A while ago I told Dave that we should save about $24 a day to cover the expense of the things the kids break. I thought this would be a reasonable way to not get mad at the kids. Dave quickly calculated that would amount to $8,760 a year.
I agreed that amount was a little extreme. But right now, I just wanted to list a few of our recent expenses on behalf of the kids. First, we have the pantry wire rack that gets removed a few times a day, cost $0, but it is frustrating.
Second, Luke had thrown our old phone a few times. Pieces gradually kept falling off. At the end point you could completely open up the phone while you were talking on it and see the battery pack and other electronics. It was surprising that it still worked. So we bought a new phone, $75.
Third, and this wasn't really
Luke's fault, was the busted dry-wall in the bathroom. How is a 3 year old suppose to know that you can not swing on towel bars. Luke pulled the towel bar out of the dry wall and tore out a 6 inch chunck. Normally we would just get a patch kit for about $4. However, this is the only room of the house we have not painted. The previous owners did a very uneven
texturizing paint job, so the entire bathroom needs to be sanded if you are going to repaint it. I have been asking for a power sander to complete this task even before Luke broke the dry wall. Maybe I will get it for
Christmas, about $80. The only problem is that I really want a dual vanity and bead board installed, so while we are at it we could add $700+.
This next one Luke had some help from the neighbors and his cousins. We had a basketball hoop downstairs which naturally lead to basketball throwing. As the balls bounced off of the ceiling before they hit the net they bounced on our fluorescent lights and drop ceiling. Then the kids were making shots off of the bed so they hit the light above the bed. Somehow a third light got hit. So we needed three ballasts to be replaced because they did not work. We also had some rips in the drop ceiling.
Instead of replacing just the broken lights we thought we should replace the entire basement with can lights instead of the fluorescent lights. And replacing all the ceiling tile, So... about $700 later I really like our new basement ceiling.
Maybe my original dollar estimate is more accurate than we thought. This is just another reason I am glad I do not live in a fancy home.
I love to go hiking with the family, but we have not been to Lapham peak since one week before Eva was born. I used to take Luke all the time and he would happily run on the trails. I thought he may have forgotten how to hike. He did not forget. We took a few wrong turns and took the steepest trail possible and he did not get tired. I thought we would be giving him a piggy back ride out.
Here is a tee pee we found as we were hiking. Luke called it his little house.
Here is one other extra picture of Luke in his PJ's in the rain.
