Paint Fumes & New Bedrooms

So I did it.  I finished my big project for the summer.  Yeah yeah yeah.  I know.  There are still 12 days (did you hear that?  Only 12!!!) left in the school year but you know me.  I got antsy.  I couldn't wait anymore.  So I did it.  I gave my kids big kid rooms.  And I have to say, I am so happy with how they turned out.  Here's how I finished my big summer project during a gross week in spring.

It all started with Ben.  I noticed that when he slept, his feet hung off the end of his little toddler bed.  And then I noticed that Abby had a hard time fitting into her bed with all of the stuff she likes to sleep with.  So I started thinking about sprucing up their bedrooms a little.  When we moved in, I set up their rooms with what we had and for whatever reason, I haven't done much to them since.  This is what their rooms looked like before:

It's not prison camp but it's nothing spectacular either.  I started looking at bedroom sets and about fell over dead when I saw the price.  $1500 for kids furniture?  Not in my house!  That's when Plan B popped into my head.  I'll find some old furniture and make it look new.  So the hunt began.  I stalked Craigslist and the Goodwill looking for just the right things.  Robbie went to the ends of the earth (really just as far as Puyallup) to pick things up from random people's houses.  But for a grand total of $125, we got two dressers and two beds (not the mattresses...don't worry, I didn't buy those from the Goodwill).  Look!

You can see her bed frame hiding behind the dresser.

And here's his bed.  I forgot to take the before picture of his dresser but you get the idea...old and beat up.

For a little over a week, my garage was turned into a little paint shop.  First I sanded everything and then I painted.  And painted and painted and painted.

At first, I couldn't figure out how to paint the beds.  Do I lay them down and paint one side at a time?  That seemed like it would take too long.  Hang them from the ceiling?  (That was Robbie's idea).  Seemed kind of risky.  After a day or two it dawned on me to just set them up.  Duuuuuhhhh.  Worked like a charm!

I had seen somewhere (and now I can't remember where) an idea to hang kids' art work.  My kids love to hang their own art on the wall and I would venture to guess have gone through about 30 miles of Scotch tape doing so.  This seemed like a much more reasonable solution: 

Finally, everything was painted and ready to go.  Thursday we had a shopping trip to get the finishing touches for the new bedrooms (you know, like the mattresses!)  That night while they were at my parents house, I put it all together.  Here's Abby's room.  Her duvet cover is back ordered, but it should get here sometime next week.

Looks good, right?

Now here is Ben's big boy pirate room:

And here are their little art hanger in action:

When they got home, they were very surprised and excited to get to bed right away.  Abby invited a few friends to join her:

And Ben just couldn't wait to go to sleep!

When I checked on them later that night, Ben was still falling off his bed

and Abby was still crowded.

Oh well, at least the rooms are cute!

While I was at it I decided to give myself a treat for my room.  I had taken a picture a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to frame so I found this at the Goodwill:

I took the picture out, painted it up....and wa la!

Finally, something hanging on our wall!

This project was fun and I learned a lot along the way.  Here are my top tips:

1. Paint one color at a time.  I spent a lot of time touching up splatters from going back and forth between black and white.

2. Get an electric sander.  I did...after I had sanded most of the furniture.  Believe me, it is way easier.

3. Gorilla Glue expands.  I had never used it before and thought it would be good to attach the clothes pins for the art hangers.  It worked.  A little too good.  It was a little too late when I noticed that the whole thing was glued to my dining room table.  Ooops.

4. If you decide to re purpose an old picture frame, be careful not to break the glass when you are taking it out because it turns out that a new piece of glass costs more than a new frame.  Who knew?

All in all, this was a fun project.  Robbie is worried about what I will do all summer now that I finished my project.  I'm sure I'll find something!

She's Baaaaaaaaaack

Ok. So you may or may not know about the fifth member of our family, our cat, Phyllis. We have had her for a long time...since 1998, however many years that has been. She has moved at least six time (probably more) and survived being infiltrated by two babies but otherwise has lived a fairly uneventful life. That is, until we moved here. In the year and a half that we have lived here, she has disappeared for weeks at a time on a number of occasions. The first time she left, we had Only lived here for about a month and the circumstances in our life were quite chaotic. I am embaressed to say that she had been missing for a couple of weeks before I noticed. (In my defense, there really were much more important things happening at the time.) I thought for sure she was a goner. It was cold and we hadn't lived here that long. Robbie said, "Maybe she's in a tree.". I said, "Maybe she's in a coyote." We told the kids that she had gone to a farm. What else could we do? Then, one day, at least six (yes, SIX!)weeks after she disappeared, she came home. We whooped and hollered in disbelief. The kids begged her not to go back to the farm. We couldn't believe it. But WHERE had she been? She was skinny...really skinny considering that at her most recent checkup the vet had suggested that she lose 40% of her body weight. Well, mission accomplished I suppose. Within a month or two, she was back to fighting weight and sometime over the summer she wandered off again. This time, we started to worry after a couple weeks went by but low and behold she came back after only a month this time.

Sometime in April, we noticed she was gone again. Seriously? Where could she be? We pretty much live in the woods and I know there are a lot of animals out there. She's no spring chicken so I do worry about her out there. But once again, just when I was feeling like the worst pet owner ever, she showed up at the back door late at night. Hungry, but otherwise none the worse for the wear. This time, it was apparent that she had been eating. So the question remains: where does she go and do those people wonder where she spends the other ten months a year?

***For the one of you who is confused on the gender of my cat, let me remind you that while Phil is indeed a boy name, Phyllis is actually a girl.

Mission: Impossible

If you are ever in need of a good laugh, I recommend that you show up at the Y locker room just as swimming lessons is letting out.  Before you start thinking I am some sort of weirdo, let me explain.  Picture this...Open style locker room shower with 5 showers, anywhere between 5 and 9 kids who are freezing from coming out of the pool and into the cool air, and their mothers.  Now you may think that they kids would be the funniest part of this equation, but no.  It is us, the moms, trying to get our kids shampooed and rinsed, all while staying dry.  In my 4 years of direct research I have come to find out that this is pretty much an impossible task.  On any given evening, you can see clean, dry, happy kids all dressed in their pajamas walking out with a grumbly, grumpy, wet mom.  While I have yet to come out completely dry, I have been perfecting my technique lately, and I have found that you have to have a strategy. 

Best case scenario, your kid is the first one into the locker room.  I always rush my kids in because this allows for two important advantages.  Number 1: the opportunity you choose your shower.  Take it from me, you do NOT want the one in the corner.  Number 2: the opportunity to turn on your kids shower without having to dodge the spray from the other 4.  On the off chance that I am not the first mama out of the gate, I have taken to just having my kids turn on their own shower.  This adds significant time to the overall showering experience because neither one of them is really quite tall enough to do it easily and it takes a number of adjustments to get the temperature to both of their liking, but it is worth it because my chances of getting soaked go way down. 

Once they are in the shower, the fun really begins.  There are two types of moms: the ones that sit back and wait patiently for their kids to be done and the ones that stand outside the shower and yell directives.  I am sorry to say that I am the second type.  Mainly because if I didn't tell them what to do, we would still be there (it is now 4 hours after our session ended) while Abby got "warmed up."  I don't know if it is too loud in the shower, or if they are too busy talking to their "friends"  (you know the kids in their class that they spend 25 minutes with twice a week?) but none of them can seem to hear what we are telling them.  The conversation sounds something like this:  "Abby, come over here so I can wash your hair,"  "Jeffery, wash the soap off your hair,"  "Ben, pick your swimsuit up off the floor...Abby please come here,"  "Jefferey, tip your head into the water,"  "Lilly, time to get out,"  "Ben, don't forget to use that soap,"  "Jeffery.  Head.  Water.  Now!" 

Every once in awhile, someone has to actually walk into the shower to help their kid turn off the shower or rinse their hair and it is never pretty.  It is impossible to go in and come out dry and more likely than not, the poor sap is wet at least up to her knees.  This is most entertaining if the mom has come directly from work and is in some kind of nice clothes and heels.  I can't help but laugh every time as we all dance around the water and glance awkwardly at each other to see if anyone saw the shower spray in our face when we turned it on.

The Truth Comes Out...Wellllll, Sort of

Since tomorrow is Mother's Day, I thought I would interview my kids to find out what they know and think about dear ol' mom. Some of their answers were funny, some were surprisingly accurate.





First up, Ben. My goofy little man who loves to have me by his side at all times. He has the best sense of humor and loves to snuggle...but only when HE wants to. Here's what he had to say:








What is something Mom always says to you? "I love you!"





What makes Mom happy? "Because I love you."





What makes Mom sad? "When I'm naughty."





How does Mom make you laugh? "You're funny." I knew I loved this kid!





How old is Mom? "90" What?!? Guess we need to work on that one...





How tall is Mom? "Okay, I'll count." He proceeded to "count" using his hands and announced, "14 pounds!" Yup! That sounds about right!!





What is Mom's favorite thing to do? "Play with me."





What does Mom do when you're not around? "I don't know because I'm not here. What DO you do Mama?" I told you he was funny.





What is Mom really good at? "Cleaning." Wish I could say the same about him.





What is Mom not good at? "Lego's." That answer came out quick. So true though.





What is Mom's job? "School." Just to clarify I work at a school, I don't go to school.





What is Mom's favorite food? "Cereal." ????





What makes you proud of Mom? "When you are snuggling me."





What do you and Mom do together? "Play."





How are you and Mom the same? "We love each other." Very true.





How are you and Mom different? "You are tall and I am small."





What does Mom like most about Dad? "Cleaning with him." Ooooh, good one!





Where is Mom's favorite place to go? "Shopping." This is actually true, unfortunately the kind of shopping he is thinking of is grocery shopping which is not my favorite...just the only shopping I do anymore.





How do you know Mom loves you? "Because I love you." Right back at ya, Buddy.





Abby is my Chatty Kathy (no clue where she gets that...) who loves doing many of the same things I do. Cleaning, crafts, being a Mama.... Here's what she had to say:

What is something Mom always says to you? "I say, 'Come get me...it's a 7!' and you say, 'Come down!'"

What makes Mom happy? "When I'm quiet until the morning."

What makes Mom sad? "When we are naughty."

How does Mom make you laugh? "You say funny words."

How old is Mom? "30....uhhhh 31." At least someone has been paying attention.

How tall is Mom? "Really really really really really tall." First time I've heard that one.

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? "Do crafts and clean the house."

What does Mom do when you're not around? "Special things, like go to school."

What is Mom good at? "Doing crafts."

What is Mom not good at? "Hmmmmm...I don't know. What did Ben say? What aren't you good at?" I didn't have time to get into it.

What is Mom's favorite food? "Cereal." I honestly don't eat that much cereal. (I know my parent's don't believe that because it is true that they had to instill a 3 bowl limit, but seriously maybe once a week?)

What makes you proud of Mom? "When she wins races." This makes me laugh, because while I have won some races in my day, I don't think I have run more than three in her life time and I haven't come close to winning any of them.

What do you and Mom do together? "Do crafts." Are you starting to pick up on her love for all things crafty?

How are you and Mom the same? "Because we are both girls and we like each other annnnnnnd we both do crafts." I like how she can get that in almost everywhere.

How are you and Mom different? "You are bigger and I have brown hair and you have black hair and you have to have glasses."

What does Mom like most about Dad? "Because he helps you do your jobs."

What is Mom's favorite place to go? "Target." Alone.

How do you know Mom loves you? "Because you are my mommy and you used to say you love me when I was a baby. And you made me get born." I am so glad I did.

Cake Pops...Our New Calling?

As if last weekend wasn't busy enough, I decided that it would be fun to attempt cake pops for the first time. What's that you say? You don't know what cake pops are? Where have you been? Cake pops are the cute new dessert that is sweeping the nation. People who actually know what they are doing can turn them into virtually anything...bunny rabbits...leprechauns...village people...People who don't know what they are doing end up with something like this:

We ran into all sorts of trouble. First, our balls were too big. Stop laughing. Then we had trouble with the candy coating. We also didn't have a good plan for what to do with the ones that happened to survive. There were many, many casualties.

Luckily, I wasn't at this alone. My trusty partner in crime, Megan, came over to "help". It took us quite a bit of trial and error to get a system down but eventually, we started to figure it out.

Once we found a place for them to "dry", things started going much better.

In the end, they actually turned out pretty good. People ate them!! And liked them!!

It was touch and go for awhile...we thought we might have to scrap it all and swing by to pick up an ice cream cake on the way to a party. We laughed harder than I think I have laughed in a long time and we now have something to fall back on in case this whole teaching thing doesn't work out.

A Little Bit of Easter

So, better late than never right? Here is the low down on all of our Easter festivities. We started by coloring eggs. This year they could do most of it on their own and no one ended up with their face splattered in what turns out to be permanent dye.

Like I said, everything was going great, everyone was having a great time. And then, we ran out of eggs...

Over reaction? Nooooooooo. Not this kid. Quick thinking Daddy got some non-boiled eggs from the fridge and we recovered quickly.

The Easter Bunny swung by our house sometime during the night on Saturday and left some surprises. He even "laid an egg" in Abby's room!!

We hunted for eggs all over the playroom...

and modeled our new bike helmets that the bunny left.

We got dressed in our Sunday best and headed off to church.

After church we had ANOTHER egg hunt at Grammy's house with Andrew, my sweet nephew...

Our final stop of the day was at Nana's house where we hunted for even MORE eggs with all the cousins...

Here they all are together. You know me, I can't get my own two kids to look the same direction at the same time so seven was obviously a long shot. Oh well, good enough!
Easter, just like all of our holidays, was crazy busy but we got to see all of the people we love and have a lot of fun in the process. Can't beat that.