When Mom's Away...

Two kids write a play!

A play?

Yes! A play!

Ben had two hours of karate training at the dojo tonight so we had a temporary role reversal at our house.  I sat at the dojo for two hours, with my attention alternating between the pages in my novel and the dojo floor where kicks, punches and grunts took center stage. Brian stayed home and cooked dinner. And not only was it edible, but it was quite delicious: Pan fried tilapia, brown rice, and steamed green beans.

While this reversal in the roles of the parents was taking place Gavin was given the task of keeping his sister occupied while Daddy's attention was on the cooking.

Sometimes when it's Gavin's job to occupy his sister he interprets that as meaning he should just do what HE wants and half heartedly include her even if she doesn't want to. Sometimes he takes it to mean he should sit her down somewhere, instruct her to "color this page" or some other menial task, and then go about his business, again, doing what HE wants. Occasionally though, his big brother instincts, his teaching tendency, and his creative side come out. That's what happened tonight.

When I came home this is what I found.

The puppet theater. The prince and princess puppets. Two stick-puppet frogs . And a play. A play dictated by Luci and written, in her words, by Gavin.

Luci's face lit up as she told me about her play and asked if she and Gavin could show me tomorrow. Absolutely princess! I'd love to see your play!

There are moments in parenthood that cause us to doubt ourselves. And there are moments in parenthood that remind us we are doing OK. Thankfully those good moments are enough to carry us through all the doubts and fears.

Primping Princess

The decision to add this little dress up area to Luci's room really was a last minute idea born out of a desperate need to find somewhere, anywhere, to put her dress up clothes. Little did I know how well it would go over.

I love catching her looking in the mirror. I find her smiling sweetly at herself. She dresses herself and then takes a peek at how she looks. And she smiles at herself again. My girl, my princess, is beautiful. She is confident and she is pleased by her reflection in the mirror.

I know that as she grows older she will begin to see herself with a more critical eye. But right now she sees herself as I see her.

Simply Beautiful.

Princess Hook Rack: $9.99
Mirror: $5
Watching my girl bloom: Priceless

Blik Blok

One day last week a package arrived for Ben. We knew right away when we saw the Mindware logo that whatever was inside would be great! After ripping the box open Ben found what was inside: Blik Blok,  a set of wooden geometrically shaped blocks whose box issues the challenge "Can you build what you see?".  Ben was a little less than enthused as he looked at the gift. After all, at first glance it looked like nothing much more than a set of wooden blocks like those in his sister's room. Because we were in the midst of the room redos the box was set aside until this weekend.

Sunday afternoon when Ben couldn't find anything to do I suggested we check out the Blik Bloks. He shrugged and agreed to give it a whirl. Within just a few minutes he'd discovered that these were far and away better blocks than his sisters!

Included with the blocks are 100 design cards. Each design card shows a 3D drawing of a finished object and lists the blocks that were used to construct it. The goal is to build it exactly the same using the designated blocks. Think that sounds easy? Think again! Even the beginner level cards are challenging!

Ben manipulated the blocks different ways, quickly learning that he had to go beyond the obvious configurations if he was going to successfully construct the images. After a few hesitant starts and restarts Ben had completed his first and was moving on to the second, and third....and so on. Before long his excitement was catching. And addicting. Brian joined in and later Gavin joined in. Even I sat down later that day (when no one was watching, of course) to try my hand at it and found that it was hard to stop! Just ONE more card!

Luci has a set called Block Buddies which is essentially the same thing in 2D instead of 3D, for a younger age group. Ben's Blik Blok set inspired her to work on her own design cards and even to create a few designs of her own.

Thanks to Rebecca and Rich for the great gift! 

The Boys' Room

Make a Smilebox slideshow design

The boys' room presented quite a challenge; two boys in one small room. With a tape measure, pencils, and half a ream of paper (ok, not quite, but close!) I set a budget and then designed and redesigned a space that would accomodate all of their toys, hobbies, and interests as well as the essentials like clothing and shoes. Accomplishing everything while staying within the budget was the biggest challenge. However, one day on a trip to Home Depot we discovered that the Maple colored Closet Maid products were on clearance for about 75% off. This opened up a lot of new possibilities! I started by making a list of every thing that the boys needed to store and the different ways that it could be stored. I think what we ended up with is a great system that will serve them for years to come.

The Closet Maid products are arranged on the wall so as to give them each a personal storage space (at opposite ends) and a shared space in the middle for their books, TV and video games. Everything has a place. Plastic storage containers sort the various Playmobil, Lego, Knex, and other toys. Some of their storage needs were unique to each of them. Gavin, for example, needed to store guitars, guitar bags, and music. We mounted the guitars on the wall which actually serves two purposes: decor and safety. The gig bags for his guitars are hanging from the insides of the closet doors on Command Hooks (love those!). Gavin also has acquired a sizable collection of science projects and supplies (junk: plastic bottles, boxes, straws, etc.... Extra large tubs with lids hold all of this and also give him a limit as to how much "junk" he can keep. Ben's unique storage needs mostly have to do with his trains. He has a large train track mounted on a piece of plywood. A very awkward piece to store for sure! But, it happens to fit perfectly under his bed. The problem before was that with so many pieces of furniture in the room there wasn't space to pull the train track out to play with. By getting everything stored on one wall, and thereby eliminating all of the other furniture from the space, there is plenty of room now to pull out the track for play. As for the trains, a narrow, but deep, 7 shelf cabinet in the closet is perfect. Each shelf can hold 2 or 3 trains so he has plenty of room to grow for  a while yet. 

The blue and yellow walls are decorated with an assortment of guitar or train related memorabilia in addition to a few other collectible pieces. Gavin's collection of rocks and shells top his cabinet and a space at the end of his bed while Ben's Karate belts have found a home on a display shelf along with various other collectibles. 

Their closet has a basic tower system with drawers and two hanging rods. The upper drawers and rod are Gavins, and the lower ones are Ben's. With shoe racks in place for shoes and duffle bags, and open top bins for winter gear and hats, it should be easy enough to keep their things organized. Like Luci, the boys have a box for their cards and keepsakes tucked into the closet. 

It feels great to have this project complete! 

Luci's Room

Make a Smilebox free digital slideshow

Hopefully the slideshow works. This is the first time I've used Smilebox. 

Luci's room was a lot of fun to do. Of course she chose pink for the wall color, we really expected nothing else. She chose a color called "powder pink" and has told all who would listen that her room is "PowTer Pink" (emphasis on 'Ter). Luci already had a nice toy box/shelving unit that I'd acquired from a thrift shop a few years ago. In general, toy storage wasn't really a problem in her room, so we just kept the same system, simply moving it into her new room. 

Clothing storage, however, was a problem. We added a unit in her closet that provides shoe storage, drawers for folded clothes, a lowered hanging rod just right for a little girl, and ample shelving for bags, purses, jewelry, etc... We removed the closet doors and covered the closet opening with a curtain instead. This freed up the floor space since we don't have to allow for the space that the doors needed in order to swing open. And in such a small room as this that really makes a difference. Also in her closet I added a couple of storage boxes that are within her reach. One is labeled "cards" and the other "pictures". These boxes give her a designated spot to keep her treasures safe. 

Luci adores her stuffed animals. But as any mom knows, those stuffed animals can become a nuisance when it comes to storage. For the large stuffed animals I installed a pet net in the corner of her room. The smaller animals, however, were a bit tricky. I considered several options before deciding on making her a 'pet zoo'. We had a four shelf cubby style shelf that I wasn't going to be reusing in the boys room. Using a staple gun we attached three strips of elastic to the front. This makes each individual cubby an animal cage and the elastic holds all of the small stuffed animals in place perfectly! 

The only other storage problem that Luci had before was her dress-up clothes and accessories. In her old room these were either stuffed under the bed in a plastic box or crammed in a sack and stuck in a corner. But since she loves to dress up I gave her a space devoted entirely to dressing up. Her dresses have a place to hang along with boas, capes, and sashes. Dress up shoes have a place as well as crowns and other accessories. I added a mirror to the space which adds a bit of glamour and practicality to the area. Luci loves her dress up corner!

The walls are decorated with special keepsakes:  a cross stitch angel made by a family member who has passed, a tea set from a grandfather,  and dolls passed down from mother to daughter and from mother to daughter again. And just for fun, we added a fairy land scene on her wall using Wallies (wallpaper cutouts).

I'm Going to Blog About That

To say we've been busy is an understatement, but I'll say it anyway. We've been busy! The fall season always seems so busy to me because of all of the fall festivals, the anticipation of the holidays coming, the nice weather that beckons us outdoors, etc... I expect fall to be busy. It is every single year. But usually there isn't so much going on in the winter months. Once the holidays are have passed and the humdrum of January sets in it's usually life at a snail's pace. Not true this year. There have been so many times I said to myself "I'm going to blog about that!" But before the opportunity arises the momentum has been exhausted and the moment all but forgotten. Tonight I'm going to try and catch up on a few of the things we've had going on.

In January my oldest child turned 12. Twelve comes right before thirteen in case your counting. I'm so proud of my boy though. He is growing into a young man we can be proud to call our son. To celebrate his birthday we went out to dinner at Cheddar's. We managed to pull off one of the biggest birthday surprises ever when we gave him his gift, an iPod Touch, after dinner.

              

The first week of February Ben earned his blue belt in Karate. He is doing really well in karate and is interested in beginning competition training for the Mississippi Karate Association.

It snowed in Mississippi this month. Lots of snow! It began snowing at around 10 pm on a Thursday night and snowed until around midday on Friday. I don't remember ever seeing this much snow in my entire life! The kids were very excited to get out and play in the snow. Here at our house we measured seven inches of snow. It was a beautiful snow too.

The highlight of the day was making a snowman with my kids.

Luci's giant, floppy, purple fingers in this picture are courtesy of a pair of latex gloves worn over her regular gloves. This nifty little idea kept the kids' hands dry snowball after snowball. Their Grammy can attest to the fact that daddies get upset when kids raid his sock drawer repeatedly on snow days!

The weekend after the "Big Snow" (as the local media has dubbed it) we started a massive undertaking in the kids' rooms. I actually plan to write a detailed post about the kids rooms and all that we did. But for now, I'll share a tiny glimpse of what my den looked like at one point. With both of their bedrooms completely empty for painting my den was a sea of kids' stuff. Maddening. Really, though, in hindsight I should have taken pictures of how many bags and boxes actually left the house. Two Mondays in a row the garbage men must've look at our trash heap with repugnance. It really was a LOT of stuff! Good riddance clutter. Be gone!

Last week we celebrated Ben's 9th birthday! We took the kids and two of Ben's friends to Gatti Town, a place where kids (and grown ups alike) can eat their fill of pizza and play their fill (or at least until the money runs out) of arcade games and rides. The boys had a ton of fun! And later that day we had a marble fudge chocolate cake with a number 9 candle on top!

Coming soon (in no particular order)...
Blik Bloks
Room Renovations
Princess Primping