8 Years ...

My sweet Sydney turned 8 on Sunday.  She is growing into such a wonderful young lady and I'm so proud of her.

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Kid Clean Up

I'm starting to realize that with kids it's inevitable that their rooms will evololve over time.  A room with merely a basic cribs and changing table ...

... became a big girl room. 

I thought I would be done for a while, but not quite.  Babies have a lot of "stuff" like swings, bouncers, jumparoos, etc.  I was glad to be rid of these things and to lose the changing table, but those seem to have been replaced with lots of toys.  We try to buy more books than toys but somehow they just accumulate between grandparents and holidays. 

Up until this point, we managed to store it all reasonably well in 3 places. Our basement which rarely looked like this anymore was one place.  I'll spare you the frightening reality it had become but the shelves were empty on daily basis and the contents where strewn everywhere.

We kept a few things in a basket in our living room.  Again, the basket was so full it barely fit under the table and it was typically emptied daily with the contents scattered everywhere.

This was a not-so-bad area. 

And this ...

The first thing I did was to go through the toys for a long overdue trashing of broken or useless toys and donated toys that were perfectly good but the kids had outgrown or lost interest in.  Next, I decided that it was time to put more of these things in the kids' rooms and less all over the house.  They aren't babies anymore and they like to play in their rooms.  The room above is pretty small and probably better suited to a twin sized bed, but we've got what we've got so I had to work with it and find a way to make the room flow reasonably well without constantly having to trip over things that had no home.

This is how the bedroom ended up. 

Most of what is here was in the basement and the blue bins have plenty of space to store things. The trunk is filled with dress-up clothes. These shelves aren't anything fancy, but they're inexpensive and, well, they work great for storing toys.

I can't remember where I saw this idea but these are actually planters with the liners removed and painted white.

Nothing changed on the other side of the room, but here's a view looking that way.  I just noticed that a certain someone added a Mickey embellishment to the bed.

I'm still working on rearranging the basement and Zoe's room but this has already made a huge difference.

To be continued ...

Hell's Kitchen Flea Market

Over the weekend, my husband and I took a trip to NYC for a friend's wedding.  We decided to go a day early to enjoy the city and luckily, we had time to check out the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market.

From the subway stop, it's a short walk through the Fashion District.

This guy told us we were in the right place.

We got there just as they were setting up so it wasn't very crowded and there was a lot to see.  One vendor was selling hardware like hinges and these beautiful old door locks.

I can't help but notice blue and white items because of my mom's dining room so this miniature tea set caught my eye.

There were lots of clothes like this slip from the turn of the century.

Not nearly as old, but this nightgown and robe also caught my eye.  I actually purchased something similar at the D.C. Big Flea last year and brought it with me to wear in NY.  It's nice sleeping in something pretty. 

The same vendor was selling LOTS of hats!  See that little blue one on the left?  It was my only purchase of the day and plan to wear it to my next tea.

An old suitcase with travel labels ...

There was one booth that seemed particularly busy and I squeezed myself in there to see.  I found this beauty there.  It would have been a nice compliment to my similar tea cups, but I have several creamers and had to remind myself of my lack of storage space for more dishes.

So many pretty things ...

In that same booth were these beautiful tea cups ...

... and stacks of silver trays.

Pretty chandeliers a couple of booths down. 

This cup was really interesting.  It had the zodiac symbols on the dish and some other symbols inside.  Made in England.

Music player of some sort.  As you can see from the price, best left to a serious collector, but it still works!

I had to take a picture of this old phone because it was also pretty pricey and my dad has one without a dial and with a fabric covered cord.  I believe his is from the 20s.

Prints from the 1800s ...

Pin-ups from the 1940s ...

And, just because there's always something that you leave behind and later say "I should have gotten that."  Here it is.  A Star Trek pop-up book from the 70s.  Tom and I loved it but we left it behind. 

After the flea market, we took a break in Bryant Park for a while before heading back to our hotel in Tribeca to get ready for the wedding.

We had a really great time in NYC and at the wedding later that day.  The next day, Mother's Day, I was back with my mom and girls.

I grew up in NY and it's been a while since I've been there. I miss it and I'm sad to leave every time I visit but it was nice getaway. 

Back to reality!

A Magical Birthday

My oldest daughter celebrates her 6th birthday tomorrow and we held a party for her over the weekend. 

The 6 on our front door greeted guest as they arrived.  It was a spring break project made from a piece of cardboard, some hot glue and lots of coffee filters.

I had some snacks out for the kids, popcorn and pretzel wands.  The tray had some scratch paper that  revealed colors underneath.  It was a sort of back-up for me in case the kids were bored, but I ended up sending that home with the kids in their goody bags because they were all occupied elsewhere the whole time.

More fun things for the kids ...

I ended up having to rearrange my living room in order to accomodate everyone.

We needed the space for a magician!

We had lunch on the patio.  It was tight with over 15 kids, but we made it work.  We were really lucky to have a warm, beautiful day to spread out outside because we had a pretty packed house full of guests.

We've had a strangely warm spring, so the gardens around the house looked so much better than they normally do this time of year. 

After magic and balloon animals, the kids had lunch outside.

(Huge thank you to my wonderful friend Jeni who got some wonderful pictures including this one while I was busy entertaining.)

Then, it was time for cake!

 

Goody bags were distributed and the party winded down.

It was a great day.  Everyone had a wonderful time and the birthday girl couldn't have been happier!

 

A Tangled 4th Birthday

My youngest critter turned 4 years old yesterday and we celebrated on Sunday.  We didn't have a big event planned with a ton of people.  I just wanted to surprise her and I think I succeeded.  If you have children and/or have seen the movie Tangled, this should all be pretty familiar.

The lanters on the window were 2 for $1 at the dollar store.  I was pretty happy to find those.  The window panels are actually inexpensive Ikea sheers that I layered over white curtains.  (I got the sheers on eBay because I didn't have time for the trek to Ikea.)

The banners were printed from a free template I found here.  I just cut them out, punched holes in the corners and connected them with a $1 ribbon.  The little dress was a gift for the birthday girl but it did not fit the adult mannequin so I pinned it on. 

The tower consisted of a birdhouse I painted with craft paints, a wrapping paper tube covered with grey paper and moss I already had, a cardboard base covered with green paper and a ton of hot glue.  In all honesty, it collapsed the next day but I only intended for it to be temporary.  I may reinforce it with a wooden pole and base screwed together if the kids are interested in it enough to play with it.  The hair coming out of the tower was a few strands from the larger braid on the table.

I did buy some tablecloths as well, but I was really surprised by how inexpensively you can get them online.  They're intended to be purchased in bulk for weddings, but you can buy them individually for only a few dollars in any color you want.  I'll also be re-using them for my other daughter's birthday in a couple of months so they were definitely worth getting over the plastic or paper tablecloths from a party store that are nearly the same price.

Speaking of that braid ... I purchased 4 rolls of yarn that came bundled from the craft store. I spent a couple of hours one night unravling it all around 2 chairs spaced a few feet apart. Then, I cut one end, tied the other end and braided it. The flowers are just 4 dollar store flowers that I took apart and hot glued on.  The table lanters are just craft paper with a sun I painted on.

In the kitchen ... I printed a sign from the pub in the movie on cardstock.  I had a couple of extra pieces from the banner so I just attached them to the chairs.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but I left out a crown and wand for each of my princesses in addition to Tangled activity pages from Disney that I tied together with ribbon found here. 

Since it was Superbowl Sunday, we had snacks before pizza for dinner (birthday girl's choice).  Some in cast iron pans, of course.  The toothpicks were made from the same template pages as the banner above.

The cake with Rapunzel addition.

It was a wonderful day and I had two exhausted but happy little ones at the end of it. 

Happy Birthday Sydney!