher. She was so patient, so kind and so willing to work with her all last year when she needed an extra hug or patients during yucky CRMO days. Mrs Forsythe was a treasure for sure to be a part of our Brown Eyed Girls life. 

Cousin Riley met us for a movie date to see the Jungle Book. I think I jumped 50 times! We ate LOTS of popcorn and candy. A perfect last get-together before Riley sadly moved back to Iowa after living in Colorado for the last year. We sure will miss her!

Mr Blue Eyes also had his last day of school. The teachers gave all the kids sunglasses and a cute little note that said their future was so bright they had to wear shades! I loved the sentiment. They loved the shades.

This was the first year Mr Blue Eyes really evolved to have "boy" friends that like to play "boy" things like catch, football, and wrestling/body checking. It was the first time I really got to see him be a boy and do boy things - other than motor cars around my living room floors.

They are all a bunch of goofballs!

We will definitely miss his teachers as well. So awesome! Thankfully we will see Ms Janell next year, but sadly Ms Krista moved back to her home town on the east coast. She was quite emotional the last day. She will be missed greatly.

I foresee lots of play dates this summer with his Best Buddy Ben.