A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

So aside from hardly being busy at all we've been having a whole lot of fun around here.  After the post mega trip birthday fourth of july crash last week we've been in high gear and it's been great.

I think what really set the tone for the week was a fun birthday party outing for Ainsley and I on Saturday afternoon.  Our invitation had been ruined in the torrential rain while we were away so we found out about it the day before the party leaving us about 36 hours to come up with a fun gift for Ainsley's friend!  It turned out great!  (both the gift, I hope!, and the last minuteness).

We decided to make a colored pencil roll, my first! out of potato print fabric we made last winter, some felt, and fun ribbon

I left some extra slots for other special pens and pencils

I had fun trying out some new stitches on my machine for decoration

We coupled the roll with a pack of new colored pencils (clearly) and a drawing notebook.  I hope our friend liked it!

The party itself was lots of fun too.  A circus theme complete with face paint, carnival type games and yummy treats.  Ainsley (and I) had a blast!

It's so fun to see my girl in her element, with friends being active.  I left Louise home with Ian so it was just us two, such a treat to see my girl playing and being independent, willing and excited to do it all.

After a relaxing Sunday we were ready for the week.  I'd finally gotten a bit of a break from my two adorable girls after ALL THAT parenting and traveling alone, and felt ready to take on our long unscheduled days.

In addition to re-learning how to draw out activities, walk a bit slower and make things linger, I've resurrected afternoon baking, a tried and true favorite in this house.  The bright afternoon sun in our kitchen and sweltering heat of late has made it hard to want to turn on that old gas stove at all, but the necessity of cake baking for Ian's birthday reminded me how comforting and fun a little butter, sugar and flour can be.  For Ian's birthday I tried a new cake recipe, the butter cake from Joy of Cooking and it was delicious!  Then Ainsley was excited to try a new recipe from a library book she got about apple harvesting so we tried an applesauce cake with brown sugar frosting and oh goodness, it was like a little taste of fall.  I'd run out of some of my fall/winter spice staples in ground form, but had them in  pod form from some chai tea I'd made this winter so we ground allspice, cloves and nutmeg fresh and let me tell you, I may never buy pre-ground spices again.

But that isn't the interesting part.  THIS is the interesting part.

I turn my back for one minute to turn on the mixer and...

"We're just making a flour cake mama.  Aren't we YaWeez." "Yup.  Fower cake.  Yum yum yum."

I know there may be a day at some point in life that a simple baking project doesn't produce so much mess, but I almost dread the day.  Look at those smiles.  It's all about the fun isn't it?  And that flour cake?  well, it was actually quite good.

In other Vaagenes girl news, miss Louise has now graduated to a big girl (well toddler) bed.  While in Minnesota it became quickly apparent that she's really too big for a port a crib, so she slept every night in a king bed with me and did so well.  If there's one thing I've learned as a parent it's to go with the flow and take your kid's lead, so when we got home we decided to convert her crib and (knock on wood) it has been an absolutely seamless transition.

She uses her little step stool to climb in and out to play with toys and without fail we find her curled up with her nana's and doll sound asleep in minutes.

Oh the shenanigans that take place in that room.

my big girl bed girl

Perhaps it was that simple change in Louise room, or the fact that I never really did a proper spring cleaning this year, but for whatever reason a small fire was lit under me and I couldn't be stopped.  What started as a simple, but thorough, house clean, turned into an all out rearranging reorganizing three trash bags full ordeal.  It felt amazing.

I've been thinking of writing a redecorating post for a while now, not because I'm any good at it, but because I wanted to proclaim boldly that one CAN refresh a space using only things you have.  I get so annoyed with all these decorating articles and shows that claim "budget" redecorating tips for a mere $1000.  If you're really on a budget you do NOT have $1000, sometimes even $100, to spend on frivolous redecorating.  It's annoying.  So instead of going to IKEA and re-purposing a bookshelf as a hall bench (which by the way I REALLY want to do) I just move things around, search the house for un- or underused items and wing it.  I think it turned out well.

sunroom flip, the girls have been using the mini kitchen straight for three days and all because I moved it to the other side of the room and took out ALL the other surrounding toys.  We've also used the keyboard every afternoon for concerts and plays.

Dining room repurposing.  Our dining room is really a rather large space for just our little table and chairs and I hate to see good space in a small house go to waste.  I swapped the keyboard for the girls' table and chairs and took our art cabinet out of the front entry to give it proximity to their art space for easy access.  I'm excited to have a place to store my immediate projects (sewing and knitting) and have a place the girls can grab their own things to make and do that's NOT in my desk (like before).  So far so good!

The cleaning moved on upstairs, mainly to Ian's and my bedroom as that space has never quite worked well for us. But of course both of the girls' rooms got a facelift as well.

let's see how long Ainsley's closet stays like this, I give it about 12 more hours

 yes, that is a box full of tutus, they need their own space in her room

And the piece de resistance...

Ah this funny old house.  At the time we bought it we were ecstatic to have found a place with normal unsloped second floor bedrooms, "walk in" (for oak park) closets and space enough for a queen (not double) bed.  Then we actually moved and couldn't even fit our boxspring up the stairs (they make split queen box springs, did you know that?).  I'd tried two other room arrangements, but neither really worked.  The three windows (while great for sun and airflow) really hinder any sort of flexibilty with the furniture arrangement.  In the first arrangement our bed was blocking one window, in the second another.  Ian couldn't really open his bottom dresser drawers because they'd slam into my dresser which was crammed in one corner with his.  In short, it was kind of a disaster.  The one hitch with moving the bed to the one NON windowed wall it would fit on?  Our sidetables in no way would fit.  But I think I figured that out.

I took the top half of the cabinet that didn't end up fitting in our kitchen and a shelf from ikea turned sideways that we never found a home for and walla! side tables.

The girls are loving our "new" room too.  Floor space to sprawl out on, a simplified uncluttered layout, ipad within reach on Ian's shelf.  Ah.  Life is good.

Haha, horrible photo I know, but Louise's post nap fluff hair was too good to pass up.

In and around all this rearranging and cleaning we've found some time for some creativity and activity too.

Ainsley's little house inspired house, a work in progress but quite cherished already

An outing to the zoo, Ainsley simply had to stop in and see how her penguin friend was doing since her last check up.  Louise was quite the nurse helper.

We rounded out the fun yesterday afternoon with the second meeting of our preschool bookclub.  We gathered with some of our most cherished music garten friends and read Mama Panya's Pancakes while sharing in a tiny feast.  It was such a fun time for both the kids and adults.  The afternoon was capitalized by a princess parade where ALL the girls decided to hike up to Ainsley's room (all 7 of them!) and don fancy fairy dresses and jewelry and promenade down the stairs for us all to see.  I of course took no photos, but you can rest assured it was a delightful afternoon.

So we're having fun.  Looking forward to a lazy family weekend.  It helps so much to be starting with a clean house and a happy family.  Have a great weekend!