'Flower' Room

Remember Peyton's 'Under the Sea' room? When Ella was very, very little, she got an extra-painted room, too. But hers was a little more subdued. 

First we painted it pink. I knew I wanted her room to be pink and brown, but I also wanted some extra color, too, and lots of flowers and butterflies.

So I went around and painted simple and colorful flowers all the way around the base of the room. It was easy! If I can do it, ANYONE can do it.

The white one is my favorite because it looks like it's dancing.

Ack! Uncovered outlet! Uncovered outlet! What the heck is going on in this picture? CRAZINESS!

I stuck some colorful flowers into white Ikea pots. Then I glued on some pretty coordinating ribbon.

And I stained some inexpensive Ikea frames and filled them with flower pictures. See the cute little butterfly? I nailed a whole bunch of those colorful butterflies around the top of the room. I don't have any good pictures of them from this room, but you can see them in Ella's Plink Room.

James had just put in the beautiful moulding and we were still in the process of painting when I took this picture. But look how little Peyton and Ella were! The cuteness! Does it count as a walk-in closet if kids can walk inside? I think so.

Right now Peyton and Ella are sharing a room, and it's super temporary, so I'm making zero to very little effort to cuteify it. 

But I CAN'T WAIT to see how their next rooms turn out!

Colorific

Do you remember how I told you that we recently moved from Iowa back to California? And how, in Iowa, we had 2 kid rooms and 1 basement space worth of toys? And how now all that nonsense needs to somehow fit nicely into 1 small apartment room?  Lordy.

One of my favorite storage solutions is this white cube organizer from Target. What's actually going on in this picture is two 8-cube organizers and two 2-cube organizers. We've been collecting them over the years and I love them, although I'll totally admit that they never actually look this organized unless I'm prepping them for a dang picture. 

Anyway. Check out the books!!! Do you see how they're all sorted by color?  

This is the first time I've ever done that. I've sorted by size, by Ella's books/Peyton's books, and by size again, but they always looked messy. I love that my kids have tons of books, but the disarray-look wasn't working for me. And, more often than not, when it was time for the kids to put their books away, they would shove them on top on the others horizontally and it just about drove me bananas.

And then I had an epiphany! I've had my books in my room sorted by color for years because I like to be all grown-up and fancy like that. Why can't my kids be fancy, too? I had an hour to spare, so...

I love it. The kids love it. Our kid library no longer drives me to drink. 

Wait. What? Never mind.

The only bad thing about these cubes is that they can sometimes be a little small for the big stuff. Our biggest books don't fit, so they have their own basket under the bed.

Anyway, back to the not-freakishly-large normal-sized books. I started the color-coded awesomeness by dumping out all the books into one horrific literary mountain. Then I took a deep, cleansing breath and started tossing the books into loose piles according to the color of their spines. And then I had to figure out how to make those 8 or 9 color piles fit into the 5 cubes I had available for them. 

And, yes, I do know that you could figure out how to organize your books by color if you wanted to. Because you're totally smart like that. But in all honesty, after I had those books sorted by color, I wasn't quite sure how to work it all out so that they looked good. And if I can save you a little bit of figuring-it-out time, then my job here is done.

I tried to do it rainbow-style first - you know - "Red, orange, yellow, green, blue. Don't forget, there's purple too!" Thanks Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song, for taking up that valuable space in my brain.

But the rainbow scheme didn't really work as well as I'd hoped because of the colors we had - mostly blue, yellow, and white, and hardly any purple or green, so I went from dark to light instead. It totally works. 

And it looks AWESOME.

And it's totally educational because I'm pretty sure that's how libraries organize their books. 

Well, it's how libraries would organize their books if they wanted to look amazing and be cool like us. Losers.

I'm just kidding! I love libraries! (I don't want the library people to come after me.)

At bedtime, when it's time for the kids to pick out a story, I make them choose by color. "Tonight you have to pick a yellow book!" They think it's totally fun.

And when it's time to put the books away, they know they have to do it by color and height. "Color and height! Color and height!" I'm drilling it into their heads. It's much easier than our system before. Which wasn't a system at all. It was a bibliophilic disaster.

But now! Now it's all color-coordinated gorgeousness.

And our kid library has looked like this for an ENTIRE WEEK!

I know! That's like an entire year in kid clean room time.

Ella's Tutu Wearing: A History and A How-To

When Ella turned 3, we bought her a tutu. It was just the cute little thing you might have seen before at Target. She wore it two times. The first time she wore it was for exactly the minute and a half it took to put it on while we took her picture. Notice how she's wearing the perfect birthday ensemble of half pajamas, half daytime clothes.

The second time she wore it, she put it on all by herself. This is 9 months after she opened it for her birthday. And I think this time she wore it just long enough to do 3 twirls and get her picture taken. Notice how well it goes with an all-pajama ensemble. 

Last year I made Ella a tutu for her 4th birthday. I was happier about it than she was. She wore it for the first hour and that was it. But I had faith in that little tutu, so we kept it around.

And then, this past winter, she gained a new appreciation for tutu-wearing. She wanted to wear here tutu everywhere - the store, school, around the house...

She wanted to wear it to preschool on Christmas party day. Prepare yourself for a detour.

I LOVE when I am able to go to school with my kids on special days. 

On Christmas party day we played baby dolls:

And she used the letter tiles to spell out our names:

And guess who showed up? 

Santa!

And Mrs. Claus!

But the most beautiful part of Christmas party day came at the end. I asked her what she liked best about the day. I expected her to say when she watched the ballerinas perform an interactive version of The Nutcracker. Or when she got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Or when she got a candy cane. Or when the class got to eat Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

Nope. Her favorite part of the day was when I played baby dolls with her. 

Here is my heart, child. It is all yours.

Back to the tutu! Since Ella has found a new appreciation for tutu-wearing, she decided that she would need one with a different color combo, specifically Red, Purple, Pink. And as soon as she decided that she needed another one, she reminded me almost every day. Red, Purple, Pink. Red, Purple, Pink. Red, Purple, Pink. 

Her 5th birthday was coming up, so I went to JoAnn Fabrics, armed with my 40% off coupon, and picked up some Red, Purple, and Pink tulle. But the red was QUITE garish. The tag just said red, but I call it Whore Red. Yep, I said it. But if baby girl wants Red, Purple, Pink, she's getting it, darn it! I just needed to tone down the Whore Red a little, so I ended up getting 5 yards red, 5 yards purple, and 10 yards pink for a whopping total of 20 yards of tulle. I couldn't remember how much tulle I used for Ella's first tutu, but now that I've made the Red, Purple, Pink one with the 20 yards of tulle, I can tell you I definitely didn't use that much. I can guess the first one was probably about 10 yards. I think somewhere between 10 and 15 yards is probably perfect. The 20 yards made a beautifully crazy full tutu. It's nice, but it's excessive.

I'm not even going to try to pretend that I can give you a decent tutorial for making a tutu. This isn't a tutorial. It is more of a "If I can do it, you can do it" pep talk.

I would suggest you check out the Feels Like Home and Mom Dot blogs for excellent tutu tutorials. I also watched this video about 10 times before I started. I didn't follow any of the tutorials exactly, but I kind took it all in and then decided how to make mine.

I bought 20 yards of tulle, 3 yards of matching satin ribbon, and 1-inch elastic.

I cut the elastic 1 inch smaller than the size of Ella's waist. All the tutu blog tutorials will tell you to do this. I know it will take some mental strength to cut elastic smaller than what you need. It makes no sense! But as you start tying on the tulle, the elastic will stretch out quite a bit. I hand-stitched it together. I don't sew. This right here is a major accomplishment for me.

I folded each color of tulle in half length-wise. When I taught school we called it Folding It Hot Dog style. Then I cut along the fold to make the width 27 inches. (Because when you knot the tulle later, you'll be folding it in half again.) Then I rolled my two long strips up Hot Dog. So, for the 5 yards of purple, I had a 5-yard-long roll.

And then I cut off the end pieces and threw them in the trash. Yep. And then I cut 3 inch pieces all the way down the rolled up tulle. Don't measure. You'll drive yourself crazy and it's unnecessary. They just need to be around the same size. Go watch this video for some awesome cutting instructions.

Then I tied the pieces of tulle in little slip-type knots onto the elastic. For each of my knots I layered 3 pieces of tulle, folded them in half, and then tied them to the elastic. Go here for awesome tutu knot-tying pictures.

I covered the elastic and still had a ton of tulle left over, so I ended up covering each knot with another 3 pieces of tulle.

Then I took my pink satin ribbon and wrapped it around each knot. Ella has an itty bitty waist, but I still used the entire 3 yards of ribbon. It's a lot of wrapping! Then I tied the ends of the ribbon into a pretty bow. 

I think it's beautiful. But the true test is how my little girl feels when she wears it. After she opened it on her birthday, we went out to dinner. She picked out this outfit all by herself. I love it! And notice how big brother Peyton is helping out by carrying her purple Tinker Bell pail for her. So sweet!

And Ella says that when she wears it, she feels like a beautiful ballerina. I couldn't agree more.

On Changing One's Name and Other Cuteness

Peyton and Ella were getting ready for bed a couple of nights ago when Ella made an important life decision.

Ella: "Mommy, I want to switch my name."

Me: "Okay, what do you want it to be?"

Ella: "Hello Kitty. Is that okay?"

Me: "Sure."

Peyton: "That's going to be a long name. I would just stick with Ella."

Ella: "Okay. That's long, so I'll pick Peyton."

Peyton: "No, Ella. You can't borrow my name. Right Mommy?"

Me: "That's true. Only Peyton gets his name."

Ella: "Why? Okay, never mind. All I want to pick is Hello Kitty or Rattlesnake."

Peyton: "Ella, Rattlesnake is too long. And it would be hard to write."

Ella: "Okay. I'll pick Hello Kitty."

Peyton: "Can I call you Kitty for short?"

Ella: "Sure! Sure Peyton! How about Hello Kitty Ruff Ruff?"

Me: "Okay. Why do you want to change your name? You don't like the name Ella anymore?"

Ella: "I do like it, but I just want a change."

Peyton: "Is it because Ella is funny and she's naughty a lot and she cries at the park?"

Ella: "No Peyton! My nickname is going to be Ruff."

Then she left the room to make her big announcement: "Daddy! I'm changing my name to Hello Kitty Ruff!"

The End

And, in related cuteness news, Ella gets sad when Peyton goes to school. She misses him a lot. Last night Peyton borrowed a piece of her stationery, wrote a little note on it, and taped it up on the mirror for her to find in the morning: 

I KNOW! ADORABLE!

Getting It Done

A Toys R Us Christmas toy catalog came in Sunday's newspaper last week. I gave it to Peyton and Ella to look through, because I knew they would love it, but mostly because I enjoy Mommy Quiet Time. I gave the classic instructions, "Circle the toys that you would love to get for Christmas. It doesn't mean you'll get them, but it's fun, and Santa likes to know what you like."

Did you do this when you were little? I remember spending hours and hours circling my favorite toys in the Sears Christmas toy catalog when I was young. It seemed so important! I also remember that I rarely received ANY of the toys I circled. I still got great stuff - I'm not complaining at all, but I think Santa and I had conflicting ideas of what was best for me. Just as, I'm sure, Santa might possibly have conflicting ideas of what is best for Peyton and Ella. ESPECIALLY Ella.

Peyton went first. He flipped through to the boy section and carefully circled the things he liked. Then he wrote them in his notebook. Then he researched each toy by looking over the pictures again and erased the ones he deemed inappropriate (too babyish) for his age.

He's totally my kid - the way he tried to write it all neat and organized, and how he researched and made changes. I just think it's the sweetest list ever.

And, off-topic, here's the next page in his notebook:

I love it. He's the perfect 6 1/2 year old. 

Then, Ella got to go through the catalog. I look over, and she's on the couch circling EVERY SINGLE THING in the girl section. Not joking.

And when she was done with all the circling, she got a piece of paper and a pen. And then she asked, "Mommy, how do you spell....."

I'll translate for those of you who aren't proficient in 4 1/2 year old writing: 

"ALL tHE tOYS iN tHe WORLD"

I know! Why didn't I ever think of that? The girl doesn't mess around. She GETS. IT. DONE.

And then, a few days later, I was watching Little Bill with her. A commercial came on for that dang Barbie Jet and she was all ooh-ing and aah-ing over it. I asked her if she would like to put it on her Christmas list and she got all irritated because I had forgotten:

"Mommy! I don't need to, remender?" (I LOVE how she says remender. LOVE!)
"Why?"
"Because it already says All The Toys In The World!"


Good luck with that one, Santa.

Daily Affirmation for Tomorrow

If you give an Ella a piece of paper, she's probably going to ask you for a pen.  When you give her a pen, she'll probably ask you for some spelling tips.

Ella: Mommy, how do spell 'Tomorrow'?

Me: T-o-m-o-r-r-o-w.

Ella: Okay. How do you spell 'Fight'?

Me: F-i-g-h-t.

Ella: Okay. How do you spell . . .

And when you give her some spelling tips, it will probably go on like this until she finishes expressing herself with an inspirational poster.  And when she finishes her poster, she'll probably ask you for some tape.

And when you give her the tape, she's going to want to hang her kick-ass poster on your bathroom mirror.

Which you might very well take down after a couple of days so you can have it framed. Because, seriously, that's an amazing amount of awesomeness from a little four and a half year old girl. 

Banking 101

There is a fort made of chairs and blankets and such.

Inside the fort is The Bank complete with a banker (me) and a bank president (Peyton). Outside the fort is a customer (Ella).

Before I can play Bank I must understand the very complicated way in which the bank operates. It's pretty similar to a regular bank. If that regular bank was operated by very strange and imaginative children who enjoy cheese suckers. I don't even know what those are.

Bank President: "Ella's going to put some money down through here and you're going to try to catch it in the tub."

Bank President: "But when she's done, she's going to put her card inside here. Ella! Not yet!"

Customer: "I didn't!"

Bank President: "Yes you did! And Ella's going to put her card through here when she's done. And she's going to push it over. And then at the end, and she doesn't have any money on it, and you're going to put money on it. And then you're going to give it to me and I'm going to put money on it. And I'll give it to you and you push it back through."

Banker: "Okay. And then she's going to take it?"

Bank President: "Yes."

Banker: "And why is there pee-pee in here?"

Bank President: "Because we have a dog."

Banker: "It's not potty trained yet?"

Bank President: "Umm... No."

Banker: "And why is there a dog in the bank?"

Bank President: "I don't know. Because he's awake all night and he sleeps at day so he's sleeping right now. Because when robbers come out, they usually come out at night. So he'll bark at them and he'll bite them when they try to get money."

Because my kids like to play Puppy they've made a whole set of Pretend-Play Puppy Essentials. They've created throw-up, poop and pee. I bet you can figure out which is which. I'll give you a hint: The throw-up has carrots and puppy food in it.

You are so welcome.

Bank President: "All right, Ella! Now, Mommy, remember, you're going to try to catch it."

Customer: "Wait Mommy! One more thing. Umm... You have to tell me how much I need to do."

Bank President: "Yes. How much buttons she has to pay. But don't say all of it."

Banker: "Okay."

Bank President: "But when she's done doing all the numbers that's done. When she's done putting all the buttons in there, you're going to have to dump it out to me and then I'll put it in the deposit for her."

Banker: "And that will go on her card?"

Bank President: "I'll put it in the computer and then some will go on the computer and when I slide her card, some will go on it."

Banker: "I'll take 5 buttons please."

Customer: "Okay! 1, 2, 3..."

Bank President: "Oh, also, Mommy, you can ask her if she wants a sucker, but she can only have a rainbow colored one."

Customer: "4, 5."

Bank President: "Ella, slide your card and then put it in there. Mommy, when you get it, when I'm done putting money back on it you're going to give her one of these money and put it there with her card and give it back to her. Get ready."

Customer: "Mommy, wait! One more thing. This is how you lock it and this is how you unlock it."

Customer: "Now what am I supposed to do?"

Bank President: "Now you're supposed to get some of this money and put it in there but when I give you your card back you're going to put it there. Here you go. You need all these coins, too."

Banker: "So how much is in on the card now?"

Bank President: "I usually slide it and it then it goes $1000. And you know what? If you work at this bank you get a lot of money. Because it takes up all the money off of her card."

Banker: "So she deposits 5 coins and she gets $1000 on her card?"

Bank President: "Yeah. But then when she comes back, she just paid $1000 plus 5 equals $1005. We have $1005. And then she's going to come back and do a lot of other stuff. Ella, do you remember what to do when you're done by the front of the bank?"

Customer: "I know, go home."

Bank President: "No, come to this side. And bring your money."

Customer goes to the other side of the bank: "Hello."

Bank President: "Hi. Put sticks in here."

Customer: "Put sticks in here. Got it! How much sticks?"

Bank President: "All of them, remember?"

Customer: "Okay."

Bank President: "Can I have all of your cash? Except for what the banker gave you?"

Customer: "Okay."

Bank President: "Thank you."

Customer: "Wait! I want a sucker, please."

Bank President: "One sucker, coming up."

Customer: "Wait, I want to pick which one I want, remender? Cheese, orange." (The customer says remember like that - remender.)

Banker: "I think we only have rainbow."

Customer: "I want rainbow and cheese and red."

Bank President: "All we have is two more left. Would you like two?"

Customer: "Yes. No! I mean four!"

Bank President: "Sorry, we only have two. Since you are almost the one hundredth customer...." (Makes computer sounds) "Here! A $9 million dollar bill!"

Customer: "Cool!"

Bank President: "And that's really lucky. Because when you come back, you don't have to pay. Will you slide your card?"

Customer: "Okay, man."

Bank President: "Before the bank closes."

Customer: (Slides card) "Good-bye."

Bank President: "Oh! Would you like a toy? Look in here and you can pick."

Customer: (Picks a toy) "Okay. Goodbye sir."

Bank President: "Goodbye."

Could you keep up with all that? Because I barely could. When my kids are trying to explain something to me, and I say, "Okay" it usually means "What the heck did you just say? I have no idea what's going on here. Where am I?"

AND we had to do the whole thing 2 more times so that we could each be the customer.

My sweet, sweet children.