Vacation!

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Elise

Sorry for the long silence. March came in like a lion in more ways than one around here. Not only was the weather horrible, but all four of us managed to come down with Influenza A during week one of March. Week two found Peter and the girls feeling better, but the flu morphed into a sinus infection and bronchitis for me. The coughing and headaches might have even been worse than the initial flu. So forgive me for not posting. I’ve been in a bit of a fog.

The good news is March week three brought much improvement to my heath and more interestingly, our family’s spring break vacation to Wisconsin Dells, Waterpark Capital of the World. We enjoyed a three night stay at the Wilderness Resort, which boasts four indoor waterparks, plus a variety of other attractions.

I didn’t get a ton of pictures (because water and cameras don’t mix and because Peter and I were too busy just trying to keep up with the girls), but here are my best shots:

We spent the majority of our time exploring the different waterparks, but we squeezed in a trip downtown to eat at MACS Macaroni and Cheese Shop, which I have to mention because it was sensationally good. Why aren’t there more restaurants whose entire menu is gourmet variations on mac and cheese? One of life’s mysteries, I suppose.

We also spent one evening chilling in our suite, watching Disney’s Frozen and eating popcorn:

Both girls seemed particularly intrigued by the sisterly storyline. After the movie, Alethea was overheard saying to Lydia, “Don’t worry, you won’t turn to ice. You’ll be my sister forever!”

And then there was swimming and more swimming (and lots of water slide riding, of which I could not for the life of me get a decent picture).

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Ken-Ducky Derby. Every morning at 8:30am they race rubber duckies down the lazy river. We went two mornings and somehow Lydia’s ducks managed to win both mornings, so she ended up with a duck whistle and a water bottle. Alethea’s ducks weren’t quite as fast, but I was super proud of her for being happy just getting to keep the ducks. She was quite cheerful about it and is already talking about doing more duck races “when we go back”.

So that’s where we’ve been. My plan for this coming week is to attempt to get back to a normal schedule. Here’s hoping March week 4 is in fact like a lamb. Come on spring!

Dreaming of Green

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Elise

Uggg… Just looking at the forecast for the next few days. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be negative five. Five degrees below zero, for a HIGH temperature, at the end of February… that ought to be illegal.

So I was practicing a little escapism here and looking through pictures of our landscaping from last September, comparing them to our yard photos from April 2010, and making plans in my head for yard work season 2014. And then I realized that I never posted photos of the completed fence or any of our other yard improvement projects from last summer.

If you need a little escape yourself, this is your invitation to come join me for a rather long post rambling about in a land free from snow and sub-zero temperatures…

First up, “The Bean”, a.k.a. the front yard flower garden April 2010:And “The Bean” September 2013:Plan for 2013 was: Plant annuals in pots and replace dead perennials, re-mulch.

Actual Results: Did plant annuals and replace most of the dead perennials. Didn’t re-mulch.

Plan for 2014: Trim back lower branches of oak trees to get more light into the garden and add even more plants. My vision for this garden to be completely overflowing with interesting plants and pots and rocks and little garden vignettes.

The Front Side Yard 2010:Front Side Yard 2013:

Plan for 2013 was: Have fence installed and put down grass seed, fingers crossed for a sprinkler system.

Actual Results: Check, check, check. Fence, grass seed, sprinkler system. And as you can see the grass seed/sprinkler system combo made a huge difference for our lawn.

Plan for 2014: Find and buy or possibly make fence post caps (for here as well as all the other corners and gates in the fence). We are also weighing the pros and cons of staining the fence. So that may end up on the project docket if we decide to go for it. After that I think it’s just routine lawn maintenance to keep everything looking good.

Front porch 2010:

Front Porch 2013: Plan for 2013 was: Replace lilies on the left side of the porch with azaleas to match the right side, plant hanging basket for shepherds crook, possibly get new pillows for front porch rockers that are a better match for the rug we got in 2012.

Actual Results: Accomplished all of the above!

Plan for 2014: Plant another hanging basket for the crook (begonias naturally), and add a few more accessories to the front porch. (Don’t tell Peter, but I’ve got a candle chandelier that I found at the thrift store last month hiding in the garage. I think it would look so fabulous over the chairs on the porch. We’ll see if I convince him.)

Side Yard 2010:Side Yard 2013: Plan for 2013 was: Rip everything out and start over (transplanting any salvageable plants), possibly add a magnolia tree (my current horticultural crush).

Actual Results: Didn’t do anything. *Sigh* Okay, that’s not entirely true, I did put up a trellis so that the Clematis would have something to grow on and might do a little better. Despite the weeds and lack of attention, it did have more flowers than it ever has, so let’s hear it for little victories.

As an added bonus, the fence now separates the side yard mess from the back deck mess, so at least it breaks the chaos up a little.Plan for 2014: Actually rip everything out and start over (transplanting any salvageable plants), but in case you were wondering we decided to nix the magnolia tree idea since there isn’t really room for it after all. I’d also like to take out the black plastic edging and re-edge with the same square bricks we used around the front porch.

Back Yard Corner 2010:

Back Yard Corner 2013: Plan for 2013 was: Finish fence, grow grass, possibly add some sort of permanent fire pit. Build a bigger wooden sandbox elsewhere in the yard, dispose of turtle sandbox and maybe give away the play structure as well.

Actual Results: Fence got finished and we did add a fire pit (as well as some bonus landscaping)! We tried to grow grass with mixed results. The new sandbox did not get built, although we did choose and spot for it and plunked the turtle down there to help kill the grass. Play structure got quite a bit of use last year, so it stayed too, although in a different location.

Plan for 2014: Try to grow more grass seed and built a permanent sandbox more toward the center of the back yard. Also hoping to make some of these recycled bottle torches to hang on the fence.

Deck 2010:

Deck 2013 (feel free to avert your eyes): Plan for 2013 was: Make a new top for the outdoor table Peter built a few years ago, including adding a hole to hold a patio umbrella. Try to keep the weeds from taking over completely while we look forward to rebuilding the deck (maybe next year?!?!).

Actual Results: … well, the pictures speak for themselves…

Plan for 2014: Short answer is… I’m not sure. Long answer… We decided that with Baby #3 set to arrive in late May, this was not the year to DIY a deck. I don’t really want to spend a lot of time landscaping, since we’ll likely redo most of it at whatever point we build the deck. But we’ve got to do something about those weeds. MUST. KILL. WEEDS.

Back Yard Garden 2010:Back Yard Garden 2013:Plan for 2013 was: Remove maple tree stump, add raised garden beds along the side of the fence for a kitchen garden, then grow lots of new grass!

Actual Results: Stump was removed, beds built (and planted). We attempted to grow grass.

Plan for 2014: Put down more grass seed and plant another garden. We loved having a constant source of fresh veggies at our fingertips! We also need to clean off the cement slab behind the garage, since that sort of turned into a catch-all spot for pots and bags of dirt and the old fire bowl that we don’t need anymore. Anybody want it?

Side of Garage 2010:

Side of garage September 2012:Side of Garage 2013: Plan for 2013 was: Finish raking up loose rock next to the house into a smaller area to create a landing spot for the garbage cans just inside the fence.

Actual Results: Done!… sort of…

Plan for 2014: Figure out a way to neatly edge garbage can landing pad with square bricks and also keep the landscape fabric underneath from bunching up.

Mailbox Spring 2013:Mailbox Fall 2013:Plan for 2013 was: Jackhammer up the asphalt/cement pieces buried in the corner and plant some flowers ‘n’ things and make that corner worthy of the pretty, shiny, new mailbox.

Actual Results: Mission accomplished!

Plan for 2014: Fill in the gaps with more plants for a lush, cottage garden look.

So there you go, a very long and belated fall yard tour. Stay warm!

Lotsa Links

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Elise

Some links for a cold and snowy Friday…

The Winter Games: Exposing the Real Issues in Sochi

Stunning Photos of what a Single Snowflake Really Looks Like

What several billion (trillion?) snowflakes look like when they land in my front yard… *sigh*

Speaking of the Olympics: Here are 40 Maps that Will Help You Make Sense of the World (Is it okay that I actually laughed when I saw some of these?)

This has nothing to do with the cold, but I thought it was incredibly moving: She Yelled and Called Me Names

Happy Friday all!

Future Olympian?

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Elise

Like so many other little girls, and truth be told, like her mother before her, the Olympic Games have inspired Alethea with dreams of figure skating brilliance. I personally got never much better than being able to skate in a straight line without falling down. Alethea though has been practicing her jumps and spins every evening, sliding around in socks on the hardwood floors in the hallway. So you can imagine her delight when I announced to her this morning that I’d found a pair of ice skates her size at the thrift store and I was taking her skating for the first time.

There was a brief disagreement about what she should wear. She insisted on a skirt, “Because I’m an ice skater.” And I insisted that she wear pants, “Because it’s cold outside.” So we compromised with a skirt over stretch pants. As she donned her selected outfit, she told me confidently, “I’m going to do spins and twirls!” And then on the way out the door, she asked, “Will there be anyone there watching me skate?”

Despite the Olympic visions of grandeur in her head, she was all smiles when we pulled up at the little ice skating pond at a local park. No audience, no music, not even a real rink, but that didn’t dampen her spirits.

We got her skates laced up and then we were off… very slowly and carefully. She leaned on me heavily as I walked backwards holding both her hands. She slipped and slid and was constantly losing her balance. I could tell it wasn’t exactly how she’d imagined it would be. I wondered how long it would take for her to get discouraged. I thought maybe she might want to give up. So you can imagine how proud I was when after about 15 minutes of difficulty she commented, “This is really hard. Let’s do it some more.”

My tenacious girl was absolutely determined to conquer the ice. Fast forward nearly an hour and a half later and she was letting go of my hands and counting how many steps she could take across the ice before she needed a steadying hand.

Since Gramma was at home watching Lydia, we decided to go to a restaurant, just the two of us, to celebrate her success with some lunch and hot chocolate. When the beverages were delivered, Alethea’s eyes lit up on beholding the giant cup, served on a glass plate with a doily. “This is a fancy restaurant!” she exclaimed.

So there you go. A day in the life of a future Olympian. Yes, it’s a long shot, but I’m fairly convinced this little girl can do whatever she sets her mind to!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Elise

Lydia…

And Alethea…
Want to wish you a very happy Valentine’s Day!

XOXOXO

For more Valentine’s Day fun, here’s last year’s Vday post and the one the year before that.

A Nursery Facelift

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Elise

Having a “Where in the world does the time go?” moment here. I was just trying to figure out when I last posted pictures of the nursery. Turns out it was my second ever post, back on April 5, 2009, a few days before Alethea’s due date and three weeks before she was actually born. Back then the nursery looked like this:

The starting point for the room was the globe mobile over the crib. The color scheme (Nomadic Desert and Composed by Sherwin Williams) seemed cute enough for a nursery, while not being gender specific. My thought being that we might have a boy someday and it would be nice not to have to re-do the whole nursery when and if that happened.

Of course, our second baby was a girl, so not much changed for Lydia other than a new paint job on the dresser and a few new accessories:

This time though, it’s a boy, which means this nursery needs a few more changes. Although part of me would love to toss everything out the window and start over from scratch (I’d definitely pick a different crib if I could go back and do it all over again), there is no way the frugal part of me is going to spend the money, and if I’m honest with myself, I know I really have a million more important things to do than repaint the whole room.

So with that in mind, we will be keeping all the major pieces in the room (the crib, chair, dresser, bookshelf, changing table, lamp, mobile, and wall colors are all staying), and I’ll be making the look a little more “boy” with a touch of navy blue, olive green, and some new accessories. Here’s the mood board I cooked up:

And here’s the to-do list that goes with it:

1) Buy/Make Art
I’m totally in love with these prints from PaperLlamas on etsy. You get to pick your four colors and four vehicles and they custom print them for you. I think they are completely and utterly perfect for the room, but given that we have to buy a new-to-us car before the baby arrives (one that can accommodate three car seats), budget is going to play major role in whether I go with these prints or try to DIY something similar by painting over the canvases that are already in the room. I guess we’ll see how much we end up spending on the car.

2) Paint Dresser
I think this will be the fourth time in my life I’ve painted this particular piece of furniture, but I’m really excited about the idea of an olive green dresser in the room like the one pictured above. Current color I’m leaning towards is SW Rural Green (bottom right on the mood board).

3) Paint Bookshelf
There is a small bookshelf next to the rocking chair (you can see the top of it in the bottom right corner of the first photo). The paint job has gotten really beat up over the last two children, so I’m planning on painting it again. Maybe olive green too, or perhaps SW Commodore, which is the navy blue color on the mood board.

4) Make Curtains
The nursery has a blackout roller shade and a valance over the window, but it has never had curtains. I go back and forth on whether or not I think curtains are okay in a nursery, since I do worry about them getting pulled down on someone’s head, but we’ve got floor length curtains in almost every other room in the house and none of them have come down yet. That and the fact that I found the adorable airplane fabric on the bottom left of the mood board means that this time around, there will be curtains!

5) Accessorize!
I don’t have plans for too many accessories, but I do know that I will be buying and painting paper mache letters to spell out Bob’s name over the changing table. And maybe some other car/train/plane/truck/map items will work their way in if I get inspired. Oh and Peter’s mom and I are already making plans for the quilt that she’s going to make!

So there you go, that’s what I’ve been working on lately. What have you been up to?

On Sharing a Room

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Elise

Now that Bobble Head Baby #3 (Bob for short) is on the way, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on what the room situation is going to look like for all the kiddos, how many bedrooms we have, and whether the girls are going to share a room. And the answer is, we have four bedrooms in our house, but only three of them are on the upper level, so yes the girls will be sharing a room and Bob 3.0 is going to have the nursery all to himself.

As to some ways we are trying to make the transition to sharing a room easier for the girls, here’s what we’ve done so far:

You may recall that back in January of 2013 we investigated different bunk bed options and ended up choosing a bunk bed that had a trundle underneath. Since we didn’t think Alethea was ready for navigating a top bunk, we assembled just the bottom bunk and the trundle and let the girls try sleeping in the same room.

Despite the adorable sleeping kids picture, I’ll be the first to admit that Room Sharing Attempt #1 was an unmitigated disaster. The girls kept each other up until 10:30 or 11:00 every night and were unbelievably cranky the next day, every single day, for two weeks, until we abruptly ended the experiment and Lydia resumed sleeping in the crib. We tried again in the spring with similar results and after calling round #2 a failure, we agreed to shelve the whole rooming together idea until the possible future Bob 3.0 was in the works.

Fast forward a few months to after we found out Bob 3.0 was on his way, when Peter said to me, “We need to try moving the girls in together again.” To which I replied in a somewhat whiny voice, “Do we really have to?”

After discussing the pros and cons of bottom-bunk-and-trundle vs. top-bunk-and-bottom-bunk, and consulting with Alethea on whether she was interested in sleeping in a top bunk (she was… VERY) and whether she thought she would fall out (after confirming that there would be a railing on the edge, she observed, “If I’m rolling on my pillow and I roll up to the railing, I just won’t roll and further”), we decided to give the green light to the top bunk option.

One of my preconditions about putting up bunk beds, was that we had to change out the ceiling fan for a non-moving light fixture. Fortunately, I’d bought a fantastic pink chandelier at a second-hand sale months ago, planning on using it in the guest bedroom.

I still think it would have looked great in the guest room, but it’s very cute in the girls’ room too, and I’m pretty sure it’s safer than a fan they can reach from the top bunk. Admittedly, Alethea has asked on more than one occasion if she can swing on it, so there is the possibility that she may one day bring it crashing down in the middle of a trapeze performance, but thus far she has heeded our warnings and refrained from any acts of daring.

The girls began Room Sharing Experiment #3 in November, and it has been the most successful try thus far. Not completely without bumps, but it seems to have helped Alethea to have a space of her own, since Lydia is not allowed to climb up to the top bunk. Lydia herself is quite pleased to be a Big Girl who sleeps in a Big Girl Bed and will happily inform anyone who will listen that, “I don’t sleep in a crib, because cribs are for babies. I’m not a baby anymore.” She shows no inclination to return to the nursery and seems unbothered by the fact that another little occupant will shortly be residing there.

Having successfully arranged a bed solution, last week I moved on to the clothes. Fortunately the closet was big enough to handle both of the girls’ hanging wardrobes without any adjustments. For the dresser I found these nifty extra-deep spring-loaded drawer dividers on Amazon.

Installation was a breeze. I think it took me longer to get them out of the packaging than it did to get them into the drawers. And when I was finished each girl ended up with two dresser drawers, each divided in half, which is how I managed to condense the contents of two four-drawer dressers into just one.

We have a few other orders of business to attend to, like getting the lamp on the bookcase fixed, moving some of the girly accessories in from the nursery, and come summer, finding some sort of solution to the lack of fan since the room does get a bit warm, even with the air conditioning on, during the warmer months.

But the good news is, I can cross off “Get Girls’ Room Organized” from my before baby arrives to-do list and move on to “Revamp Nursery Decor”. Goodbye pink… hello planes, trains and other things that go! Should be fun!

TATT: Painting a Bathroom

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Elise

It’s Tuesday, Y’all. We have a fresh several inches of snow on the ground. And a Tuesday in January with a blank slate of a world outside my door sounds the like perfect time to revive Tips And Tricks Tuesdays. Now, I’m not promising that I’ll be writing a TATT post every week, in fact, I’m pretty sure that’s not gonna happen, but I think it was a shame to let them die out entirely, so in the spirit of a new year and new beginnings, here we go…

Back in October I decided a main floor half-bathroom facelift was going to be my next home project to tackle. First order of business… paint. Now, I already knew I wanted to paint the room gray. And I already had quite a few shades of paint to choose from because I’ve used five different grays in various rooms in my house and I’ve got samples of a bunch more. So here’s how I got from a slew of possibilities to actual color on the walls.

Bathroom Painting Tip #1:
Don’t assume because you like a paint color in another room of your house (or in someone else’s house) that you’ll like it in your bathroom. Since bathrooms tend to be small and often have limited natural light and sometimes poor overall lighting, it’s almost guaranteed that the color will look significantly different when applied in that context. At about 22 square feet, with a single overhead light and one small window, our bathroom is no exception.

Bathroom Painting Tip #2:
Do try out different colors on your wall before committing to a color. If you happen to have leftover paint from another room, great! If not, for just a few dollars, you can buy a test pot of any color under the rainbow from your local home improvement store. It is so much better to spend a few dollars narrowing down your color choice, than to spend $20 or $30 on a gallon of paint you can’t stand. (Bonus tip, if you like a color from a brand the store doesn’t carry… like if you want a Behr color, but you are at Lowes… just ask at the paint counter. They almost always have the color in their computer and can mix it for you regardless of what brand it is.)

This is the step when you realize that SW Proper Gray (left) that you love in your daughters’ south facing bedroom, looks very cold in the light of a north facing window. And that SW Versatile Gray (right) that was perfect in the low light of your guest room closet, looks rather drab when confronted with even a small amount of natural light. And thus, you, or rather I, end up with Sherwin Williams Functional Gray (center), because, for this room, it’s just right.

Bathroom Painting Tip #3:
Don’t be intimidated by working around the toilet. Yes, you might have to imitate a Circ De Soleil contortionist as you cram yourself into a cramped corner or two to paint behind it, but take the tank lid off and cover the back of the tank with Glad Press ‘N’ Seal wrap and you can slop around all you need to in order to get the job done. (Also be encouraged that if you still do get a bit of paint somewhere on the porcelain, it can be wiped right off with a damp cloth. No harm done.)

Bathroom Painting Tip #4:
Do realize that by changing the wall color, you may be irresistibly inspired to make other changes in the room. Since changing the wall color, I’ve also changed one small thing (the soap pump) and one big thing (the overhead light, which, okay, I admit, I ordered and Peter actually installed, but whatever).

I’m scheming about some other changes, a shelf for storage, some sort of art on the walls, and maybe a faux linen paint treatment if I get up the nerve to try it, so photos of those and of the new light will be coming your way as soon as I launch into my 2014 Home Improvement to-do list. Stay tuned!

A Princess Party!

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Elise

Our little Lydia just turned three years old and, as requested by the birthday girl, we had a princess party to celebrate! As I’ve mentioned before, we haven’t necessarily encouraged the love of princesses at our house, so I kind of surprised myself in how much I enjoyed preparing for this party.

Hear ye, hear ye, this was the invitation (which is displaying really washed out for some reason, grrrr):

The cake table was my favorite part, with dipped pretzels, cake batter flavored easy gourmet popcorn and gorgeous cupcakes made by my friend Erica. I recycled the pink fringed streamers from Alethea’s Frances the Badger party and added some smaller silver streamers for a contrasting backdrop.

What do you get when you combine repainted autumn pumpkins with a glass slipper and snowy trees? I’d like to think I achieved a Cinderella-meets-Enchanted-Forest theme, but maybe it just looks like I’m too lazy to take down all of my Christmas decorations. Either way, this is how the mantel ended up looking:

As noted by the party guests, the pumpkin coach could have been improved if it had four wheels instead of only two and if I’d actually carved out the door and windows instead of drawing them with a Sharpie, but I was trying for fast decor on a “use what you’ve got” budget, and as a bonus, the girls got to participate by each painting a “wheel” silver and were they ever thrilled to get in on the decorating.

There were a few other details like the chalkboard in the dining room, the birthday girl photo display on the console table, and of course something fabulous for the guest of honor to wear.

When it was time for the party to begin, Lydia accessorized the dress with her frog slippers to everyone’s amusement. Speaking of amusement, Lydia thought it was so funny that her cousins gave her 18 big packages of fruit snacks, which she unpacked from the gift bag and carefully placed in a pile…. one…. by…. one….

Other gifts included a bunch of great clothes, some cute accessories including a new crown, craft supplies, a couple books, a vet bag with a puppy that makes various doggy sounds (Lydia was in LOVE), a hula-hoop that makes for great twirling and a blue rubber bouncy horse named Rody (because every princess needs a equine companion).

After presents, it was time for cake. Lydia picked one with a crown, a chocolate one naturally, because she is her mother’s daughter, and then proceeded to blow out the candles all by herself.

Then there was nothing left to do, but eat the cupcake and try on the mini tiara… while still wearing a crown. Too much bling, some might say, but really, is there such a thing?

So there you go, Lydia’s Princess Party for her third birthday, which means I am now officially the mother of two preschoolers! Yikes!

To view more BobbleHeadBaby celebrations, visit my Parties Page!

It’s a ….

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Elise

Also happy to report that all signs are indicating a perfectly healthy little one arriving in late May!