Weekend Recap

Yesterday tricked me a little and had me start off the day in sandals. I couldn't help but feel springy it was opening day of Moshe's little league. 

He loves it even more than last year and that makes for a happy mama.

Even though it was still cold out we decided to make an icy snack in the afternoon and I present you with what I have named, "The Rainbow Smoothie That Broke My Crap Blender."

The strawberries, mango, yellow and green squash and spinach looked a lot prettier layered in the blender than when it was all blended after, but M and L happily drank it all up, and I got spinach into them without begging. Popeye would be so proud. 

Now I find myself in the market to replace said crap blender. Any recommendations? I want to be able to whip up many more healthy smoothies without having another blender die on me. Let me know what kind you use below!

It's a Party in the Kitchen

There are times when I feel like I am drowning in an abundance of kid's toys. I know other parents feel the same way and everyone has their own way of dealing with it. I really like the idea of cycling toys in and out of the children's toy rotation. Toys get forgotten about, and then don't get played with but if it is reintroduced a month or two later, it's like having  a new toy all over again. Unfortunately living in an apartment without massive amounts of storage space, this is not something we do around here. There just isn't any holding place for the toys that aren't being used so frequently.

Lately there has been a lot of princess play around here. I know there's nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to steer playtime back to non princess related imaginative play a little bit too.  We have a super cute little play kitchen from Kid Kraft that I wanted to make a little more new and exciting so Moshe and Lily would play with it some more. I bet you thought this post was about toy organization, when really it's about <gasp!> buying more things!

I added some new food items and children sized aprons that both kids were really into it, but I had been on the lookout for a set of play dishes. When I was in Ikea a few weeks back, I went to check out what they have. The dishes they sell for their play kitchen actually comes with the warning that children under eight should not be using them, because they will break like real dishes. Womp womp. Not something I am interested in.  I moved on, and was browsing through the baby section when I found these:

Images from Ikea.com

The Kalas series, are meant to be real tableware to use for your children, but I decided to bring it home as toys. Each pack was $1.99 so for $8 I managed to stock our little play kitchen with service for six kids. I took the knives out of the set, even though they are not sharp at all. I didn't realize how much of a hit these dishes would be. The kids love to set them up, which is awesome practice for setting a real table. They sort them by color, which is great for Lily, because we are still working on learning all of the colors with her. Whenever Lily sets them up she always comes to get me and show me. "Mommy it's a party!" I'm giving myself some extra mom points for getting something that is accidentally educational.

If you have a play kitchen you really need to get yourselves over to Ikea, and grab a set of these dishes. Better yet, they won't break! And even better than that, even though I bought more toys, they don't take any more room up in my little apartment, because they are stored right in the play kitchen.

Anyone here have anything really awesome in their kid's kitchen? Let me know below.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Not Quite There Yet

I said I would be back today with the bar reveal. I didn't intend for this to be the final reveal because I still have some plans to make it look like a nicer piece of furniture. This was supposed to be the "It's Good Enough for Now" reveal. But sadly it's not even good enough for now. It still looks pretty bad. I guess I am still planted firmly in the middle stage of the project where things aren't looking great and I just want it to be over. And so I present you with a big grey box:

Sigh. I'm in the middle of collecting the materials I need for the next stage of the makeover. I really hope this turns out how I see it in my head because right now it just ain't pretty. 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

That Terrible Middle Stage

Every project has it. You are over the beginning rush of, "Hey! I can do this!" and before your final feeling of "hells yeah I did it!" And it's just not a good place to be.

Working on the middle stage is even less fun when your day starts off at the dentist, where a whole host of horrors is performed on your toothache, followed by going to work, and an endless trip to Ikea after that. (Side story: I once ran over a pigeon in the Ikea parking lot. It was absolutely horrible and I now consider any trip there where I don't murder a bird a success, so I'm not actually complaining about being in Ikea today.)

Once the kids went to sleep I got down to the first coat of paint. I'm not sure why but my paint was just not cooperating tonight. It was very bubbly and it took a long time to ensure the layer of paint was thin and perfectly smooth looking. 

I do have to say I am loving the color so far, it's a little darker in person than what is showing in the picture.

I'll be back once the bar is put back together. I don't want to bore you with a post about the second coat of paint that will be going on tomorrow. Stay tuned and check back here Friday for the reveal! 

Anyone else in the middle of something they just want to be done with? Or make me feel better and tell me I'm not the only Ikea bird murderer out there... 

Airing Your Dirty...

Airing your dirty laundry in public is bad. Airing your dirty laundry on the internet is even worse. But I'm only airing my dirty living room so that's ok, right? So here goes nothing:

In an ideal world I would have a garage to work out of. But I don't. Sigh. I painted the breakfront on my little enclosed porch, but it's still a little too cold to work outside so I decided to paint the bar inside. I moved the couch and rolled the rug back and thought it was really bad. And then I realized it was only going to get a lot worse before it got better... 

Ta da! The sanded and newly clean (it took a vacuum, liquid deglosser, and tack cloth) bar made it's way back inside and took up basically all available floor space. I laid out the newspaper, taped off the parts I didn't want any paint on and got to work priming.

For once in my DIY life I underestimated the amount of time it would take to do something. Woo hoo! So while I thought I would still be priming at this very moment, I finished a half an hour ago. Hooray for a job that took only an hour instead of two! 

I'm hoping tomorrow goes as well as today. I'm really excited to see the first coat of paint go on because in all honesty I forgot what the color even looks like. That's what happens when you buy your paint in September and don't do anything with it until April. 

Anyone else have a productive Monday night? Let me know below!

This is What a Really Awesome Husband Looks Like:

The bar update is finally underway! I've had the paint all ready to go for the past seven months so really it's about time we got this party started.

I tend to really underestimate the man power and time it takes to complete things, and I have to admit I thought I would be putting the first coat of primer on this evening. You can call this blogging in real time. The above picture was taken about an hour ago, after Daniel spent the entire day sanding the monster. He's covered in dust and our apartment is not looking much better (even though all sanding happens out on the porch.) In my head I had this thing painted and put back together by Friday, but now I'm realizing my brain doesn't live in reality. 

I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow where I need to clean this little baby of all the sawdust. Ugh. Worst job ever. If I'm lucky I might be able to get the primer on as well, but I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm going to try to do blog updates on this project as it's happening so stay tuned! 

Here's the very unglamourous before picture: 

The sanding was an epic task on the old honey-do list, so a huge shout out and thanks to D! This project couldn't have started without him. 

What have you all been up to this weekend ? Any big projects underway now that it's finally nice out? 

When The Odds Are Ever in Your Favor

We are a family that runs on the, "You get what you get, and you don't get upset" philosophy. And it works out pretty nicely for us.

Enter Lily, my very much obsessed with the color pink, daughter:

"Please straw! Pink!"

As I reach behind me not looking and grab a straw, I repeat that little philosophical line of ours. And then wouldn't you know, I come up with a pink straw. I stick it in Lil's milk cup as she squeals:

"PINK!! Me not upset!"

I'm just ecstatic she's grasped the concept so well. (That is known as sarcasm, internet friends ;)

Side note: Is there anything better than a freshly bathed baber?