Summer Tour of Homes - Playroom

Today is all about kids rooms over at Kelly's Korner.  Since I recently posted both of the kids new rooms I thought I would post pictures of the playroom instead.  We feel so very blessed to have a bonus room upstairs that we can use as a playroom.  It is perfect for the kids and all of their toys and such.  I love it because I just let the kids go up and play and I don't ever have to worry about cleaning it (it took me forever to clean it up to take these pictures).  Great situation!  It is a really fun room that we enjoy hanging out in.  This is the view from the top of the stairs as you walk up.  The room is done in red and denim blue. 

 The kitchen area is Kate's current favorite.  She spends hours cooking and shopping. 

 This is an area I need to work on.  These are some old pictures of just Ben.  I need to update them.  That is on the list of things to do this summer.  We love this quote and it fits perfectly in the room. 

 The futon has really come in handy lately.  The kids sometimes sleep on it (especially when the air is out).  It is also perfect when they have friends over to spend the night. 

Matt did an amazing job of building these built in shelves!  It was a huge project but it turned out awesome. 

 The shelves provide tons of storage for games and toys! 

 One of my favorite things in the house is this window seat.  We can see the lake in our neighborhood from the window.  It is a great place to curl up and read with the kids. 

This has become Ben's favorite part of the room.  He loves to play the Wii.  It is great to have the video games upstairs and I know as the kids get older we will use that part of the room more and more. 

This is our little art/table area.   I love having an area to display the kids artwork as well. 

I knew the half wall would be perfect for a chalk board!  The kids have fun drawing on it.  We also painted it with magnetic paint so we can do magnets as well. 

 We love our playroom and all the fun we get to have in it!

A New Home For The Crib

Do you remember a post about a month ago where I said we needed to find a new home for our crib?  

Well, we found it an awesome new home...

It is at my brother and Kelly's house!!!!!!  Yep a new baby is on the way for our family! 

We are so excited for them!  Baby East is due January 9, 2013.  We cannot wait to meet the new little one.  I cannot wait to become an aunt.  I am going to be a super cool aunt.  The kiddos are so excited about having a cousin.  There is a little fight about among them if it is going to be a girl cousin or boy cousin.  You can check out their blog on the side for more details about this upcoming blessing! 

A Room Fit For A Princess

I am so excited to say we are finally done with Kate's princess room!!!  So exciting!  I had a fun time putting the room together.  It was a challenge to make it "princessy" without being over the top Disney.  I think it turned out great.  It makes me so happy everytime I walk into the room.  Here is the view from the door.  I tried to reuse as much as I could from her nurery but also change it up some and make it "big girl."  We left the pink stripes on the walls but painted over the polka dot wall. 

I reused this photo frame from her nursery.  I thought it would be fun to put in pictures of Kate with the actual Disney princesses. 

This is the wall to the left as you walk into the room.  I reused the sheer Ikea panels for the curtains. I hope to add a valence sometime soon when I get around to doing some sewing. 

Kate just loves her carriage that is on the wall.  I found this super cute vinyl carriage on Etsy.  I painted the cavas the same color as the green wall. 

We repurposed the dollohouse into a bookshelf. 

I found this great little nightstand on Craigslist for $10.  I painted it a fun hot pink color!  I used lots of hot pink accents to update the room and make it fun!  I love the crystal knobs we put on it.  I reused the lamp from her nursery.  I might monogram the lamp if I decide to keep the shade. 

Her big girl bed!!  My mom found the sham and spread at the end of the bed at a yard sale for $20.  It was the color inspiration for the room.  It was perfect because it pulled in the light pink, green and hot pink.  I found the white spread at Bed, Bath & Beyond on clearance. 

One of my favorite things in the room is the headboard!!  We found it on the side of the road.  Yes someone threw out a padded headboard.  I had a seamstress make a slipcover for the headboard.  I love how it turned out.  The hot pink cording and K are just so cute!!

My friend Kim helped me paint this super cute canvas for over her bed. 

I reused some shelves from the nursery but updated it with princess stuff.  Ben helped me make the pearl crown picture (thank you pinterest!!)

This is the wall opposite her bed.  This is where we really pulled in the princesses! 

I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest to use the princess silhouttes.  I worked with a lady on Etsy to create them and Matt did an awesome job of designing the wall arrangement.  Kate loves them! 

Of course we had to have a little area for tea parties.  We love tea parties!

This was a canvas that a friend painted to be used at Kate's baby shower.  It looks so cute in her room now!

This was Matt's labor of love for the room.  I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest to take an old chest of drawers and turn it into a dress up center.  It looked really simple.  Ha!!  It took hours but it turned out awesome! 

Kate loves the mirror on the side. 

This is the corner to the right of her bed.  She loves to sit in her chair and read or feed her babies!

We left the chandelier.  It looks perfect.  Every princess needs a chandelier. 

Kate loves her room! 

Beating the Heat

It is hot outside!!!  We have had a week of really high temperatures and the long range forecast just looks hot as well!  It is never good to see 105 degrees for several days on the forecast.  The heat makes it hard to get outside during the middle of the day.  We spend lots of time inside or at the pool.  Last night around 7 we decided it was cool enough to go out for a little trip to the park.  It was still hot but bearable.  The kids had fun playing. 

We got lucky and the ice cream truck came around just as we were starting to sweat!  The kids were so excited to get their first treat from the ice cream truck. 

 Ben picked the Ninja Turtle ice cream and Kate picked the Dora.  They loved it!  The ice cream of course melted in about 2 minutes but it was a fun way to cool off! 

Bowling & The Pool

We had a great weekend!  Friday night we enjoyed dinner with some friends that we have been meaning to have over for about 3 years!  It was nice to finally get together.  Saturday we did yard work, cleaned the garage and did errands.  Not the most fun things.  But after naps we all loaded up along with my parents and brother and hit the bowling alley!  Ben had been asking to go back since he went to a birthday party.  We had heard that the bowling alley on the military base was nice so we went out there.  It was awesome!  We had a great time together.  The kids were so cute bowling.  Kate carried the ball all by herself.  (Sorry I totally forgot my good camera so the pictures are a little blurry). 

 They had this awesome ramp that Kate could use to roll the ball down. 

 Her face was so cute as she waited to see if she knocked down any pins. 

 My dad is a pro! 

 My mom is not a professional by any means but she was a great sport and we had lots of fun. 

Matt was intense!

  Ben had a blast!!  He loved every minute of it!

 Just had to record the scores.  Not my awesome score.  I do think it was a personal best. 

 Andrew was the winner the first game and I beat Matt!

 Second game was just the boys and Matt redeemed himself. 

 It was a great evening!  Loved getting to hang out with my family.  We missed Kelly but she was out of town.  Sunday morning we had a great morning at church and then enjoyed a fun family trip to the pool in the evening.  We picked up a pizza and enjoyed a leisurely dinner and some swimming.  It is super hot right now (got up to 102 today) so the pool is about the only way we can be outside. 

I love just getting to be together as a family on the weekends.  It makes for the best memories!