New Bathroom!

As if paying off debt wasn't already the highlight of our spring...Husband finally finished our bathroom! And words cannot adequately express my level of elation not only at the fact that it is finished, but that it is SO. AMAZING.

Let's start with the shower:

 

This is what you see when you enter the room (eventually there will be a custom glass door for the shower). The shower is what was once a half bath. A before picture would be really great right about now, but we are super bad at those. The sink was along the left wall you see here and the toilet was opposite. Where the shower curtain is were two walls and a narrow door. When Husband redid our bedroom, he reframed our bedroom with a different entrance so that what was the hallway was now room for the toilet and vanity in a master bathroom. A year ago, we tore it all out and started from the studs.

Husband designed and framed the shower and then tiled the floor and walls. With some help from Brother. He then installed THREE spouts - one standard spout, one rainfall shower head, and one handheld. At any given time, two can run simultaneously using any combination. It. Is. Amazing.

It is also interesting to note that the exhaust fan pictured does, in fact, double as a Blue-Tooth speaker. Husband likes to scare the you-know-what out of me by waiting until I'm in the shower and blaring loud metal music.

Next is the vanity and mirror. Lighting design is husband's bread and butter, so when he found this back-lit mirror from Ikea, he decided it would be perfect for our space. He also installed overhead lighting which has a name I don't remember, but it's cool and is on a dimmer switch. Which is awesome for early mornings.

This vanity was also purchased from Ikea and is so roomy! I love all the space in the drawers. And they are soft-closing (I think that's what it's called when they close quietly on their own?). I think we may buy another and replace the sink in our downstairs bathroom with this one as well.

The toilet was the one thing I really wasn't sure about. Husband wanted a "tankless" toilet where the tank is in the wall. This was mainly to save space, but I must admit, it is pretty cool. The lid is also soft-closing and the controls are on the panel shown. The small one is for Number One and the large is for Number Two. The other day, Sister told me she pushed both because she did both. Ha!

And I think my favorite feature (though you can't tell from the picture) is the tile. It's HEATED! There's a control panel on the wall and it's automatically set to start heating before we get up so it's nice and toasty in the mornings.

Library Advent Follow Up

As I wrote in this post, we do a library advent calendar every night leading up to Christmas beginning with December 1st. Not being particularly knowledgeable when it comes to Children's literature, this has been a learning experience! As I mentioned, we do a mix and match of books about the Christmas season in general (winter, Santa, etc) and then we start zeroing in on Jesus as the day gets closer. The kids call these "Jesus books" and "non-Jesus books," so that's how I have referred to them below. Here are a few of my favorite titles:

Non-Jesus Books:

Santa Duck by David Pilgrim

This book was super cute and fun. I enjoyed the artwork and it was a $1 in the Scholastic Book Order, so bonus there! Brother especially loved this book.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Brett Hellquist

I actually ordered this one after we had started our advent, but it's definitely going in the rotation for next year. It's unabridged, so the language will require some explaining, but the artwork is SPECTACULAR! I took it to school and read it to my 7th graders. I may or may not have cried during the reading.

The Nutcracker from the story by E. T. A. Hoffman, illustrated by Valeria Docampo

Every year, my niece dances in the Nutcracker, and every year, I'm like, "What the heck is going on?" I don't get it, so I don't know how to explain it to my kids. So this year, we ordered this book. It was $9 something, but totally worth it because it is BEAUTIFUL. This one has been repeated already!

There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colander, illustrated by Jared Lee

We loved There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, so when we saw this one in the Scholastic Book Order ($2), I knew it was a must-have for our advent library. One thing I love about these books and the others like it is that Sister can "read" this book pretty much by herself since the book follows a pattern. As Brother reads every other book, it's nice to have one she can do herself.

Jesus Books:

The Birth of Jesus Activity Book

Sorry for the horizontal pic :)

I bought two of these for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby so each of the kids could complete their own. Inside are stickers, dot-to-dots, mazes, and much more, all revolving around the Christmas story. This was fun and a nice break from just reading.

The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher, illustrated by Christine Kornacki

This book was also $1 in the Scholastic Book Order, but this one surprised me, because rather than simply telling the story of the first Christmas, it followed the pattern of "The Night Before Christmas" poem. So rather than:

Twas the night before Christmas/When all through the house/Not a creature was stirring/Not even a mouse

it was:

Twas the very first Christmas/When all through the town/Not a creature was stirring/There was not a sound

We had just read the other night before Christmas a few nights before and the kids made the connection. It was fun.

The Big God Story by Michelle Anthony, illustrated by Cory Godbey

I LOVED this one. I got it as part of the literature that came along with the spiritual parenting class I took at church this rotation. I hadn't read it through until we did it with the kids a few nights ago. It tells the "whole" story of scripture, beginning in the garden and ending with the promise that Jesus will return. It is fantastic, and definitely one we will pull out often.

The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Ewell Hunt, illustrated by Tim Jonke

I have had this book since I was young and it makes me tear up every time, especially hearing my son read it this year. It tells the story of three trees and the big dreams they had, only to be cut down to form a manger, a boat, and a cross. It was so special to listen to Brother read it and make the connections - "Hey, that's the boat Jesus was in when he calmed the storm!" "That's the manger they laid Jesus in when he was born!" It was precious. This is another one we will read all year long.

What fun this has been! I'm already looking forward to next year :)

Pinterest Projects

I have never been a huge fan of Pinterest, but lately I've found it very inspiring! The following are a few Pinterest Projects.

Project #1: Grilled Cheese Rolls

Basically, these are grilled cheese sandwiches rolled up.

Flatten the bread with the rolling pin.

Add the cheese.

Roll up.

Melt butter and use a brush to coat all sides.

Place on hot skillet and cook.

Enjoy! My son liked this dipped in Ranch.

Project #2: Hot Dog Spaghetti
This one was a hit in particular because it was so easy for my son to help!

Chop the hotdog into small pieces.

Thread 4-5 dry spaghetti noodles through each hotdog piece.

Boil until the spaghetti is done.

Enjoy!

Project #3: Greek Yogurt Pizza Crust 
I was slightly less eager to try this recipe only because I thought there was no way this could be as good as the blog post I found about it. Nevertheless, I tried it out with stromboli. I didn't take pictures, but I think this picture speaks for itself:

Truly, it was so so good! I repeated it last week with actual pizza and it was just as yummy!

Project #4: Kindergarten Countdown
I saw this on Pinterest and decided it was the perfect thing for my uber-excited pre-kindergartner!

 

I started by drawing a school bus. (That's right, people. I drew that bus.) We then created the links using card stock and a stapler.

He refused to color the school bus in the traditional yellow and instead, went with a multi-color look. I gave him a picture of himself to put in the window of the bus. (If I had prepared a little better and wasn't lazy, I would have gotten pictures of his friends to put in the other windows.) He insisted on being the driver.

We have had so much fun counting down. Though I will say that every time we count down, I am reminded of how little summer we have left! :(

Project: Picture Canvas

Rick and I don't buy each other Christmas gifts, but every year at Christmas time, when all the sales are going on, we agree to spend between $30-$40 for a canvas picture of the family to go on the wall. Here are the last two we have done:

They are nice, but as I said, $30-$40 a pop ON SALE. So when I saw a BEAUTIFUL picture canvas at my hairstylist's salon of her three children, I commented and her response was, "Yeah, my sister did that for me for like, $11." I asked for details and it seemed simple enough. However, being well aware that my craftiness factor is in the negative numbers, I went into it understanding that I would probably be wasting $11.

Step 1: Gather Materials
16x20 canvas - $7 (with coupon)
Picture, blown up to 16x20 at Copy Max - $1.95
Foam brush - set of 3, $1.29
Mod Podge - free (my mom had it)

Step 2: Trim the Picture
You can pay the copy place to do it, but it cost more than the picture, so I had Rick do it. He has excellent fine-motor skills and a very steady hand.

Step 3: Apply Mod Podge

Cover the surface with a thin layer of mod podge.

Step 4: Apply Picture

Press the picture onto the glue by pulling it tightly and pressing. It took four hands for this. I was planning to wrap it around and glue it, but Rick said the staple gun would be easier. He was right.

Step 5: Apply Top Coat
Brush the top with a coat of Mod Podge.

Final Product:

:(
I was disappointed. The one in the hair salon did NOT look like this. I specifically asked if this was regular paper and she said yes, but I think if I had photo paper, it would have worked much better. Of course, it would have cost a lot more, too.

We went ahead and hung it up in the living room, and you can't tell from certain angles. I am going to look into blowing up an actual picture on photo paper and repeating the process, but I'm guessing that will be quite expensive. This will do for now.

The Quest for a Cheap, Easy, and Sugary Halloween Snack

I love Charlie's preschool for so many reasons, but one is that when they have parties, they have parents sign up to bring healthy treats or unhealthy treats.

Since I am such a fun, super hip mom, I go with the unhealthy every time.

Twice a year (for their birthdays), I hire a girl from church to make cupcakes however the kids want. (Side note: holler if you want her contact info - she is super talented and affordable!) Last year Charlie wanted pirates:

 And this year we did ladybugs for Miss Lucy:

And as much as I wanted to call and order custom cupcakes again, I really felt like I should be able to do this on my own. So I scoured Pinterest and found this. It looked easy enough. All I needed to do was get donuts, vampire teeth and chocolate chips. How hard could it be? Well, it turns out that two days before Halloween, Michaels, Party America, Walgreens, and Target had NO vampire teeth. I finally found some at Dillon's (I was giving up after Dillon's, btw), so tonight after Lucy went to bed, Charlie and I got to work:

 I bought the day-old donuts and saved $5!

I love the way they turned out, but more importantly, so did Charlie!

The 4th

I love the 4th of July.  For me, it's Christmas, and then the 4th of July.  I LOVE it.  And when we moved to this neighborhood, the morning of the 4th got a whole lot more fun because they do a parade.  A BIG one - so big, it was featured on national news as one of the top ten "small town" (even though our neighborhood isn't really a town) parades in the nation.  It's pretty fun, if I do say so!

We have people over for breakfast and then we sit and watch the parade from our front lawn.  Last year, I made a bunch of different things for breakfast.  This year, I decided to make pancakes and CRAFTS.

I am not a craft person, and there's a reason for that.  I like the way they look, but I hate the time they take and I hate actually doing them.  But last year I made this wreath:

And I figured this was the year for some crafty stuff since it's summer and I have plenty of time!  So I started looking around on Pinterest (which I generally don't like) and found a few cheap ideas.  One was this:

It's a wind blower thing made out of strips cut from plastic table cloths.  It was fun and I got enough materials to be able to make with the kids.  The second undertaking was:

Being someone who hates to craft and hates to use fine motor skills, I immediately went to my mom for help on these.  So she gets credit for, like, 90% of this.  I did paint a few and did the stars on a few.  But Charlie gets credit for the "fireworks" that went inside:

You paint a coffee filter, cut slits all around it, poke a pipe cleaner through it, secure, and voila! Cheap, cute, decorations!

I called that good.  I decided to make only pancakes this year...until my dad brought over some old bananas and I found raspberries and blackberries in the freezer.  So I made pancakes and "Star Spangled Banana Bread."

We had a lovely array of food, including Patriotic Puppy Chow, Old Glory Cinnamon Rolls, and Red, White, and Blue cake.  It was fun. :)

And then, there was the parade!

This is the view from our lawn in both directions down the street.  I've got to say, I'm sure glad I live on the park and don't have to worry about parking and getting to it.

And can we have a moment for this woman playing in the band with her baby strapped to her chest?  That's dedication.

Lucy and I had a great time on the lawn watching the parade.  I managed to catch these two pictures nearly back to back before the parade started:

Funny girl.  And isn't that the cutest dress ever?  Love it.

The parade is always full of military vehicles, kids on bikes and in wagons, and emergency vehicles like fire trucks, and politicians.  One liberal politician stopped to give a sucker to Lucy.  My uber-conservative father-in-law had a thing or two to say about that. :)  But my FAVORITE display was this one:

That's my niece pulling my son and nephew.  They ran out of candy so they just waved a lot.  It was adorable.

As always, it was a great time! Thanks to all who came!