Dear Monday

please go easy on me…

it was a great weekend…

family, food, decorating, shopping, more family and lots more food…..i feel 10 pounds heavier….i should of stepped away….but i am weak….and there was pie.

so today i am hoping to be productive…i have a big “to do” list…don’t we all?! hoping to get a jog in…brisk walk in my case…me running is not a pretty sight….but it needs to happen.

a couple of weeks ago the kids got to work on a little note for their daddio…….his 2nd job is teaching a course at a local college…which means he leaves the house before 5am and doesn’t get home until after 7pm….2 nights out of the week….he sees the kiddos for about 15 minutes before they fall asleep….most nights Cooper is already out.

so Monday nights is breakfast for dinner night….pancakes, bacon and fruit….they think it’s wonderful.

we’ll get in pjs early…(why not, its dark by 4:00!) and they each grab a stack of books….we snuggle in my bed and read and read until bedtime…..i think it’s wonderful.

  

Happy Monday everyone…hope it’s a good one!!!

Crazy Busy!!!!

shopping, shopping and more shopping

making lists

dragging all the boxes from the attic

fighting with strands of Christmas lights (what is it with lights…when i put them away last year they were working…now they don’t!)

making more lists

Christmas Eve invites

sewing these and these

cleaning

basketball, ballet and Nutcracker rehearsals

parent-teacher conferences

fall clean up

Christmas cards

2 full days of public school strategic planning

menu planning

and don’t forget the laundry!

planning for Christmas parties, retirement party and bridal shower.

baking, cooking

planning trip to Baltimore for friend’s  Christmas wedding

so busy….i have resorted to putting the kids to work!!!!

i call them my elves and they get right to work!!!

found this great craft to make Christmas candles….

i thought it would be a sticky mess but the kids got into it!

5 day weekend starting tomorrow!!

filled with family, friends and food!!!

feeling so blessed!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

can you tell i’m excited?!!

toy room makeover

it was time….this room was getting out of control….and the kids didn’t even like being in here!
when we first moved into the house this room was a small room with one window, painted a dark color, no trim around the windows and doors, being used as a dining room.
i lightened this picture in Picasa just to see..it was a cave!

see….dark color…..no trim.

well, its still a small room with one window, but when we first moved in we moved the chandelier to a bigger room, re-finished the floors and painted the walls….. a little better.
But now after 5 years it was time to get organized….and get rid of a few toys….i even got the ok to move out the big plastic kitchen!!
Before: Crazy Chaos!   
AFTER:

my main goal was to use what we had in the room already.  We thought about separating the book cases and moving them all over the room…..but i love the look of all of them on one wall.
Before:

At first i thought it would be fun to paint this room a kid color….but realized i needed to keep it a neutral color since the room is adjoining the living room and the kitchen…so we’ll keep the kid colors for their bedrooms.
After:

Before:

the only thing i bought for this room, other then the paint and fabric, was the white shelves…..i found them at HomeGoods for $15 each….and i had a birthday gift card…so they were free for me!
After:

i labeled a few areas with rub on letters….the kids loved this and wanted me to label EVERYTHING in the room….the toys, the couch, the baskets….
Cooper’s tool table is NEVER clean…

I “shopped” the house for the big baskets, still looking for the liner on the middle one (i know i washed it and put it somewhere!)the kids love to pin up their art work!
    
after 5 years the doors finally have trim!

$1.50 a yard this was the perfect cotton fabric…i sewed a bunch of curtains to hide the bottom shelves….the kids love to look behind the curtains to see what they can find….and i love hiding all the toys!
  
i was tempted to find a fun floral fabric with lots of color….but then i thought the toys bring enough color to the room and went with this fabric…..$5 a yard at Joanne’s was a great deal for their heavier home fabrics….i actually made them go down to the floor, if we ever wanted to move the shelves around.

i am happy to report that the kids play in here all the time….taking out toys they haven’t played with in years!
a mini-makeover for under $100 and a toy room we can all live with!

family words

when caroline was 2 she could not say popsicle…..she wanted a “mockel”

during the winter we have “hanitizer”  hand+sanitizer= hanitizer  makes sense right? and “snishews” to wipe their little noses.

last year when we went to the local ski sale we set out to get poles for the kids…..except we call them “sticks”   after we purchased them Cooper said, “yeah, we have sticks!!” so exciting!  But the “know it all” lady said to the my kids, “tell your mommy we call them poles.”   To which i replied, “get your sticks kids!!!”

 

and because Cooper can’t pronounce a j sound lots of words make me smile like “gump” jump and “guice” juice.

most parents might worry and think about speech and language therapy.

i just smile and hold on to our “family words”

Ready or Not…..here comes Winter!

Winter was a bit sneaky this year……we woke up Monday morning to sleet, rain, snow and wind!!!  There was a mad dash through the house to find all the right gear!!!

and let me tell you….there is a lot of gear! BOOTS to wear to school, shoes in bag to change into, extra pair of SNOWPANTS to keep at school, and an extra outfit to keep at school in case of getting wet from playing in the snow at recess.  And at home there are bins filled with MITTENS, GLOVES, SCARVES, EARWARMERS, BALACLAVAS and HATS, extra JACKETS, SNOWPANTS, SNOWSUITS and BOOTS….and they all have to fit!!

I am always amazed every year how fast the kids grow out of everything……thank goodness for hand-me-downs, consignment sales and shopping the pre-winter sales.

   the kids had a blast afterschool…..Cooper didn’t even waste any time…..he went out without snowpants …..and realized that snow is wet…some things need to be re-learned every year.

a sneak peek of the playroom makeover……little by little progress is being made…..it has taken me over 2 weeks to paint, hubby is still working on the trim (for some crazy reason this room did not have trim) and pictures need to be hung.

i have cleaned out a TON of toys….and the kiddos now play MORE in this room….go figure.

Weekend To Do List:

1.  bake apple pies, one for church dinner and one for us.

2.  rake leaves, rake leaves and rake more leaves!

3.  store all outdoor furniture and planters.

4.  find shovels

5.  Caroline’s 1st nutcracker practice

6.  finish playroom makeover…finish trim work, hang pictures.

7.  Caroline and Cooper’s Nutcracker portrait taken by the professionals…which means costumes and hair done!

  8.  bag ALL the leaves and deliver to nearby farm.

Happy Weekend everyone!!!

Boston

a last minute trip to Boston….hubby and the kids had last Friday off so we headed into the city….1st stop New England Aquarium.

we spent over 4 hours exploring everything there was to see…..a bit disappointing was the mammal exhibit was closed and the sharks were taken out of the big tank…..and there were a gazillion kids on their school field trips.

love the color of the water….only to find out it is actually the harbor water they filter into the tank. 

 

when we lived in the city Rob’s work had their summer party here….after hours….with a jazz band and open bar. We had the aquarium all to ourselves (no kiddos at the time), walked around with a glass of wine in our hands, and got to see the penguins sleeping…..they snuggle when they sleep, so cute.

during the feeding presentation they showed us how they trained the penguins to hop into this little box so they could weigh each penguin….it was so cute watching the penguins wait in line and then take turns hopping into the box.

2nd stop memory lane….  Dorchester Heights in South Boston

11 years ago on October 23rd hubby and i went for a walk one morning….our fist house was a triple decker and we lived right around the corner from this park….those were the days when i could parallel park on a hill and my commute to work was a drive right through the city…..but i wasn’t living there just yet…..i was two hours away living at home trying to pay off college loans, working as an inside sales rep. for GE….making twice as much as i would if I had gone straight into education….long story short…hubby got down on one knee and proposed that morning….yippeeee!

    

3rd stop  the North End

we crashed a neighborhood Halloween party, watched the kids costume parade and hit Mike’s for our cannoli fix…….

i think if i ever had to live in the city again i would want to live in the North End….and i would work my way through all the goodies at Mike’s….

a quick trip to the city is always so much fun!!!