Fairy Town...

...also known as the Fairy Tale Exhibit at Crown Center...or also "Princess Town" depending on whether Stella is favoring the word Princess or Fairy.  More importantly, this is where we spent family time with friends this weekend. It was crazy from the moment we got there until the moment we left.  Lots of people, a toddler needing a nap, a magical exhibit, food delivered by train, great company, and lots of FUN. 

See?  Lots of fun.  I LOVE that these girls were holding hands every where.  I LOVE the picture of the guys and babies.

So Fresh and So Clean

I can't take it anymore.  I need to feel that something is finished or near the finish line at least.  This is our laundry pass through/butler pantry.  I LOVE IT.  However, this post comes with a caveat; it still isn't done.  But I wanted to share anyway.

Here is the original from our walk through buying the house:

Here is my initial paint job.  The walls were a mess after removing the wall paper.  I loved the red but...

I like this better...(I thought there would be too much contrast with the red and white).

The lovely SHUTTER doors...

And after...

We had some left over board after re-doing the bathroom.  Brilliant, right?  I got the idea from Vintage Simple. 

As you can see, I still need to paint the inside of the cabinets.  That requires creating more clutter by taking out all the glasses.  It will have to wait as there is enough clutter with the kitchen construction and art projects I have going in the dining room.  Some of you may wonder why I removed the doors on the left side of the butler pantry.  I needed to utilize the space better.  This is my make shift mud room.  The bottom shelf is all about the dogs; their food and a bin for their things. The top shelf are bins for the girls things as well as mine (their shoes, my bag, umbrella, milk bag, pump etc).  The garage door is right outside this area so it is convenient to have these bins when we first walk in the house.  I also installed coat hooks next to the garage for whatever coats we are currently using (you know Kansas, you could be wearing a parka one day and then a rain jacket the next).
The Kitchen will probably be a few more weeks.  The back splash is on it's way.  Painting is being done.  Whew.  Here is a little preview...

The Chalkboard for the girls.  This is when I "conditioned" it after painting.  It has been touched up and is in use now. 

In the middle of all this I apparently thought it was wise to make some homemade salsa.

I barely had any counter space to use.  But it was sooooo worth it.  This stuff is addicting.  The recipe is here.

I make mine with only one jalapeno, Ben gets a couple extra.  Yes, that is a jar of minced garlic and a bottle of lime jiuce...I know the real stuff is better (limited counter space and time folks).  Do you like the chalkboard paint in the background? It is still there.

...more fun with Grammie

We had lots of fun with Grammie this last weekend.  Stella points to the flowers Grammie gave me and says, "OH Pretty! Those are flowers Grammie gave me (Stella)." 
I asked her if she knew what tomorrow was...she responded, "Grammie Day!"  It is actually Mommy day, but it is sweet her mind is still on the weekend.

I love the morning face. 

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the dollar bins at Target in the front?  Well I do.  I walk through those quite often.  This last time, we found the capsules that dissolve and turn into a foam shape.  One of the best dollars ever spent.  It kept Stella entertained while I made waffles at the same time created a moment.  This was one of my favorite moments from this weekend;  Stella and her Grammie watching and waiting to see what would slowly grow in the water.

Do you see my baby?  The one pulling herself up to standing? This was only the beginning.  She is a busy little girl, busier than her older sister was at this age. 

A Day with Grammie

Bye-Bye Park, see you later !!!

New Smile

Esme has a new smile...she scrunches up her nose and squints her eyes.  No matter how I feel at the moment if I see this, I can't help but smile.

Aren't you smiling too?

Here is another smile to look at:

Yeah, I didn't smile back at this one either.  This is what happens when I leave the room to put the baby down for a nap.  We definitely had a talk about where marker goes.  She was very proud of her "lipstick."

Stella's naps, around the house, soon a project

We have been working hard on the kitchen.  Thursday we started to tear into the backsplash ultimately cutting the wall off to put up new drywall. I started the painting...lots of painting...LOTS OF PAINTING.  The laundry/butler pantry is almost done.  Man, progress is so much slower with two little ones.  I had hoped to have that project done by now.  Nap times are hard to sync or not long enough sometimes.  But they are so much fun when they are awake...we try to forget the disaster in the kitchen and the fine layer of dust everywhere to stop and play.

Enjoying the weather.

Love that morning sunlight. 

Esme hanging out in her room, while I open Stella's door after nap time. By the way, I have a few plans for that little black table back there; also thinking about something artistic for the wall back there too.  Hmmmm...

So...onto Stella's nap time.  She recently figured out door knobs.  Yeah, that's fun.  At night it became a problem as she would get out of bed and sneak down stairs into the play room.  During nap time, she would venture somewhere other than her room.  We recently bought safety doorknob locks.  It helps some, until she gets so mad and BREAKS the safety lock.  Yes, we lock our daughter in her room when she sleeps.  Can you imagine if we didn't?  We might be those people on the news, with the two year old  that was found walking the streets or driving a car into something in the middle of the night. Anyway, now that she can't leave her room...she plays or usually reads a lot.  But occasionally there is this:

"It's a diaper train mama!"  

Wednesday, it was the same thing, only she took off her clothes and changed her own pull up diaper (never done that before), and managed to find some infant socks from the closet (there is a safety lock on that door now) and put her new favorite shoes on.

Notice the infant socks are holiday themed and the shoes are on the wrong feet. 

Oh, she makes my heart laugh.