Pumpkin Carving

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Tonight Alethea, Peter and I carved pumpkins with Grandma Debbie, Grandpa Chris, Grandma Denny and Poppa John.  Well, actually, the ladies mostly did the carving while the guys mostly watched sports, but everyone had a good time, so we’ll call the evening a success.

Alethea wondered why we cut a hole in the top of her pumpkin:

We all wondered why she insisted on tasting the pumpkin guts over and over, even though she clearly didn’t like the flavor:

I wondered if trying out a pattern I found online for a puppy pumpkin was a good idea, while Grandma Debbie and Grandma Denny wondered whether they would ever cut through the surprisingly thick and hard to carve rind of the paw print pumpkin:

So after a great deal of wondering our current status is:

(Costume… check! Candy… check! Puppy pumpkin… check!)

Ready for Halloween!

Eighteen Month Update

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Yesterday was Alethea’s eighteen month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby!

I can’t believe she’s already a year and a half old.  How time flies!  She’s quickly turning into an independent little girl.  There’s really no trace of baby left.  She likes to do everything that mommy is doing; whether it’s cooking, cleaning or typing on the computer, she always wants to help.

This month getting dressed has turned from one of her least favorite activities to most favorite, provided I give her plenty of time to attempt to put things on by herself.  After many unsuccessful tries, she’ll finally tell me that’s she’s ‘coe’ (cold) and will allow me to assist her in the dressing process.

Besides getting dressed and ‘helping’ mommy, her other favorite activities include taking baths, playing outside, reading books, dancing, watching Elmo on TV, and playing the piano.

Her vocabulary continues to expand rapidly.  She has about 100 words that she uses voluntarily and regularly, but she’ll repeat just about any single word that you ask her to say.  Her most common words include: yellow, kiwi, apple, no, cup, Dee, baby, bubble, book, Daddy, Mommy and Grandma.  She isn’t really putting two words together much yet, although the other day before dinner all her spoons were dirty and I told her, “Daddy will clean a spoon for you.”  To which she responded, “Wash” – short pause – “Spoon”.  The sentences are on their way!

She seems interested in the changes happening in her big girl room, although of course she wants to help with the painting.  I was letting her watch, but after one hand in the paint can incident, I only work on that part when she’s sleeping.  The other thing she seems pretty interested in is the mirror.  She likes to hold Dee up to it and then laugh out loud when I say, “Look, now there’s two Dees!”  I’m not sure why that’s funny, but apparently it is.

We’ve enjoyed going to our ECFE classes this month and now that we’ve been a few times, Alethea is getting better at staying near me during the “circle time” at the end where the group sings songs, reads a story, etc.  She still doesn’t like having to give the glittery star topped wand back after we’re done singing Twinkle Twinkle, but we’re working on that too.

Over all I’d say the month went well, and got even better once I realized that the reason she often seemed clingy/needy was simply because she wanted to participate in what I was doing at the moment, so now I try to let her help with as many of my daily activities as she’s capable of doing safely.

I’ll be posting her current stats after her 18 month well check this coming Monday.

Thanks for reading!

Apples & Elmo

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This morning at breakfast I asked Alethea, “I need a topic for a blog post, what should I write about?” To which she responded, “Apple.”

Apples are after all, one of her current three favorite things after Elmo and kiwi fruit (which she calls ‘wee-wee’… cracks me up every time she says it.)

Speaking of Elmo, I was on youtube the other day and I saw this hilarious video where Elmo calls the pharmacy:

Even Alethea chuckled watching it.  Of course, it might have been because I was laughing hysterically…  “Eyes like ping-pong balls!”

A Sweeping Success

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It is a well established fact that Alethea looks like her daddy.  But I’m sure she is my child… she really likes cleaning the house.  She also likes to be clean herself.  At meals she has to have her wet washcloth nearby because if she gets too much food on her hands or face, she gets upset and wants to clean up before she will continue eating.

That’s why I was a little mystified when out of the blue at the beginning of this week, she very deliberately began spilling large amounts of food on the floor at EVERY meal.  Cereal in the morning, mac and cheese at lunch, rice at dinner, whatever would cause maximum mess is what was tossed from the table.

Monday after each meal, the broom came out and Alethea was asked to assist cleaning up the mess she had made.  I was hoping she would realize that when she makes a mess that means someone (me!) has to clean it up.

It didn’t work…

Tuesday morning arrived and once again the cereal ended up on the floor.  Alethea looked up at me expectantly and said “Sweep?”

That’s when the light bulb came on.  She was spilling her food on purpose because she likes ‘helping’ clean it up!!!!

A new strategy then followed.  Mommy cleans up food thrown from the table by herself, while Alethea is taking her afternoon nap.  Alethea is asked to help sweep at times when there has been no food related incidents.

Like magic, the food throwing quickly ceased.

If only it were always that easy.

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

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It seems like every time I decorate a room in our house, I later realize that there was some fabulous idea or product that I should have incorporated, or some decorating decision that I would have done differently if I could go back and do it again.

I thought I was being careful with Alethea’s big girl room to make sure that didn’t happen this time.  The first thing I did was plan my layout, so I would know exactly what I needed to do and where everything was going to go:

What I failed to do however, what I SHOULD HAVE done, was to use masking tape to mark the actual dimensions of each piece on the floor of the room.  It’s easy to do, they use this technique on HGTV all the time, why didn’t I do it at the beginning?  I don’t know.

So yesterday I decided to mark out exactly where the bed was going to go.  Turns out it’s a little wider than I realized and having bunk beds that close to the door will feel like walking into a wall, i.e. not very inviting.

So I had to come up with a new room layout, one that moves the bed away from the door:

This layout actually has some additional advantages, like moving the dresser next to the closet (convenient for getting ready in the morning) and not having to buy a bedside table (save some money).

However, if I WOULD HAVE realized sooner that the bed needed to be on the far wall, then I COULD HAVE also realized that there wasn’t much point in spending hours of my time stenciling an elaborate pattern on that same wall, a wall that will be almost completely obscured by a huge set of bunk beds.

Sigh.

I’m only about half-way done with my stenciling at this point and I’m really tempted to just paint over the whole thing.  It sure would be easier.  But I hate to get nothing out of all my time spent on the project thus far, so I will continue, if I bit halfheartedly.

Happy Anniversary!

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Peter –

It’s hard to believe it’s already been four years since our wedding day:

Four years since I got to wear the most fabulous thing I’ve ever worn:

Four years since we nearly froze to death taking pictures:

Four years since our ‘First Dance’:

And four years since your friends nearly burned down the reception hall with fists full of sparklers:

I know getting married didn’t magically make us see eye to eye on the best way to do things:

But I’d say “I Do” all over again, without a second’s hesitation:

I love you so much!

Elise

Tips for a Thrifty Fall Wedding

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We spent this past weekend in Tennessee for Peter’s cousin’s wedding.  Also our 4th wedding anniversary is tomorrow.  I’ve got weddings on the brain.

So to honor my thoughts (and also have fun going through my wedding photos) I thought I’d throw out a few ideas for saving some dough on your big day.  Not that our wedding was as inexpensive as it could have been, or that I am a master of thriftiness, but we did do a few things cheaply and here’s how:

1) Use Your Connections
Now, as a general principal, I’m not a fan of exploiting people, but when thousands of dollars hang in the balance, it’s time to call in a few favors.  By utilizing the skills/connections of friends and family, we were able to save on the chapel, desserts, cake, music and flowers, not to mention that we paid our officiant (pastor and friend) by way of a six pack of good beer.  Sometimes it’s all about who you know…

2) Do As Much As You Can Without Hiring a Professional
Mom made the cake:

My parent’s neighbor (a florist) helped with the flowers:

We also made all of our own paper items (invitations, table numbers, etc) including our programs:

3) Hire a Photographer Who Lets You Have the Rights to Your Pictures
This was our number one criteria in choosing a photographer.  You spend a little bit more initially, but you’ll save loads on albums and prints in the end.  Our photographer’s photo books started at $400, our wedding album I put together on Snapfish… $60.  (As an added bonus, when you go to write a blog post about your wedding, you won’t have to rely entirely on snapshots from your friends.)

4) Consider Items Other Than Flowers for a Perfect Centerpiece
Let’s face it.  Flowers are expensive, especially in Minnesota at the end of October.  Some great fall alternatives to flowers could be leaves, pumpkins or gourds, but if your fiance is stubborn like mine was and refuses to have gourds or anything orange on the tables at the reception, you can always try candles, dime store stemware and cranberries.  Cranberries are festive, look cool in vases and bonus… they float!

5) Shop Online
Since I was planning our wedding from Philadelphia, shopping online made a lot of sense logistically, but in the end it also saved us money on a lot of things like our little bottles of maple syrup we used as favors.

I hope this helps you plan your next big autumnal event.  Feel free to leave your own tips for a budget wedding in the comments section of this post!

Grand Plans

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Summer is over, fall is in full swing and the leaves are falling off the trees littering our yard, all of which means it’s time to start thinking about next year’s lawn and landscape projects.

So far Peter and I have agreed on definitely getting some sod to patch more bare spots.

There is a possibility that we’ll be putting the flagstone path in The Bean out front.

And we both think it would be great to get the fire pit finished out back.

I haven’t told Peter yet, but I think I’ll add one more thing to our to-do list:

Via

Every little girl needs a play house, right?

Dresser… Done!

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Last weekend I finished painting Alethea’s big girl room dresser.  Today, I finally took pictures of it.  (I think keeping up with the pictures are the hardest part of blogging for me.)

Here is the dresser before, when it was in the nursery (very cute, but not right for a Moroccan Princess):

First I sanded it.  Then I applied two coats of brown latex wall paint:

After that I applied two more coats of paint, this time in a Sherwin Williams floor and porch enamel, color name ‘Lagoon’:

After the paint dried, my plan was to strategically sand back the Lagoon color to expose the brown underneath, giving the dresser a vintage/distressed look.  Only problem was, after I spent about five minutes with a 200 grit sandpaper working on one of the drawers, all I’d accomplished was scuffing up the finish of the enamel, no brown coming through whatsoever.  The guy at Sherwin Williams sure wasn’t joking when he told me this product would be more durable for a kids dresser than a latex wall paint!

On to plan B…

Instead of sanding back the Lagoon, I just took a bit more of my brown paint and dry brushed over the enamel, thus achieving the look I was going for:

And finally, here’s the finished dresser:

I’m very happy with the results, but I’m thinking crystal knobs would make it look even cooler.  Part of me thinks, ‘the current knobs are okay, why waste money on new ones?’, but the other part says, ‘what little girl wouldn’t love ‘diamond’ drawer pulls?’  Which part will win?  Only time will tell.

Progress Report

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In order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the massive list of things I still want to do before I’m finished with Alethea’s big girl room, I’ve made a deal with myself that I will accomplish at least one small thing every day and one large thing every weekend.

Over the past few weeks/weekends I’ve made progress in cleaning, painting, prepping and/or buying the chair, dresser, closet, black out shade, walls, clock, mirror and some other accessories.

I also went over to Peter’s parents house to finalize the quilt layout with Denny.  I think it’s going to look fabulous:

I still have far too many things on my to-do list to name them all, but we’ve decided that it’s fine if Alethea moves in before everything is done.  That way she can have as much time as possible to get used to her new room before the baby arrives.  My ‘before Alethea can move in’ list is down to just four things:

1) Stencil focal wall

2) Install black out shade (which is ordered, but hasn’t arrived yet)

3) Move clothes from nursery into big girl dresser & closet

4) Move in crib (we are going to let her adjust to the room before we introduce the big girl bed)

That seems like a doable list, right?