Ta-Da

The play-area is now approaching completed status. There isn't much more we can do with this space without some extra funding, so for now it will stay the way it is, and by the way it is, I don't mean as clean as it is now. The girls will have it torn apart in 15 seconds flat, but for now I am going to admire my hard work and enjoy how organized it is. I do have an internal debate going on with one of the pieces, so I would love some advice, feel free to weigh in with your thoughts.

We moved the "kitchen" table down a few feet towards the deck door to give the play-area more room and we relocated the "kids table" to the corner by the deck door (no photo of that, its basically blocked by the "adult table" so it doesn't look all that swell, but it works and there is space, so there it will remain. And we shifted the bench from the deck wall to the kitchen wall under the counter, while it isn't ideal, its necessary, so again, there it will remain. Its ironic though that Land of Nod managed to send me a catalog focused on organizing on the day I took this project on...convenient huh? Someday...maybe.

First things first, take a look at our Family Room just after the carpets were cleaned and I took all the Christmas decorations down, it looks huge doesn't it? Too bad only 1/4 of the furniture was actually in there at the time the photo was taken. Can you imagine what I would do with all that extra space.

View from the bench

Now the bench area...

Now opposite of the toy kitchen...

I love this storage bin, but I could use about 31 more of them...

And finally, my internal debate, I love glass cabinets, I love the look, but I hate the look of clutter when the contents are a mess and will likely remain a mess. If I could only clean it up I wouldn't care, and maybe I can, but for now I am wondering if I should hang something inside to block out the clutter, maybe like fun wallpaper or scrapbook paper? Do people do that or am I just making it up in my head?

And another big announcement...Avery got her first pair of shoes today. We were going to get them for her for her Birthday (February 24th), but since she is starting to stand more on her own we decided we need to get her used to the extra weight on her feet, so we took advantage of the Stride Rite Winter Clearance event...and seriously, Stride Rite Clearance is like Target Full Price X Four. I just don't get it, but I remain loyal for the early walking stage, I am bought into their system and can't seem to break it. But you better believe I am going to order miss Extra Wide feet a cute pair of Nike's I found on legit clearance online.

And this is what happens when Avery wakes up from a nap long before Olivia...I dress her and Brad alike and make them pose for pictures. Ha! Just kidding, but its not a terrible idea, the striped sweaters just happened to work out. Speaking of the sweater Avery is wearing. We went to breakfast this morning, both girls are wearing the same sweater, Olivia is clearly a "she" and some lady asked me how old my son was...meaning Avery. Are you kidding me? I just said "SHE is 10 months old, I know its hard to tell sometimes". But what I felt like saying was "You saw us come in, she was wearing a pink hat, a pink jacket and clearly my older daughter is wearing the same sweater, do you think its a unisex sweater with a hot pink stripe in it?" But I didn't.

Yes folks, that is indeed Riley's toy in my darling daughter's mouth...and I sure did continue to let her chew on it until I got a great shot. Mom of the Year!