Museum for holiday, carpets and finger

Yesterday was a public holiday; the Queen’s Birthday was the reason. We did school although only the bare minimum and had finished by 10 am, thus still having a holiday. It was raining the entire day though so the boys couldn’t play outside – they get a bit silly when confined to the house innards. I vacuumed a blanket until all the dog or cat hair was off – this was one of the three wool blankets we bought at a garage sale several weeks ago, which had been waiting in the laundry for just such an occasion as the Queen’s Birthday to get dehaired. Then I sanded a wooden door so it’s ready for painting. That took us up to lunch, after which it was time to move furniture and pull up carpets. We had pretty much finished taking up the carpets by the time the Camerons arrived at 2 pm, so all they had to help with was getting tacks out of the floor. I was going to be taking all four boys to the Museum while the carpet removal was happening, but since we got it all done so quickly there was no need to get the boys out the house for any length of time. Instead, Nick and I took them all a bit later - better to have a male presence with four boys on the loose. The Museum is quite small, not much bigger than St Helena’s one, but very nicely put together. I was so busy photographing that I barely read any of the information but it was an interesting excursion nonetheless. The boys built huge floor puzzles; completion earned them a penny to play in an antique slot game. It had been raining when we arrived so Nick had dropped us off and gone to park the car, but when we came out there was just a mild drizzle so we all walked (ran) back. It was quite some distance away though and it was bitterly cold outside!!The house was also freezing last night with the carpets up and the interleading doors to the cold rooms removed. Thankfully it only had to be for one night and will be a lot warmer this evening with a thick underlay and carpet. A lot of cold comes from the floor – the house is raised off the ground and there is insulation underneath it, but without carpet the cold just comes right through; part of the motivation for not leaving the beautiful wooden floors in the rest of the house during Phase I of renovations as plain wood was the lack of insulation. Anyway, that’s what’s happened today - the Carpet Guy came shortly after 8 am and got stuck in with the diningroom and Nick's office. He was finished well before lunch time and it really looks great. That is the last of the major renovations now - the next step which will involve some juggling will be the varnishing of the kitchen floor. I'll post photos when the diningroom is all back together, as one thing finishing sometimes means another one starting - this afternoon I slapped an undercoat on the bookshelf Nick made. While I was painting in the garage I heard wails from down the road. I had just been thinking about the fact that I was not with the boys to watch over them, and how great it is that they are old enough for a bit of independence on their bikes and inside the house etc, when Aaron came running up the road to say that Caleb had nearly lost a finger. Turns out it wasn't quite as bad as his dramatization implied, but Caleb is missing half a finger nail which is somewhere on the pavement or under a skateboard wheel. Gross. He was in much pain after it happened but during the afternoon he perked up and does not seem to be too much bothered by it, pain-wise anyway (the expression in this photo is posed...)