Hello?

Benjamin*loves* the phone and has shed a lot of tears over having it taken away from him. The calculator is a poor substitute, but better than nothing!

Harmonica Love

Jeff

Grocery Shopping with Three Kids

FaceTime with Grandpa

Fever

Benjamin had a fever one Sunday morning, and all he wanted was to be held. The fever went away as quickly as it came.

Just Happy!

Valentine's Day

I'm not a great cook, but I can make dinner into shapes and make my family smile. :)

The Bear from Mrs. Gertrude

There is a lady in our church who is super sweet to our kids and to Grace in particular. She gave this bear to Grace awhile back, and Grace bonded with the bear immediately.

Playing on the Lego Table

First Almond Blossoms

Just for Fun

I've forgotten to blog from the iPod for awhile, so here come a bunch of picture posts. It's feast or famine on this blog, I guess...

REI

Lego Storage Story, Part 3

Edit:  If you came here from Pinterest, IKEAhackers, Τεχνοτροπίες Και Διακόσμηση,  shelterness, or diys.com, welcome!  Thanks to your kindness, my little post has had over 11,000 visits.  I hope it gets your creative juices flowing!

Lego Storage Story, Part 1
Lego Storage Story, Part 2
Update

Finally, the end of the story!  We decided to take the plunge and buy a white IKEA Trofast frame that had enough slots to include nine small tubs.  I read up on spray-painting and decided to buy the white frame.  It's much less expensive than the natural wood one, and I needed to paint, no matter which color I bought.  (I will not go too far into the story of going to IKEA to buy these things with my mom and children, and finding that their online inventory check does not work and that the items I needed were not in stock.  Ahem.)  And I donated our old, well-loved coffee table.

It took a lot more time, primer, and paint than I expected to get the job done.  I sanded the pieces of the frame (because everything from IKEA comes unassembled!) and primed it, then sanded again and painted it.  It took multiple coats of black paint, but here it is after I assembled it.


Then I added the guides for the tubs...

White wasn't ideal, but the tubs were white, too, so I decided it wasn't a big deal.

And put in the tubs.


Here's a close-up of the labels on the tubs.  I took pictures of each color of Lego and then cut the letters out of the pictures.  I still have my alphabet punches that I use for scrapbooking.  I think the Cricut machine has put this kind of punch out of business, but I love mine and it was fun to find a new use for them.  I Mod Podged the letters onto each tub.


I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do to the top of the table.  Like the other furniture in our playroom, I want the kids to enjoy it now when they're young and not grow out of it when they're older.  I didn't want to worry about scratches on the tabletop, so I considered painting it with chalkboard paint (which I have read is easy to make yourself.)  Eventually I decided to put two big, gray baseplates on top.  The size (15x15) worked well with the size of the Trofast, and the gray color wasn't quite so loud as the green and blue 10x10 baseplates.  They're a bit pricey, but we already had one, so I just had to buy one more.  I didn't put them on permanently, but just put a few dots of sticky tack or poster putty or (what is it called??) on the back so that they don't scoot around.  The younger kids have used them a lot for Duplo building.  (I love that they're compatible with Duplos!)  We can take them off to play a board game or work a puzzle or...anything!

Jonathan and I were pretty excited about this system!  I was happy with its progress, and he was having a lot of fun building and designing when it was so easy to find his pieces.  They were easier to put away, too.  But I needed to finish the part of the plan that made the Legos less visually appealing to my toddler.

I planned to make flaps of fabric that would hang down over the Lego tubs.  There is just a bit of wood that hangs down above each top tub.  Can you see it?  I attached self-adhesive Velcro behind each of those pieces of wood and planned to sew Velcro on my fabric flaps, too, making them removable and replaceable.

I still had leftover fabric from my window seat project, and I had some fabric that would work for the backing as well.  I wanted the pattern to be exactly the same on each flap.  Measuring and figuring this out was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  And the print was not exactly on the grain, so my work is not perfect, but I won't point out the mistakes.  :)  It worked OK in the end.  I was happy that I didn't have to spend a penny on this part of the project.  I had all the Velcro, and even though I recently donated a bunch of fabric, I had saved my playroom remnants.  I'm so glad I did!

Here is what each flap looked like, before Velcro.

I realized after I started cutting, that a placemat or nice dish towel would have made a great flap with a lot less work.  I like these.  Oh, well, the ones I made were free, if very time-consuming.  It was very tricky to make rectangles the exact same size as each opening on the frame.  They're close enough.  :)

Here they are, attached with one lifted up.  The Velcro is hidden behind the wood.


And closed.  Without the baseplates attached, these look pretty grown-up and not too playroomish, right?


And here's the final Lego storage solution that we hope will work for our family for many, many years.  I felt such a sense of accomplishment after dreaming this up and completing the project!  Thank you, Pinterest, and thank you, iheartorganizing, for getting my creative juices flowing and helping me to learn to do something I hadn't considered before!


(PS:  A couple of things to add!
Our 10x10 baseplates just slide into this shelf under the tubs.  There is plenty of room.
We keep the Lego people and their stuff in a plastic tub in one of Jonathan's desk drawers, and all the Lego directions in a separate desk drawer.  Since we already had the desk set up for him, that works for us.
Benjamin has been staying out of the Legos!  He is just old enough to respond when I tell him not to lift up the flaps that cover the Legos.  A few months ago, it wouldn't have worked, but it does now. I am looking toward to the future, which will be here all too soon, when all the kids will be old enough to play with these and enjoy them together.)

Thank you, Jules, for posting our project on IKEA Hackers!

Lego Storage Story, Part 2

(Lego Storage Story Part 1)
(Lego Storage Story Part 3)
Our playroom has undergone some changes since we moved in five (!) years ago. The best change of all is that we have added these two precious people to our family. I'm happy to say that we're still using the window seats and baskets that I put together four years ago...using them more than ever.

Here's another change...

I've been inspired by my friend Jen, and by Pinterest, to add photo labels to my canvas baskets (the big ones are here and the medium ones are here) that we use in the window seat (above) and in the Expedit shelf (below.)

I mean, I knew that my younger kids are not readers, but it never occurred to me that a photo label would help them help put things away. Early childhood education was not my major! And the photo labels are helping.

I took photos of the things in each basket and laminated the photos. I used self-adhesive velcro on the back of the photos, and sewed velcro to the canvas bins (the canvas comes off of the frames) and then stuck the photos on the bins. When we switch what goes in the bins, I can just switch labels.

So, as I mentioned in Part 1, I had come out of my fog and was trying to start organizing the house and Jonathan's Legos. I was inspired by this post to use the IKEA Trofast system to organize our Legos. The blogger used two tall Trofast shelves to organize her sons' legos, which gave her room for twelve small Trofast tubs.

As we were experimenting with sorting by color, I took a mental inventory of our Legos and our playspace. (I felt a little less guilty about how many Legos we have!) I realized that we didn't have quite enough space for two tall Trofast shelves in the spot where I thought they might fit. But we also didn't need room for twelve tubs. We didn't need a big tub for baseplates, and we had so few brown and orange pieces that they could probably share a tub. I decided that a smaller, single Trofast frame would do the trick for us. It had slots for nine tubs, and was about the same size as our coffee table.

Unfortunately, it didn't come in black/brown. Also, we have an almost-toddler who has been called a "human vacuum cleaner."

To be continued...

What I've Been Doing (Lego Storage Story, Part 1)

(Lego Storage Story, Part 2)
(Lego Storage Story, Part 3)


It occurred to me recently that, up until December, I had been nursing or pregnant for about three and a half years in a row. Now, anyone who knows us knows that we were and are thrilled to have been able to have our sweet kiddos, and that nursing was an uphill battle but we're very thankful to have been able to do that also. So, don't hear me complaining...but three and a half years is a long time! I do think I had about a month off in the middle, but if I recall correctly (it's a bit fuzzy) we were hosting out-of-town company, a first birthday party, a baby shower, and a wedding at our home during that month. Seriously! And both our fathers were in the hospital during the birthday party. During one particular year of the three and a half year period, we were blessed with five nieces (including two sets of twins) but also had to say goodbye to my dad when he lost his battle with cancer. These are just little snippets of the events we experienced...all during the time I was pregnant or nursing. It's been very full.

I hadn't realized how much had been taken out of me during this time - physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally...you name it. In a way, I feel like I'm coming out of a fog. I'm way behind in almost every area of my life. (I'm not behind with the kids...they have a way of making sure that I stay caught up feeding, clothing, and paying attention to them. :) ) So, what do I do? I get inspired and start tackling everything at once. There are so many things around here that have needed to be done for years but that I have not touched. I probably should just work on catching up on laundry, or cleaning a bathroom or two, but instead I decide I need to sort and organize the world. The house is probably in worse shape than before!

In the meantime, sweet Jonathan has been growing up and growing in his passion for building with Legos. His collection has been growing, too. Over time, we have gradually been storing/organizing them by function in those Sterilite plastic drawer sets that you can get at Target or Wal-Mart. (You know, categories like bricks, wheels, guys, flat pieces, slanty pieces, etc.) It worked great except for getting him to put them away. And as Jonathan's collection has grown, the number of sub-categories has grown, too, making them even harder to sort and put in their drawers.

Also, we've been using this table in the playroom.

It was a hand-me-down to me in 1997 when I had no furniture of my own, and I've been thankful for it. But right now, we seem to be outgrowing it. It doesn't store anything, the younger kids like to try to climb on it, and Benjamin likes to lift it up. (!) I was hoping to replace it with something more functional.

On Pinterest, my sister-in-law alerted me to this blog post, and I began to be inspired.

Jeff and I decided to help Jonathan to sort his Legos by color on a trial basis, just in random plastic containers we had in the kitchen. He was reluctant at first, but ended up really liking it. He was able to give shape to his ideas more easily, and we were able to help him clean up more quickly.

To be continued...

Telling Time

I just passed by Jonathan and Grace's room - I'm about to get them up for the day - and I was able to eavesdrop on their morning chat while their door is closed.  He was explaining to her the difference between an analog and digital clock, telling her that it's easier to tell time on a digital clock, and that he's going to teach her to know the time on a digital clock first.  He asked her if she wanted to learn some different hours this morning.

I'm getting close to switching their rooms, so that Grace has her own and Benjamin is in with Jonathan, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet.  Jonathan is excited to have Benjamin in his room, but I think Grace and Jonathan are really going to miss each other when they are separated.

A Visit from Great Grandma

My grandma came over for a visit early last week and got to spend some time with two of her great-grandchildren. She always brings treasures...usually at least one book, and sometimes a dress or two for Grace, all picked up at a yard sale or thrift shop.

Here is Grace wearing the pants she started out wearing, and adding on one of the little dresses that my grandma brought over for her. Never mind that it's February - she wanted to go sleeveless! And she's holding animal cookies, which are quite a treat around here. (Not from a thrift shop, though. :) )

Grandma also brought over this old, empty planner, which she thought Grace would enjoy coloring in. She was right, and Benjamin has also enjoyed examining it and sucking on it. And yes, he really does drool that much.

You can see that my kids love their great grandma!