How to spend a chilly afternoon

 

Earlier this week I was downstairs doing some cleaning when I realized it had gotten really quiet upstairs. While my children may be older that the age of creating major messes, they still can get into mischief.

When I came upstairs to check this is what I found and the reason for the quiet. They ended up spending almost two hours reading stories together. Such a pleasant afternoon.

Teeth!

 

Fiona is finally getting her front teeth! We are so excited!

Over two years ago her little sister hit her in the mouth with a small hammer causing her front tooth to turn black. Ever since then she has smiled without opening her mouth.

May 2010

April 2011

Well, I found one or two photos with a big smile in the past two years. I don’t think it ever crossed my mind that it bothered her until I started looking back and really noticed.

June 2011

The dentist eventually pulled the dead tooth and the one next to it quickly followed. She stayed toothless for over a year. In October we noticed them starting to come in. Although still no big smiles…

October 2011

Until yesterday!  It’s been a long time coming and I just love to see her smile!

Christmas Pajamas

 

I realize that Christmas was exactly one month ago, but I thought I would share the jammies I made for the children. I ended up not being able to finish the tops for the boys and purchased t-shirts that coordinated. It worked out fine, but I wish I could have gotten them done.

The children picked out the fabric they wanted, choosing green because they had never worn green before for Christmas. I just loved listening to them work it all out between themselves in the fabric store.

I finished them two days before Christmas, just in time for them to wear them for all of the festivities! Don’t they all look so excited?  This is what they think of pictures before opening presents. Then I remind them that the more they smile the faster we can be finished.

 

 

Pajamas are very easy to make, especially the boys pants. They only took me about two hours to put together. The gowns require a bit more work but are also very simple and I enjoyed working with the flannel. Much easier to work with than some other fabrics. Despite the fact that I was working like crazy to get them done I can’t wait to make some more and have all ready purchased fabric for next year!

School Room Updates

Hello there remember me? I am rejoining the blog world after a nice long break. Even if it was unintentional. Between traveling to my brothers for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Epiphany, sickness,  and life in general time just disappeared.

I thought I would show you one of the biggest things I have been working on the past couple of weeks. Our School Room and office! This room is rather small for 5 people to be in all day so having a place for everything is so important. I have been sorting, purging, and organizing and I am finally finished! It is so nice to be completely done! (Well unless we don’t move and then I will make more permanent changes)

Much is still the same. The buffet stores extra school games, science supplies, and the kindergarten stuff. On top of that is the children’s workbox. It holds their work books, Awana books, and other things they want to keep there. Hence the curtain it’s never neat and I can’t stand the mess!

On the top is office supplies, rulers, pencils, paint brushes, etc.

 

This is the other side of  the room. It has seen the most change. I added the expedit shelf from IKEA to gain more storage and the file holders from Ballard designs.

 

My brother and his wife gave us the map for Christmas. It just happens to be the perfect size to fit above the shelf, and perfect for our state studies. We had to switch to a dry erase board from the chalk due to allergies. I do miss my old board! The boxes on the bottom hold taxes, files, office supplies, and play dough. The basket is one that my husband made and the handle was broken. It now works perfectly for all of our flashcards.

My binders fit perfectly on the shelf. We use most of these daily.

I still love the jars of markers, crayons, and paint out of reach. I do keep some on the table within reach now that my youngest is 5, but I love having them up high as it keeps the messes controlled!

We store our science and history notebooks in these files where they are easy to access everyday.

This is my little corner or the Teacher’s desk and office.

Even the inside of the closet got organized! We keep our office supplies in here along with the printer and shredder. I like that my printer does not get as dusty sitting in the closet. My laminator sits on the top shelf along with more CD storage and school projects. The puzzles and games are on the next shelf. The middle shelf holds our paper and printer. The bottom shelf holds our state notebooks, computer supply storage and our file box of prepped lessons. Now when my husband comes in the room he doesn’t have to ask me where anything is, its all easy to locate!

So there you have the new and improved school room office. I don’t mind spending our days in here now that it is organized!