Done!!

Okay, so after three days of cleaning, organizing, sorting, and shopping I am done!! I took the kids to Wal-mart yesterday to pick out their fabric for their "curtains." There choices were...well, let's just say...interesting. If you look carefully in the picture above you can see Joe's choice--a sheer, rainbow piece of fabric that you can see right through. He says that he will just change behind the Webkinz. Hannah chose a 70's style daisy print that matches the bed nicely and her personality. Of course it doesn't come close to matching Grace's fabric or Joe's. That's okay though. I love the eclectic/tacky look. :0)
Grace has chosen "Under the Sea" as the theme of her bed and so her fabric choice reflects that. She has also made a few sea creatures that she has tacked onto the wall. If I were a perfectionist I probably would have cut off that white edging part and hemmed the bottom but I'm not. The. End.

The girls and I went to Ikea today with Ms. Amanda and Landobaby. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we could have breakfast for free when we got there. Weekdays from 9:30 to 10 you can eat breakfast for free. We had eggs, bacon, hash browns and coffee. Then we walked the entire store and went back to the restaurant for some of the famous Swedish meatballs. Yum! Oh, and besides eating we also bought some lamps for the bedroom. Grace's lamp is a starfish--don't even say that it looks like a nighttime star because it's not--it's a starfish that lives "under the sea." Hannah got a big flower and Joe got a gigantic ball thing that I thought would be oh so cool but instead takes up nearly his whole "room." Oops. That one may have to find a new home. Maybe in the playroom... I also found a nice reading lamp to mount on the wall for Grace's bed so that she can read at night but I haven't gotten it up yet.


And, with the addition of "curtains" and lamps we are officially done!! I am so pleased with how everything turned out.

Productive

I worked for about 13 hours today (with a few breaks thrown in) and got a ton of work done! Of course I took pictures...These first three pictures are underneath the kids' beds. I've added a few things to Hannah's and to Joe's but this is the basic idea. Tomorrow we shop for fabric for the curtains. I'm hoping to either find really cute sheets that are cheap or cute fabric that is cheap. The name of the game is cheap!


In the closet I've hung three hangy downy things. This is a great way for the kids to have a place for little doodads and other cr@&. This has also already changed since I took that picture. Grace now has a green hangy downy things thanks to Aunt Harriet trading with her.
Once I got the bedroom cleaned out and organized and the clothes situated in the dressers--then it was time for the real fun (not). All of this stuff above had been crammed into Hannah's old room so the first thing I did was completely empty everything out of her room. This took over an hour I think. Then, once Ollie got home we took the bed apart and stored it in our neighbor's garage. We've decided not to sell it since our neighbor was nice enough to let us store it in his bigger-than-my-house-garage. It took all five of us working together to take the thing apart and move it! It was a royal pain.

And...ta-da! The finished project! A playroom. I decided not to make it a schoolroom because I actually have a pretty good setup in the FL room for school and I think it would feel cramped and crowded to try to move it all into this room. Not to mention that I didn't want toys all over the FL room. So, we went with a playroom instead. I kept the big dresser that was in there and each kid has a drawer to keep more of their cr@&. I also covered the whole top with all of the girls' little decorative thingy-ma-bobs. It's kinda fun! I did manage to get rid of a good bit of stuff but with three kids there is still a lot. I am most excited about the big bare wall--perfect place for that timeline I've always dreamed of! Or maybe a learning poster or two or ten.

Think we have enough books?
Well, I am beyond tired and my own suitcase is still not unpacked but I feel a lot better having this project over and done with. Tomorrow is a new day...I just hope I can move when I wake up! I know I'll be sore.

I'm Baaaaaackkkk!!

Sorry for the unexplained absence...we went on our final vacation of the summer--a week and a half trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin. I have lots of photos to share but not tonight...tonight I will just ramble on and on for your listening enjoyment. After being gone for almost three weeks (2 days home in the middle of the three weeks) I feel pretty disconnected from my "normal" life. Not sure what to cook, what we should eat, where to even start as far as the house goes, etc. It always takes me a few days to get into the swing of things after a trip. To add to the fun--my house is a complete and total DISASTER! If you remember, right before my trip to GA we built loft beds. In order to build the beds we had to clear the bedroom of everything. Some of that "everything" is in Hannah's old room and the rest is in the living room. Add five suitcases in various stages of unpacking along with a 1000 piece puzzle that Joe insisted we start today and, well, wow. It's pretty bad. There were no less than 9 witnesses to my mess today too. It was one of those days with drop ins here and there for various reasons. Nothing like being humbled, right? In addition to the living room mess--the "dormitory"--the room with the loft beds where all the kids will be sleeping is a mess too, and of course everyone wants to come in and see the loft beds because they are oh so cool. Clothes and toys and whatever all over the place, what can you do? I'll tell you what I didn't do--worry about it. So what if someone sees my house trashed every once in a while. That's real life. So, back to the "dormitory"-- each child will have their own "room" under their bed and we managed to get three dressers in there but the dressers don't have the right clothes in them yet. All of this to say--I have some serious work cut out for me! I plan to turn on the A/C and go for it tomorrow with the goal of finishing it all in one day. First I plan to take everything out of the room and create a little nook under each bed complete with a dresser and some sort of shelf to hold other things that they want to keep in their "room." I will be scavenging the house for these shelves and for lamps and any other accessories to add to the charm and practicality of such a small space. Then I will work on figuring out finding some order in the chaos of everything else. The other bedroom will become a schoolroom/playroom but first the bed needs to go. Gotta get that listed on Craig's List...
Of course, in the midst of all this fun I will be doing umpteen loads of laundry! I am looking forward to hopefully being able to rest in a fairly ordered house by tomorrow evening...we'll see!
I can't wait to share all about our latest trip--it was wonderful and relaxing and full of some serious family fun. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow on my breaks.

Pictures from New York City!

I'm not sure how many of my blog readers are also my Facebook friends...I am assuming that there are at least some of you who are not regularly on Facebook so all of this will be new to you. For those of you that have seen these pictures, you can skip this post or read on because I will go into more detail about my trip here than I did on Facebook. First of all, let me explain the Little People Sheep that you will see in most of the pictures. About 6 months ago my little friend, Bella, left her sheep at the park and I brought it home with every intention of giving it back to her. It sat on the shelf next to my front door until about two weeks ago when I put it in my purse with high hopes that one of these days I'll remember to give it to her when I see her at church. As I was cleaning out my purse in preparation to go to New York I came across Bella's sheep and decided that it would be fun to take the sheep to New York and take pictures of him at all of the landmarks that I visited. Then, I would make Bella a little book about how her sheep went to New York. Devon and I had a blast taking pictures of the sheep all over New York. The first picture above is from the airport as Sheep and I were preparing to leave. I flew out from Atlanta on Thursday. I got to New York around 2 and took a cab to Devon's apartment on the Upper East Side. She had told me exactly what to say to the driver so I sort of looked like I knew what I was doing. We walked up the 6 flights of stairs to her apartment and I nearly died but didn't... and she showed me around and then had to go back to work. So, I went to a sandwich shop nearby and had some lunch and then met her back at her apartment when she got off work. Below is the sandwich I had for dinner. It's a veggie burger and it was awesome--I could see the corn, carrots, broccoli, and squash.

The next few pictures are from our evening traipsing around Times Square and visiting some of the unique stores.



The Toys R Us in Times Square is amazing--there is a huge ferris wheel, a life size Barbie dream house, lego sculptures, huge dinosaur, and more!

Below--we made a trip to Rockefeller Center on our way back to Devon's apartment.

Sheep and I spent a few hours combing the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a very interesting Picasso exhibit as well as 5 blocks of artwork. Pretty overwhelming!
When we were done we joined the rest of the cool people sitting on the steps of the Met and did some people watching while we waited for Devon. Once she got there she and I (and Sheep of course) strolled through Central Park for the next couple of hours. There is so much to see--so many people, so many different things to do and see, and so much going on. We passed baseball games, soccer practice, a Korean festival, a birthday party, and more.




We ended up at Grand Central Station looking for a subway map to figure out how to get to Chinatown. While looking up restaurants on Devon's blackberry we realized that maybe we weren't brave enough to go eat chinese food in Chinatown and opted for chinee-takee-outee at her apartment instead. :0)
We got up early on Saturday morning and walked the Brooklyn Bridge along with lots of other tourists and New Yorkers and bicyclists and runners. You got an awesome view of the city from the bridge. My pictures don't do it justice.


Devon is a ballerina and struck a pose on the bridge and I did too. Who looks more graceful?


I wasn't scammed and got to see Wicked on Saturday afternoon. It did not disappoint! Such a great show! I didn't expect it to be as funny as it was. Loved, loved, loved it!
After the show Devon met me and we went to a huge bookstore called The Strand and then to Max Brenner's for chocolate martinis. Wow! So good and really more like a milkshake than a martini.

They were giving out Free Hugs in Union Square and the sheep baaahgged us to let him have a hug. The girl was so sweet and gave him an extra big squeeze. After our fun in the Union Square area we went to the West side and had a piece of pizza for dinner and then went to Cafe Lalo for dessert. It was a fabulous night and I got to see a lot more of the city.

Sheep is down at the bottom next to Elmo, do you see him? He wanted his picture taken with the subway band.
Sunday morning Sheep and I (see him in my hand) hailed a cab and were off to the airport! I had a great weekend, lots of memories and fun!

Home Again, Home Again

Here are a few more pictures from our time in GA. We got home today and I tell you--no matter how much fun you have on your vacation there is really no place like home. You know where everything is, you know how to operate the shower, you don't have to be social, etc. I was asleep on the couch within a half hour of being home this afternoon. After spending twelve hours in transit from NY to GA yesterday and then 8 hours on the road today I was whupped! I am looking forward to an early bedtime in my own bed tonight--woohoo!!
The night before I left for NY we met my cousin Philip, his wife Jill, their two kids, my aunt Lane, my Mamaw, my brother Ryan, his wife Mandy, their two boys, and my sister all at McD's and we had a throwdown party! We took over that Playplace and partied like it was 1999. We ate cheeseburgers, chicken, and french fries, talked, played, and had a ball. I got to meet my new cousin (I guess she's my cousin--she's my first cousin's baby)--that was the reason for the throwdown. Little Emily did not disappoint--what a cute baby!

Here's Joe and Emily's "big" (actually quite small) brother, Colin. This little guy is a riot! He is fast as lightning and a tiny little thing. Hannah and Grace took turns watching him and he wore them out. At one point Hannah said, "I need a break, we've gone up and down those stairs 18 times!"
And here's my little nephew, Brayden. He talks almost as much as his Aunt Tiffany and definitely asks as many questions as his Aunt Tiffany! "What are you doing?" "What's that?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?"
Philip climbed up in the tunnel just for fun.
And this is little Philip, I mean Emily. She looks just like her daddy did when he was a baby.
In addition to our McD's fun we managed to have a very busy day on Wednesday. We went back to the $1 movie, this time to see "How to Train a Dragon." Then we went to a magic show at the local library. The magician was okay but not as good as our own local magician. :0) While there I saw the mom of a family I used to babysit for all the time. I LOVED her baby and now I'm friends with that baby (and her mom) on Facebook. She's twentysomething now. Crazy! We had a fun day hanging with my sister, Mandy, and Brayden and Sam.