Jazzie and Tahlia

Tahlia's new room

For several months Tahlia has been complaining that her room was "too baby-ish". In her defense, she has had the same room since we came home from China. The only thing that changed is that we replaced the crib with a bed. Here is her room the way it used to look. I wish I had more before pictures, but I never even thought to take any...

Cute, but too much for a little girl... Now Tahlia's room is better suited for a second grader:

She now even has a little corner with a mirror where she can fix her hair and change her earrings and stuff ;-)

Ikea and pantry clean-out

So yesterday was a very rainy day and I was trying to decide between cleaning out my pantry or going to Ikea. In the end I decided on Ikea since I have been missing my family back in Holland, and I thought that walking around Ikea might make me feel closer to them. Ikea is one of my mom's favorite places :-)

I had a lovely time browsing in the store. It was not crowded so I was able to really take my time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You gotta love Ikea with all their great stuff at very reasonable prices! Among my purchases:

Since discovering Teavana, I thought this teapot was a must!

(Who could have thought that this coffee-holic would start drinking tea on a daily basis???)

Jazzie had been asking us for a desk for a long time. I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money, but I thought this desk would be perfect for her:

Matt put it together when she was at school so it would be a surprise. I did not say anything when the girls got home. Jazzie had her snack, a drink and started browsing on my Facebook page which I had left sitting on the counter. I had put pictures of her desk on there so when she saw the picture of her desk, she did a double take. She looked confused. "Is that MY room, mom?" The look on her face was priceless. She ran up to her room and was THRILLED.

And since cleaning out the pantry was still on my radar, I bought some lovely containers to organize everything in it. I have a huge walk-in pantry which is great and I love it, but the problem is that because it does hold so much stuff, it can get quite messy and unorganized:

Here it is after:

I just fell in love...

with this:

I was at Sam's Club today and saw this stainless steel cleaner. Now, I have tried just about EVERY single stainless steel cleaner available, but nothing worked to my liking. Until today. It cleaned my stainless steel appliances effortlessly (truly). Call me strange, but I get really excited about this kind of stuff. Look at how my fridge shines:

And with two little bakers in the kitchen, I really appreciate a good cleaning product :-)

New bathroom

Matt and I decided to redo the girls' bathroom over Christmas break. I tried to find some before pictures, but was unable to. Their bathroom was green (which I never really liked) with pink and yellow and ladybug accents. It was cute, but I have outgrown my love for all things ladybug and I wanted the girls to have a bathroom that would be able to grow with them, even into their teen years (now that is a scary thought!). So here is the result:

I fell in love with the shower curtain the moment I saw it:

We replaced their big, ugly mirror with two separate ones and replaced the big strip of bulbs with some cute light fixtures:

How sassy is this toothbrush holder?

I love how their bathroom turned out and so do the girls. It is sassy and glamorous ;-)

 

So that is where that was!

I have a basket in my closet with socks that are missing their match. Every now and then I find a match to one of the socks in the basket. However, most of the socks have been in the basket for months. Just the other day when I was doing laundry, a piece of clothing fell behind the washer. I went to get it and noticed some more articles of clothing. Matt came to assist me:

Not only did he retrieve the matches to most of the socks in the basket, he also got all this (please excuse the dust bunnies!):

He also got these (so that is where those books went!):

Just as I though he got everything from behind the washer, he handed me this:

 

Inside was a bathing suit. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about it. I wondered how long it had been there so I looked at the receipt:

Uhm, I do not know what to say. I am embarrassed....

"Mom, we have a surprise for you!"

These are the words spoken by Jazzie when the girls were playing in the basement yesterday. As I was making my way towards the basement steps, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. There are a lot of toys in the basement and the girls' craft area is there as well. It is their area to play, to use their imagination and to be creative. I have come down to the basement many times to find Barbie's all over the floor, to find a city made up of blocks, books, toys and everything else they could find down there, to find papers all over the floor because the girls are playing school, to find the play food strewn all over because they are playing store, to find sleeping bags and suitcases because they are pretending to camp, etc. I am a very organized and neat person and I do not handle a mess very well. That is part of the reason we finished our basement; so our girls could have a place to go where they have free range and where the mess doesn't really matter because I don't have to look it. I'd much rather they play and use their imagination than sit in front of the TV or computer or play video games all the time.

So, when I was told to come down to the basement because there was a surprise, I was expecting something along the lines of this surprise from a while back ("come look at what a great school I made"):

However, when I came downstairs I found this:

All the craft supplies were put away and I could actually see my beautiful bamboo floor because it wasn't covered by a million pieces of paper!

All the toys were put back on the shelves...

Jazzie was so proud of herself and started "flying" around the table because there was nothing on the floor:

I try not to stress about it when the basement is a bit of a mess. I try to always remember what a wonderful and creative outlet the girls have in this basement. I can close the door at the end of the day and nobody knows the mess is there. My girls aren't watching mindless TV or playing mindless computer games. I'm thankful for our basement and I am even more thankful when the girls surprise me when it's a tidy one ;-) 

Good job, Jazz!
  

Feels Like Fall Today

We are having temperatures in the 60's today and I am LOVING this taste of fall. Fall is my favorite season and it can't get here soon enough.

I spent the morning canning tomatoes from our garden. Before we had kids I used to can a lot, but now that the girls are here I do not have the time I used to have. However, today the girls have been playing outside with friends and I really enjoyed canning my tomatoes. Even though I buy organic canned goods as much as I can, there is nothing like home grown and home canned tomatoes:

 

A note from Jazzie to Tahlia:

 
(click to enlarge)

Enjoy your weekend, everyone! I think we are supposed to have more autumn like weather tomorrow. 

Bring It On!!!

Rainy Day

This week the girls have been at camp in the mornings. Our township offers several camps throughout the summer and they are great. The girls have done Arts and Crafts Camp, Princess Camp, Animal Camp and now they are in Holiday Camp. During Holiday Camp the kids celebrate a different holiday each day and do activities related to that holiday. Monday was Christmas and the girls made ornaments and garland. Yesterday was Easter and they painted Easter eggs and had an Easter egg hunt. Today was Halloween and the kids all came to camp dressed up. Here are my cute Home Depot girl and sweet cowgirl:

"Stick 'm up or I'll shoot!"

  

Very sassy Home Depot girl:

 

Of course Halloween is not complete without some "pumpkin" carving:

After camp I took the girls to lunch and then to swim class. After we came home we did some fun things together. It has been raining all day today and I must admit that I love it. I have always loved rainy days, but it has been so nice to have the girls inside for a change instead of outside. Tahlia in particular will spend hours at a time playing outside, so it has been nice to spend some quality time with both the girls. First we painted, we read some books, played some games and made cookies (a favorite activity for all three of us):

 

What did we make?

 

Molasses cookies! They are so yummy.... Tahlia had to make sure they tasted okay:

 

 

Want one?

I love my new deck

We have lived in our current house for almost four years, and last week I finally got the deck I have been wanting for so long. We opted to do other home improvements first (like getting granite counter tops, finishing our basement and remodeling our bathroom).

Even though we still need to stain our deck, I have been enjoying sitting on it SO much. This morning the girls and I had our breakfast on the deck and it was like I have been envisioning it for so long. We just sat there listening to the birds, watching the hummingbirds drink from our feeders, looking at the all the greenery around us and just chit chatting. I loved it and I think the girls did, too.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to sitting on the deck for lots of chit chat with her, her and her. I know it is going to be a great visit :-)

 

Both girls insisted on 3 sugar donuts for breakfast. I know it's not the healthiest breakfast in the world, but hey, it's summer break! And each girl was only able to eat 1 1/2 donuts anyway...

 

 

Can you see it?

 

Our deck is almost done! Can you see me sitting there this weekend with a nice glass of wine?

I can.

My sentiments exactly!

Someone told me the other day that I must really like having sayings and expressions on the walls of my house, because I have a lot of them. It's true; I do.

The family room:

 

 

The play room: 

 

 

The kitchen:

 

The bathroom:

The entryway:

 

The basement:

 

 

Letters painted by the girls for their craft area:

 

The clothes the girls were wearing when we first saw them in China. It's hard to read the words in this picture, but it says "Every day holds a possibility of a miracle".

 

My sentiments exactly!

Bathroom before and after

My bathroom is done! The granite was installed on Thursday and I have a wonderful new bathroom. I love it and I love that my husband is so handy...

Before and after:

 
  

  
  

  
 

Can you see it?

My bathroom is starting to come together. All we need is a vanity and a couple of sinks.

Just a couple of minor details for a bathroom...