Wednesday, February 27

chopped

kate told me one day she wanted to cut her hair off.   just out of the blue.  i made her sit on it for the whole day and then that night, took her into the bathroom to get the scissors and ponytails and at that moment, she changed her mind.  no harm, no foul.  i was glad she was making her own choices about it.

a few months later, she did the same thing.  she spent all morning talking about how she wanted to cut her hair.  we went through the same routine - "are you sure? why do you want to cut it? (not to talk her out of it, to make sure she knew why she wanted to) remember it will take a long time to grow back.  but it will grow back."  late that afternoon, i showed her in front of the mirror what it would look like and again, she assured me she was ready.

look at this girl.  i mean, just look at her!  such a beauty :)



 and here come the scissors!!
 quite the ponytail, my dear

 the pile from the rest of the haircut... mixed in with gross crumbs, etc on the floor.
 all cleaned up, shaped up, and a bit of styling

 the next day - still happy!  whew ;)

Friday, February 22

siblings:friends

once in awhile, you get really lucky.  you get magical moments like this:



i love my kids.  i love my family.  i love my life.

and, as you can see by beth's pull-up, the potty training is still a work in progress... let me specify by saying, she is a champ at going potty; going number two, however is a whole different ball of wax...

Sunday, February 17

i heart you




beth.  you are simply the best.

Friday, February 15

kate's kindergarten checkup

since kate turned five, her annual check up included her kindergarten stuff, too.  lucky girl got to go to the doctor on valentine's day this year

growing like a weed, well... a petite weed ;)
 she asked me "mom, is this a blood presser cup?"  smarty pants ;)

getting her vision tested
turns out the poor girl might be pretty blind!!  it was kind of crazy to watch kate more or less fail at this test! she has been so smart and things have come so easily to her so far, it was shocking to watch her not know most of the letters and shapes from the distance.  we have to get in to an eye doctor and see what's going on... maybe it was just a fluke because it was her first time?

valentine's day

happy valentine's day, everyone!
 kate, all decked out in her love day attire


loving all these wacky shots of the kids - wow, do i have three kids now??? 



 kate's valentines for preschool - poor thing wasn't feeling well (their v-day party was actually the 13th) and she had to send her treats with her friend :(  he was so sweet and collected all her valentines and brought them over that afternoon!


after school today, kate brought me this valentine she made in class!  melting!!

hope you felt the love this year!

Tuesday, February 12

new bed

we were looking to create more space in our little bedroom.  anything to enlarge the white shoebox ;)
i wondered if a platform bed might help visually create more space in the room by not taking up as much volume as our other bed.  our other bed is a classic, iron frame, but our mattress height was well over 3' tall with the box spring and mattress sitting inside the frame.  i had no idea if this brilliant idea would make a difference, but we thought we'd give it a go.

we bought our bed from, naturally, ikea.  it's a platform bed with 4 drawers under the mattress.

 i added some curtains to make it feel more lived in and less rented..
 we lived with it like this for a few weeks (this meaning without a headboard - just with the wall of pillows as support)

after pinning ferociously ;), i knew i wanted just a plank of wood behind us as a headboard.  the question was how?

the answer was my dad.

the bed is made of birch so i did a little research and talking with my dad and came up with using a piece of birch plywood and framing it out (to give a hint of dimension) with pine.  after it was built, i coated it with three coats of polyurethane (and steel wool rubs in between coats).  it's easily the best finish i've ever gotten on a piece of wood - it was very exciting! :)

 isn't it gorgeous?!?!  that's not stain, just polyurethane to seal it.  i love this wood!
 i know, i know - i'm that crazy that i sealed it on my bed, duvet cover and all.
 she's gorgeous!!

we love everything about it!

and yes, it opened up the whole room by visually not having the volume of the room filled with tall bed.

love bug

this guy.




such a love.

Friday, February 1

new dress-ups

for kate's birthday this year, i decided to make her some new dress ups since her others are completely falling apart.  hey, they lasted two years, right?  this time, instead of trying to make them out of all the fancy fabrics (that ended up shredding and tearing and falling apart), i used cottons and followed a simple peasant dress pattern.  embellishments make all the difference!

rapunzel
merida
belle
snow white
sleeping beauty
cinderella

i love all of these dresses and could make a ton more!!  maybe for beth's next birthday?