Not so Fashionable Friday

While I absolutely adore all things spring, there is one little aspect of this change of season that strikes up a little animosity in me.

Our drawers are jammed full with all of our winter gear AND flip flops.  Shorts, pants, short sleeves, longsleeves...you name it, it's all in there. Just when I think we're done with winter and wash all the gear, I wake up and there's snow on the ground.

It would also be safe to mention that my kids have way too much clothes.  And cleaning out the drawers and sifting through what fits, and what doesn't x5, overwhelms me more than I should allow it to.  I get fired up and delve into the project with great enthusiasm,  and then get distracted by one of the kids, or our dingaling of a dog, and lose my momentum... usually leaving me with a bigger mess on my hands than I started with.

And I am particularly overwhelmed by Stella and Ellery's closets.  Up until Elle was born, our pattern was boy, girl, boy, girl.  When clothes were outgrown, they were either packed away or tossed. Not a lot of thought went into it.  Now, as Stella starts to outgrow clothes, I realize that Elle will fit into them much sooner than later...so in the closet they remain...leaving their closets and drawers an overstuffed ridiculous state of choas.

After getting Elle dressed this morning, I had a good chuckle. I'm not sure why this shirt is even in her drawer. Clearly I need to go through her stuff first.... or put her on a diet :)

Happy Friday all!

reason # 436

The minute Sydney stepped foot off the bus last Friday, she was a whirlwind of giddiness and pure joy.  She waved a handful of papers in my face, all the while telling me that she was FINALLY the "special kid of the week" in her 2nd grade class.  I'm pretty certain all of the details came out in one breath.  Clearly a big deal when you're 8, and you've patiently waited all year,....because you're the 2nd to last kid in the class to get their turn.
 
Well, she eagerly sat down right away and filled in the blanks and colored the poster that was supplied, gathered all of her special treasures that she would show the class, informed me that I needed to print a picture of her, and that I would need to bring her lunch on Tuesday.  Easy peasy rice and cheezy. I was proud of how on top of things I was.  Usually when I catch wind of these special kid things, I inwardly cringe.  Probably because my 2 big kids were born before the age of digital, so it means searching for picture after picture to scan and print.  And as Murphey would have it,  my printer usually fails me when I am truly counting on it to pull through.

I can still remember going to NYC with good friends in 2007.  A quick trip over the weekend, getting us home late Sunday evening, in time to get the kids off to school again Monday morning.  Austin was in kindergarten, and wouldn't you know, that was the week he was chosen to be Star of the week.  I can still remember coming home really late, tired from our travels and fun, scrounging for baby pictures to put on his display.  Going outside as soon as the sun came up so I could take a picture of our house, and have it all ready for school that morning.

Back to Sydney.  Monday morning came, treasures were packed, poster complete, pictures printed.  Just. like. that.  Tuesday came, and like any good mother I made my second trip out for the day with the 3 younger hooligans.  My first trip out warrants a story all of it's own :)  I promised Syd that not only would I bring her McDonalds, I would bring along a pet as well.  Dog or cat, depending on who was driving me the least nuts that morning.  Well, the cat won hands down.  Fifteen minutes before we needed to leave, Phoebe managed to grab a poopy diaper out of the garbage, shred it, and scatter it's contents over a large area of carpet. 

We made it out the door to McDonalds, and stopped at school.  I was in such a hurry to leave, that I never really processed how we were going to contain the cat.  On the ride over we had a lengthy discussion, and it was agreed that I would hold Ellery and the drinks, Stella would hold the bags of food, and Dylan was in charge of holding the cat.  Ha.  Sometimes I wish my brain would process stuff a little more before I do these things.  In the end, the cat only got away 4 times, and was petted by no less than 143 eager giddy girls waiting in the hot lunch line. I learned 3 things....cats are very frightened by school bells, trying to hold a cat and baby, when both are squirming to get down, is tricky, and always, always, bring a leash :)

Okay, back to the whole reason for this long winded post.  While I was kicking back last night, sitting around waiting for my mother of the year award, Sydney asked me "When are you going to write the note, mom?"
"What note?" I asked, not at all sure what she was getting at.

"It was on the papers I brought home.  You're supposed to write a letter about me.  It's due tommorow".

I had no idea what she was talking about.  I can remember those papers she waved in my face, but that's where the memory ends.  We searched all over for the papers, to give me some idea of my assignment, but came up empty.  I'd bet money that Syd brought them back to school Monday, and they are now safely tucked away in her desk.

So, at 9:30 last night, I found myself sitting at the counter groveling about having to write a note, not really sure of what I was supposed to do.  Clearly, not what I had in mind for the few precious quiet minutes left of the evening. Well, Tim the superman that he is, told me he'd take care of it. 

And I thought his story was really cute, and wanted to share.....

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away...a little brown eyed, brown haired princess lived. This was no ordinary, sit in a castle, type of princess. This princess had a lot of different hobbies. For instance, she liked to go bone hunting. In fact, she was such a good bone hunter or (archaologist), that she found a whole deer skull with all the teeth. She also found some leg bones and ribs....and displayed her collection in her museum.


This princess also liked to go fisihing. In fact one day she caught a 12” bass and another day she caught 16 bluegills! She also liked to put on her mud boots and go down to the swamp. Yes, the icky, yicky, swamp where the ogre’s live, and catch frogs and tadpoles. She caught frogs by the bucket full... but don’t worry, she didn’t eat them.

After she got done fishing and frogging, she would go inside her castle and bake some cookies with her mom and younger sisters....but mostly she liked to eat the cookie batter and lick the bowl. After she finished baking cookies, she would craft... and leave a trail of buttons, google eyes, paper, fabric scraps, and hot glue gun drippings as far as the eye could see.

After she finished her chores and homework (because sometimes princesses have to do chores and homework) her daddy would come home, and they would dance, and dance, and dance. Until finally her daddy would fall over and say “No more dancing little princess, it’s off to bed with you.”
So the little princess would say her prayers, hop in bed, and quickly fall asleep.
Can you guess who this brown eyed, brown haired princess is?

And that my friends, is reason #436 why I love Tim.  And I promise to add some pictures to this blog real soon mom :)

clearly she doesn't get our humor...

Fashion Friday- For the love of hair clippies

 

I thought I'd scale down my large daisy flower, and give hair clippies a whirl.  They're pretty scrappy, but I'm happy with the way they turned out.... I'm considering selling them in my little shop :)

 

 

 Happy Friday all!

good intentions

We have lived in our house for 8 years now.

We moved here in the fall of 2002, when I was pregnant and on bedrest with Sydney. We bought the house, and then found out we were expecting... so it was a huge blessing, as our first home was quite cozy.  By the time we sold our house and moved, Austin was 9 months old.  We knew that this house would need some serious updating...as the sweet orange shag carpet in our bedroom, and pealing linoleum in the kitchen would testisfy, but we liked the layout, location, and size. The plan was to work at it slow and steady, as we had recently discovered that we liked doing home remodel projects together. Upon moving in, there were 3 of us.  We had an extra bedroom upstairs that was home to my computer for a very few short months, and a bedroom that sat empty in the basement.

Fastforward 8 years...the house has changed a bit.  Aside from updating/painting, knocking out walls, re-doing flooring, and adding on to our kitchen...we have certainly done the bedroom shuffle over the years.  And our free time to work on house projects shrinks a little bit more every year.

Initially, Austin and Sydney each had their own bedroom upstairs.  A crib set up in each room.  When Dylan was born, he gained Sydney's room and crib, and the 2 "big kids" shared the other room.  It makes me laugh now when I think back....they were 2 and 3 years old and we had them in bunk beds. At the time they seemed so old!

This room scenario worked out really well for a few years.  When we found out that we were expecting again, we finished out the bedroom in the basement, and moved the boys and bunks downstairs to share. Austin was 6 and Dylan 3.  Sydney gained her original bedroom back.  It was painted pink, and the room with bunks was converted back to a nursery.  We left it the cute blue and green checkerboard theme I had painted on the wall years earlier when it was just Austin's room.... because we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl.



Stella was born, and the checkerboard was first painted lilac, then yellow, until I finally settled on a pale shade of pink that I was happy with.

And when Stella was 1 years old, we found out the good news about Ellery. I spent the better part of her pregnancy on bedrest, and in a "take it easy" state, so I never really had a chance to do much with rooms, or prepare much at all for that matter. 

What to do with Elle?  Would she be an Ellery or an Elliot?

On a side note, our baby's don't have a very good track record for sleeping at night.  They stay mixed up for a very long time, don't really like their cribs much, don't stand for being put down in those early morning hours....and consequently force us to ignore their cries once in a while. So, I knew I did not want her sharing with one of the kids.  I also wasn't ready for Stella to share with Sydney as she was still only 21 months old, and awake @ 3am most nights as well.  I didn't really want to put the babies together, because I didn't want them to wake each other up, on the off chance that one of them was actually sleeping.

After much debate, Sydney and Stella each maintained their own rooms, and we set up a pack-n-play in our bedroom.  We had never had a baby in our room before this, and we were a bit hesitant to do so.

Well, this scenario worked for a bit, because most nights were spent holding Elle out on the recliner in the living room.  She wanted no part of being set down between the hours of 11pm and 7am.   After about 4 months, this situation started to get old.  I could not let her cry it out in our room, and I was tired of not sharing a bed with Tim.  So, we moved Stella's crib into Sydney's room, and moved Elle's cradle into Stella's room.

Are you still with me?

This worked out well for the summer.  When fall came around, I realized I didn't want Stella and Sydney sharing once school started, because Stella is a very light sleeper.  It was also very clear Elle needed her own room, as she was still awake most nights.

So, we moved Sydney down to the basement, and she currently shares a room with the boys.  Both Stella and Ellery have their own room upstairs.  We are currently in the process of finishing out a room in the basement that we gained with our kitchen addition for Sydney.

Okay, I apologize about the long-windedness of this post if you are still with me.

Where am I going with all of this?  We have moved rooms around a lot.  The combination of the whirlwind of getting pregnant with Elle when Stella was 1, being on bedrest and trying to keep up with 4 kids, and the fussiness that defined the first year of Elle's precious life....I feel like I just haven't been on top of all things household for a long while.  I hastily dumped our dishes into our new kitchen cabinets 2 years ago while on bedrest, and I still have yet to go back and re-arrange them.

I've also come to realize that I have good intentions....way too many unfinished projects, rooms, ideas, etc.  And I've learned that I try to tackle too many things at the same time, only to leave me overwhelmed, and nothing completely finished.  I'm learning I need to stick with one project at a time.   So far I've stuck to little things...cleaning out the linen closet, the pantry, painting the trim, and sorting through and getting rid of a ton of clothes, etc.  Now that our family is complete, I feel like I can move forward with confidence in decorating and re-doing bedrooms.

And so, I've decided  to tackle them, one room at a time.

First up, Elle's room.  After we moved all of Sydney's junk out, removed all of her pictures from the walls...it was clear that it would need to be re-painted.  I chose a lime green color.  Sorry, my pictures are pretty poor, and make it look much more yellow than it is.  Join me on a journey of "getting it done"....

 

I have had this sweet old quilt in my closet for several years now, not knowing quite what to do with it, but knowing that I love it. It goes perfect!  I made curtains for the window, and some quilted letters to spell her name on the wall.

 I saw this idea on another blog, so I bought a bunch of hoops and began filling them with colorful fabric.  I'm very pleased with the way it turned out!

 I bought this picture from Ikea about 7 years ago, because I loved it so much, but never knew just where to hang it.  It goes so perfect!

 My helper :)

Next project- Stella's room.  Stay tuned :)

finally....

A truly monumental occasion. 

For the past week, this boy has been obsessed with his loose tooth.

And I have heard "MOM! Look at how much my tooth wiggles now!", no less than 48 times every day.  Usually to be followed by..."MOM!  You're not looking....LOOK!"

And sure enough, the tricks that tooth could do.  He could wiggle it, turn it on it's side, and flip it around.  Tuesday night while tucking him in, Dylan was giving me one last showing of his famous tooth tricks, when that tiny little piece of white fell out of his mouth.

The tooth fairy paid a visit.  And now the greedy little boy keeps asking if I think he should put one of his shark teeth from Florida under his pillow.  "Maybe it's worth 2 bucks, mom."

Fashion Friday- A date with dad

Tim once again escorted Syndey to the local Father/Daughter banquet tonight.  Heather Williams is the vocal artist, and based upon the giddiness in Sydney's step before they left, I'm pretty sure they're having a grand ole' time.
Naturally, it was a good excuse to make her a new dress and hairbow...

And I must say, I think I've finally got the hang of it! I would even let you look at the stitching on the inside, that's how proud I am with the way it turned out.
While I still have no use for a pattern, I'm getting pretty good at just cutting the fabric up and piecing it together as I go.  My unit of measure on this one?  Each side of the hem at the bottom measures 3.5 wine glasses long.  Clearly professional seamstress tools.

Happy Friday all!