Raise the roof

For Monday night's family home evening we had a rather special event.

Can you guess from these pic's of my favorite childhood movie?

We had our first "barn raising". We thought it would be fun to make an event out of building the coop. And also much more fun to borrow some children for the event- cuz kids make work a little more exciting. We called Matt and Emily and invited them and the fam. over to play.

But I forgot to mention, we have names for the cheekas-

See if you pick up on a theme,

Penny, Kate, Juliette, Clarie and Charlotte- Any clue?

We named them for the women of Lost. Our favorite TV mystery drama, that we are still clueless as to what is really going on in.

(they each have Sawyer nicknames too, for those that like the show)

The last week or so, Justin has been busy preparing. He laid the foundation first. Built the floor joists and then Saturday, spent his time building the walls for the coop. He built it all out of recycled, free wood, and our left over landscaping bricks that had been laying around the yard. cha-ching = zero dollars. (We did buy the sand and the floor board but 15 bucks is definitely do-able)

He also meticulously planned the coop. It matches our house, that also has a triangular shape off the back, it should be quite charming when it is done.

Of course we dressed up a little. Doesn't dressing up make all events more fun. We donned our cowboy hats and I put on my grandmother's apron and provided one for Emily as well. (course I had to wear it over the belly... but it just made it more funny)

When our friends got there we got straight to business, letting them meet and hold the gals. And miraculously, no one was pooped on.

We quickly got down to the hard work of nailing. The boys took this very seriously, pounding and pounding and pounding. (then, too funny, Matthew started complaining that his back hurt... so dramatic, but truly a part of all building projects)

We danced a little on the new floor, because after all, what is a barn raising without a good dance.

(for proof see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, or Oklahoma, although that was a school)

Then, we started putting up the walls. It was getting dark fast as a large storm approached, so the lighting got kinda bad.

I wanted it to look like I did more than just document the event, so Emily graciously let me pretend to work for the camera.

In the middle of our project, we had another visitor stop by. This little guy that seems to live in our back yard as of late. We really need to get a little fence up around our garden! But dang he is so cute. He is tiny! And he lets us get so close to him!

We finished getting the walls up and still have more to do, but on another day.

With only one minor casualty!

After, we wrapped up the night with Root beer. This is in honor of Justin. When he was little he was in a play of Charlotte's Web. He was a "barn raiser", and his part was to sit on the steps and drink a root beer. So, here's to you babe!