Quick Remodel - Bedroom for Our Littlest Princess

On Friday, all four of us were off - my husband and I were off from work and the girls were off from school. At dinner a few nights prior, we discussed as a family what we would do with this special day. Here's how the conversation went, Mommy, "How about we go to the zoo?" Daddy, "Oh, that would be fun!" Eleven year old, "Let's clean the basement!!" (She wants to make an art studio down there -- prior to this you could hardly get her down there to grab a roll of paper towels...) Five year old, "Let's rearrange my room!" Talk about your role reversals... We decided to rearrange our youngest daughter's room (it was rainy and snowy on Friday) because it was a relatively easy task -- we'll save the basement project for another day!

We started around 9:00am and began by emptying the room -- the other bedrooms upstairs were suddenly overrun with stuffed animals, etc. We pulled everything but the bed and dresser out -- even the 2 area rugs came out. We vacuumed the whole room -- corners of walls, up to the ceilings -- everything. And we also dusted everything thoroughly before bringing it back in. Our girlie's room is the smallest of the upstairs bedrooms (downstairs we have a guest room and a very small bedroom that is my husband's office) and she has a beautiful full-sized bed which takes up a lot of room. We were limited on where we could move the bed -- we were trying to maximize her play area -- so we flipped it from where it had been, 180 degrees in the opposite direction. We moved her dresser (which had been at the foot of her bed) over next to her closet. We downsized the amount of stuffed animals -- some are going to be donated, a few were put in her "special box" in the basement (a tub full of mementos) and the rest into her toy box. She tried to negotiate sending some over to Grandpa's house, but we didn't go for that idea (they'll only end up back here - smuggled by her one at a time!). We decided to take her nightstand out of the room -- it had previously been used to hold a pile of toys... We also had to take the glider out to give her more room. I told my husband that we'd have to find a place for it somewhere in the house -- I said, "I can't give it away! I rocked both of my babies in that glider!" And then I said, "Do you see the tears starting?" Because truly, my eyes were welling up... And he said, "Don't worry, you don't have to give it away -- we'll figure out a place for it!" Not sure where that's going to be -- but we'll figure it out! (I'm a little sentimental...) :)

We re-hung everything that had been in her room, and we didn't buy anything new -- we'd like to get her a couple of things for this little reading "nook" at the end of her bed -- a bean bag chair, a lamp -- ultimately I'd like to install a little, girlie chandelier in the corner, but that will involve an electrician. We thought it was cute to hang the Tigger cross-stitch that Nana made over the chair with all of the Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals!

Really the only "new" addition to the room is just something that I pulled out of her closet, and it's my favorite item in the room -- I took a sweet little Disney princess dress that I had bought her when she was a baby and I hung it on a cute satin hanger and we hung it up on the wall next to her window. I think it's such a darling idea, adds to the "princess theme" and it's a nice way to easily showcase a special item that might otherwise be sitting in a box or the back of a closet. We re-hung her little mirror, this time over her dresser -- she's not tall enough to look in it today (standing in front of it) but soon enough! :( And over the mirror we hung a little pink princess sign.

She was very excited about her new bedroom! And after 7 nights of bunking in our eldest daughter's room, the two girls moved the February Recess Sleepover Party into our little girl's room for the past two nights! Tomorrow they are back to school, so tonight they are sleeping in their own beds! It's fun to freshen things up and move things around when you have a free day. We spent no money on this change, but just moving the furniture around, rearranging the decorations and even pulling the little princess dress out and hanging that on the wall, made a huge impact! Let the Spring Cleaning begin!

Sister Sleepovers

Another thing the girls have been enjoying much to my husband and my surprise is having “sleepovers” in our eldest’s room – an unprecedented FIVE nights and counting! It’s so funny, because they used to beg to have sleepovers in each other’s room and then they would be SO miserable and neither of them would get any sleep and the next time they would ask we would remind them about the misery from the previous experience. I don’t know if I shared this on here, but I think it was last year, they had a sleepover in my little girlie’s room and my husband got home late – around 11pm – and he went to check on the girls and our eldest was sound asleep, and the little one was sitting up in bed with her arms crossed in a huff. My husband asked her what was wrong and she pointed to her (sleeping) sister and said, “She’s annoying me. She needs to go to her room!” And my husband said, “Well, honey, how could she be annoying you? She’s sound asleep!” And the little one said, “She’s just annoying me! She needs to go!” They went back and forth on this and there was no reasoning with her, so my husband finally had to wake my poor sleeping child and get her to move into her own bed. That was a classic!

They have had to bunk in together on trips to visit family members, or sometimes if we have company and need an extra room for guests. I remember the last time we went to New Hampshire to visit our family, my girls were sharing an air mattress in the same room that my husband and I were sleeping in. The first night that we were there, I remember initially feeling tired and crabby that they were giggling and being silly and not getting to sleep. And then I thought to myself how lucky they are to have each other – I was an only child growing up – and that hopefully they will look back later in life and remember visiting the relatives and giggling all night!

My husband and I actually daydream about moving up to New Hampshire – we really love it – we’ve really thought about it, done a little research, compared school districts and things like that. He’s in a career where most companies want you to be willing to relocate – if he got a good offer to move up to New England, we would find it hard to say no! One thing I have thought about with moving, is how difficult it would be to leave family and friends, but how nice it would be for our girls to have a built-in playmate / confidante. Watching them snuggle together these past few nights, I can imagine them doing that if we were to ever move – helping to comfort each other in a strange, new house. How lucky they are to have one another! In spite of their occasional sisterly squabbles, I hope they always remember and appreciate how blessed they are to have a sister!

February Recess

It’s February Recess and alas, we are not flying off to some warm vacation spot or even driving to visit relatives. I was off work for three weeks for my gall bladder surgery, so I’m not able to take any time off this week other than my usual Friday. My husband is also only off on Friday this week, and so the girls are hanging with Grandpa for most of the week! Yesterday he took them on a drive out to visit his brother, Uncle Dave, and the girls delighted in seeing his Malti-Poo dog, “Spanky” and they enjoyed going out to lunch with Grandpa and Uncle Dave. They are planning a few more visits like that – out to see Great Grandma, and hopefully out my way for lunch this week, too!

Sunday my husband was off and the four of us went to visit Great Grandma, went to Chili’s for an early dinner, and went to Michael’s Crafts to spend some gift cards that Grammy gave my eldest and I for Christmas. I was thrilled to buy some St. Patrick’s Day decorations (my supply has been VERY limited – appalling, considering how much Irish pride we have in our house!) and my eldest bought some cute wooden birdhouses that she is looking forward to painting and decorating to make homes for some clay figures that she created. So that will keep her busy this week! The weather has been beautiful today, for upstate NY in February! Hopefully they will get to enjoy taking Grandpa’s dog for walks around the block and also get some time on the swings in the backyard!

Today my eldest baked a cake in honor of "Link" from the Legend of Zelda -- this is her favorite video game and apparently today is Link's 26th birthday. My husband and I joined in with the girls as we sang Happy Birthday to Link and then we all had a piece of cake. We also talked about our plans for Friday -- my husband and I were voting for a trip to the zoo, my youngest wants us to rearrange the furniture in her bedroom and my eldest wants us to clean the basement so that she and her sister can create an art studio down there... We'll see who wins out on Friday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband! I had gall bladder surgery recently and he has been taking great care of me and handling more than his fair share of the parenting for the past two weeks! I appreciate him more than words can say -- he's an amazing husband and father, and the girls and I are blessed to have him all to ourselves! :)

Happy birthday -- we love you!!