We’re putting the finishing touches on a bit of remodeling work in Jonathan’s room.  As I was putting a final coat of paint on the wall the other day, I saw Jonathan holding his old ceiling fan and ‘explaining’ to Jake how it works.

“The electricity goes from the switch to this thing, and then the blades move.”

Pointing at the motor, I asked Jonathan if he knew how “this thing” works.

Jonathan:  “I dunno.”

Dad:  “Why don’t we take it apart and figure it out?”

Jonathan and Jake:  “Yeah!”

We spent the next hour our so dissecting the old fan.  They both did great with the screwdrivers and we eventually stripped it down to the motor housing.  Unfortunately, it was crimped so tight we couldn’t crack it open to see the coil.  They wanted to “blast it with this huge hammer, dad” but I decided to call it a day at that point.

Here are a few pics from the adventure.

thebuchanans.net is now powered by the latest version of the greatest thing on the net - WordPress. One of the best features in the new version is post-level image galleries, with a simplified upload procedure and auto-thumbnailing. This will make it much simpler for Renee to put pictures on the site…and should encourage her to do so more often.

I placed a summer-inspired gallery into this post to show off this new feature. (we’ve had two snow storms in Toledo since the official begining of spring, so we’re a longing a bit for summer weather right now)

Anyone else in the family want a WordPress-powered blog or site? Let me know…..

Here’s a few quick pics from my recent trip to San Francisco. I managed to sneak in about three hours of sightseeing on a Friday afternoon.

Hills, cable cars, and fresh seafood!

Sophie stealing a glove in the snow.

We’re getting ready. Are you?

We ‘rediscovered’ this gem when showing Renee’s new computer to my mom the other night.

That’s Lexi and Jonathan at his pre-school gradutation. Sure looks like he’s about to deliver a kiss, and it sure looks like they’re both a bit smitten with each other. [Continue reading →]

After years of Jonathan asking for a dog, we have finally decided to go ahead and get one (it also helps that Jake is almost potty trained). Jonathan is so excited, I’m not sure our cat, Henry will be as thrilled! The puppies were born yesterday and the breeder sent me a couple of pictures already.

It was “Hannah’s” first time giving birth and she only had two puppies, both girls. So if you have any good suggestions for names let us know.

Without further delay….here she is:

We took Jake to an open skate tonight. He was so excited to get on the ice so he could skate like his big brother!

He loved it (even though it totally killed our backs).

After about 15 minutes Jake was ready to get off the ice and go find the Zamboni!

Jake must have the touch. Two weekends ago he put Jonathan’s Scooby Doo pole in the water and caught a fish his first time! He was so excited. He caught 5 more after that. The down side is, now he thinks every time you put your pole in you catch a fish!

Jake went down a waterslide for the first time at the Animal Kingdom Lodge . He cracked up the whole way down. Once he hit the water he immediately said, “again!” I think he must have gone down the slide about 20 times. When it was time to dry off he cried the whole way out of the pool. He is such a daredevil, he’ll try anything!