A Polish Home: September 2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Kids' Room

Labor Day was on it's way and we didn't have any plans. I was freaking out, not dealing well with all of my responsibilities. Kannon could tell and offered to take the kids and go to Elko for the whole 4 days. They left Friday morning and then I headed out to Reno. I finished buying the items I needed to complete the projects I planned for the kids' bedroom.

So, you will find below before and after pictures of the items and set up of the kids room.

I painted the bedroom and stayed up late every night spray-painting furniture, making my owls, and planning. I watched the entire 2 seasons of Jericho and all of the Anne of Green Gables and Avonlea movies. I even fit in a visit from some lovely sisters in my ward who brought over lunch on Monday and helped me iron some curtains. I finished putting the last book on the shelf just as the kids walked in the house. They say they love it. I know I do.

This nightstand was beige and gold. Matched the bookshelf,

desk, and dresser (which is still in storage). I painted it white with the one blue drawer

and a fancy knob. Well, you can obviously see that.

This is the bedroom before. This was the first room we remodeled. We painted it this tan color because we thought we'd be selling soon and wanted a neutral color. The curtains have been hanging in Ben's room since he was 6 months old. It was sure time for a change. The dresser and little dresser in this corner are now in the closet and next to the closet at the foot of the bed. All the clothes now in one corner.

Here's the same corner after my redecoration. Don't those
colors just relax and invigorate at the same time?!

Bed before:

And after. I really like the turquoise curtain. It makes for some fun color changes throughout the day. Sarah got her pink bed and the boys have a blue one. I went with all white sheet sets. You can see the cute owls on the walls by their beds, although Joshua already knocked off theirs and bent the nail, so I've got to come up with a new place for those owls.

Then there is this crazy corner. Check out those books! And the

clock hasn't even worked for a few years.

I decided to store some of our books. Again. I probably have 6 boxes of books in storage now. Or more. I took the bookshelf off the desk for

now, so that it would be easier to do homework at the desk.

And see the new clock? It ticks. And tocks. I bought the storage unit for the kids toys. I think it's been good. We can just put the toys quickly into the basket and shove it on a shelf.

This is the revamped desk. I painted the fronts of the drawers yellow and used the same blue as the nightstand to paint the knobs and pulls. I thought about buying new knobs, but couldn't afford it and am actually happy about the way it turned out. I loved picking out a material to match it all. And I modpodged it to the top of the desk. Awesome!!

Earlier this year I bought this side table at the thrift store. It had ridges down the middle that weren't nice for writing. I filled those in with putty, sanded, and spray-painted the legs white. Then I pulled out the chalkboard paint for the top of the table. I paired it with a shiny red chair!

My boy owls! I spent hours Sunday night trying to get the patterns just right. I love them all. Mod Podged some scrapbook papers that I made from my own patterns drawn from ideas I found on Pinterest. Yes, I spend a lot of time there, but it actually came into good use this time.

And my girl owl. I love this one, too!

A few things are still undone. I have some paint a shade darker than the walls to paint vertical stripes on the wall with the bed. I still need to finish painting in the closet and the door. I have super cool material to make a clothes hamper that I found on Pinterest, too. I'll get to them eventually. (I hope. The trim in the closet never did get finished when we totally remodeled 5 years ago!) It's nice to have a change once in awhile. Now, I'm wondering when I'll get to do my own room?!

A New School

We started school on August 15th. Very exciting and very nervous. Our first day at a new school. We worked so hard to get into the Charter School and we (okay, I) was anxious about how it would all work out. I really wanted to spend the day there with them. So, now it's been a month and things are going well.

Ben is a 3rd grader. He is in a class of 15 boys, 5 girls. His teacher quit 2 days before school started. The class started with a semi-substitute, but they got a new teacher hired very quickly, Mrs. Koontz. Ben's been in trouble a few times already. He's going to have to learn that there's a law to follow. Apparently the whole group of boys is like this. They are all smart and mischievous. I realized at one point, that he was not really doing his math homework. It was requiring him to think more than he normally does and, therefore, it was too hard.

Blueberry pancakes with a "3" for 3rd grade.

Sarah has loved every day of school. No complaints and she comes home smiling every day. She loves the poems she is learning about colors. I help out on lunch duty every Monday. She's excited to see me, but then she is off with her friends. She has an incredible teacher and I'm really excited that she's a kindergartner.

Curlers and the letter "K"!
The traditional first day of school children's picture. Check out those uniforms. I do miss them being able to pick out their own clothes, but these make it quick and easy to get dressed each morning. And they look so nice, too.

Those curls calmed down by the end of the day!

Standing in the Kindergarten line. With the kids all in their uniforms, it's hard to tell them apart. When I'm at lunch duty, all the little blond girls or 8-year-old boys look like my kids!

Benjamin walking in on the first day of school. He didn't even

notice that I was standing right there!

Or that I followed him in to take a picture of him at his desk!

Joshua and I enjoy the routine of our days. We do drop off in the morning - we take Serenity (an almost cousin, the kids share Aunt Susan and Uncle Stephen) to school and they bring Sarah home from school. After drop-off, Josh and I head to the gym. When we get home he watches Cars -everyday- and I take a shower. He then plays while I work, then it's lunch and nap time. I get to spend some quiet time with Sarah when she gets home at 2. Then Josh wakes up and Kannon and Ben both get home around 4. I've had to spend a lot of time getting things organized and scheduled so that our lives run smoothly without too much stress. I'm almost there!

Monday, September 26, 2011

End of Summer Party

We had our 2nd annual So-Long-Summer party a few days after

our Oregon trip and a few days before the kids went back to school.

The mommies staying cool in the shade with cute fans!

There were yummy cookies, popsicles, and my ice cream sandwiches which were literally a flop! I hadn't ever actually made my own ice cream sandwiches before, but I really wanted to do something fun and Ben helped me come up with, what I thought, would be a great idea. We made our orange dreamsicle cookies and then smashed vanilla ice cream in the middle. But, I thought I needed to soften the ice cream first. That was my first mistake. They ended up rather messy, but still tasted delish!

The kids played with squirt guns, water balloons and sprinklers and left with a swirly sucker.

Crater Lake

We were sad to leave the coast, but I totally loved the drive back across Oregon. It was beautiful and more than once I wondered if I could happily live there.

At lunch time we stopped at Crater Lake and ate a picnic lunch. (Okay, really, I stood at the back of the suburban and slapped together some sandwiches.

Everyone ate them sitting in their seats.) Then we drove around the loop a bit and took a short hike to get a different view of the lake.

Throwing a snowball at mom. It was fun to see a bit of snow still

hanging out, dirty as it may have been.

From Crater Lake, the rest of the drive was kind of rough for me. You know when you are almost there, but not quite there? And you just want to be there? Well, that's how it was. Some of the drive was really pretty, but mostly I was ready to be done. Especially when I had to stop for a potty break and there were bear warning signs on the doors. Or the next stop, which was in the bushes! The kids were out off and on and for sure during the last hour. Although, that meant that when we got home at 10 pm they were wide awake!

I think this trip was amazing. We had so much fun as a family and I think we'll have these memories forever. It was a great way to reconnect. And we have plans to go again in 5 years when the boys can go play in the sand and us girls can do some beauty and shopping stuff.