Freshening Up

Both kids had been using the same dressers as when they were babies.  Needless to say, as their clothes got bigger, the amount of room in the dressers dwindled.  And, I'm not ashamed to say that I really like clothing my kids, so they have a lot of clothes.  That didn't help the drawer space situation.  So, it was time for them to graduate.

We hope we chose dressers that can carry them well into their teens.  They are solid wood, and we bought them unfinished to allow us to customize them to fit our kiddos' personalities and styles.  They are both officially done.  In one more week, the kids can put things on top, so I thought I should take advantage now of the clean look and take a couple of snapshots.

Jip made RJ's pulls from copper pipe and bell-shaped pipe hangers.  He put his soldering skills to work and in no time at all, created this industrial look.

Ryleigh's pulls are round-ish, faceted balls.  She loves them.

We also improved their nightstands--RJ's got matching pulls and Ryleigh's got hot pink drawers and matching pulls.  But, pics of those will have to wait until they aren't holding all of the clutter that will soon be on top of the dressers.  :)

We also changed out their walls and lamps.  The lamps are still in progress (no Prime shipping for those), as is one of RJ's walls.  But, Ryleigh's wall above her bed is done.  She picked out the crown and "love", and I repainted some frames, incorporated an "R" from her cousins, repurposed her old bulletin board fabric, and made the "sparkle" sign using my die-cutting machine.   I love how it turned out.

When we weren't redecorating the kiddos' bedrooms, we were having a very normal week.  RJ started a weekly robotics workshop at BrickHeadZ.  He had a blast!  Ryleigh and I stayed for open build, and she played dress-up, as usual.

On Saturday morning, we did the monthly Home Depot workshop.  But, Ryleigh wasn't feeling well and didn't look well, so we made it quick.  Thankfully I was able to get her into her regular doctor later that morning.  I love her doctor, and Ryleigh loves her--even when she tells us that Ryleigh has pink eye.  The medicine helped right away and Ry looked pretty good Saturday night.  But, Sunday morning, the other eye was looking icky.  And, the medicine didn't seem to be working as fast on that eye.  We'll see in the morning how the medicine worked overnight and if some rest helped. To top it off, I think all four of us are fighting colds again.  Maybe by June, we'll have a healthy household?  One can dream...

It should be a pretty routine week.  We have a couple of extra things going on, but more about that next week.  :)  As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Hair

The kids got haircuts on Monday.  RJ used to like to have it spiked with some gel at the end of the cut.  Now, he doesn't really like having product in his hair.  But, it is still fun for the stylist to tease him a little bit.

And, Ryleigh tried to give Jip some hair.

This week should be a good one.  We should have another week of unseasonably warm weather.  And, RJ starts a Jr. Robotics class at BrickHeadZ--he is quite excited!

As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Better Late...

So, I'm a bit delayed with blogging this week.  The head cold that hit the kids and Jip earlier really took a toll on me this week.  So, I took Sunday night "off" to relax.

This week's post is a bit random.  But, hey--it's me, so you're used to it.

First, I helped the kids celebrate Valentine's Day with shirts I made with iron-on vinyl.  I forgot to get a picture of Ryleigh in hers, but here's RJ in his Minecraft-inspired shirt.

On Thursday evening, Jip and I headed to the GW's birthday bash.  We started the evening with the other department heads for a mini reception in the CO's suite.  Then, we headed to the convention center for the dinner and festivities.  The most impressive thing of the night--the aircraft carrier ice sculpture.  It was pretty awesome!

On Friday, the first graders at RJ's school celebrated the 101st day of school with a 101 Dalmations theme.  RJ painted his own shirt with a stencil I made.  The kids made their ears in class.  I think the whole outfit turned out pretty cute.

On Friday afternoon, we surprised the kids with the Lego Batman movie.  It was pretty fun.  Of course, the kids didn't get all of the references to the previous adult Batman movies and even the Batman TV show (thanks Nick at Nite for helping educate me on that), but they still enjoyed it.

Ryleigh was a very worn out kid on Saturday after some serious outside play while Mom and Dad painted the kiddos' new dressers.  Jip put the kids to bed by 8 and came downstairs .  About 10 minutes later, we heard footsteps.  We thought a kid had been up to use the bathroom.  But, when we came upstairs, we found a little girl asleep in our bed.  Ryleigh had no clue that I had talked to her a couple times, trying to get her to move, and then that Jip had carried her back to her bed.

This week should be very routine.  It's supposed to be quite warm, especially toward the end of the week--perfect for getting the dressers polyurethaned (that's a real verb, right?) and finally upstairs after being in the garage for nearly a month.  It will be great to get the kids some solid outside time and hopefully kick this head cold out of our house permanently.

As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Hockey and Valentines

As part of Ryleigh's ballet class, the girls were each asked what their favorite part of dancing is.  Ryleigh answered "I like to do arabesques."  I had to enlist Mr. Google's help for making sure we spelled it correctly.  After she finished it, she was so pleased to hang it on the mirror in the studio.

On Thursday evening, we participated in RJ's school's STEM night.  The organizers put together a variety of STEM activities in 11 classrooms.  For the first activity, we stuck with RJ's assigned activity and did cup stacking.  Instead of speed stacking, the goal was to make a tall structure.  Ryleigh and RJ started separately, but it didn't take long to figure out that if they cooperated and shared cups, their tower could be taller.

The next activity we were able to choose, and RJ selected bridge building out of pasta, rubber bands, and tape.  Ryleigh's "bridge" was one of the first ones done.

Friday evening we headed to downtown Norfolk to enjoy Centerville night at the Norfolk Admirals hockey game.  We made it two periods before the crankiness started kicking in.

We then traveled a few blocks to the Marriott to use the free night Jip and I had won at his ship's party last year.  We all crashed almost as soon as our heads hit the pillows.  The next morning the kids and Jip took a dip in the freezing swimming pool before hitting the hot tub for a few minutes to warm back up.  We then dried off and headed to breakfast.  We were back home and unpacked by 10:15.  It was a fun little staycation!

Sunday evening was reserved for working on Valentines.  Ryleigh has her party tomorrow, and RJ's is Tuesday.  We stuck to ideas we have used before and decided to do straws for Ryleigh's class and Wiki Stix for RJ's class.

Ryleigh enjoyed breaking into the extra Wiki Stix.

This week, Jip and I will be attending the ship's annual birthday bash.  The party is on a school night this year, so the kids are going to stay home with a babysitter.  They are already so excited.  Jip and I are excited too--if we can kick this cold that is kicking us in the tushies.  Hopefully we are on the road to recovery!

As always, pics to come of our week.  Until next time, cheers!

Saturday Fun, Sunday Not-So-Fun

The kids and Jip fought head colds all week, so we kept it low-key, for the most part.  On Saturday, Jip had duty, so I took the kids to the monthly Home Depot workshop.  I found this week's workshop a little more challenging than normal.  There were lots of pieces and lots and lots of nails.  It took over an hour for the three of us to make the two photo boxes, which is a long time compared to most of the workshops.  Still, the kids had fun.

After the workshop, we grabbed an early lunch and then headed to the Children's Museum of Portsmouth.  While cleaning out my letter organizer full of coupons earlier in the week, I discovered four passes to the museum that we had "won" as part of the silent auction at the kids' school last February.  The passes were set to expire on Monday.  The museum opened a new dino exhibit on Friday.  It was fate!

The kids had a great time playing and interacting with the different exhibits.  Ryleigh liked the firefighting exhibit and the bubbles exhibit.  RJ liked the dino exhibit and the STEM activity of the week--amusement park designing.  My favorite was the Power Circus, which was all about power and simple machines and the like.

Jip got home Sunday morning, brought donuts (yay!), and turned right back around to head to the house in Carrollton with a detour to Home Depot.  The kids and I met Jip there after Ninja Zone.  We are crossing our fingers that it is the last time we have to visit the house to do work.  Today was doing a little cement work on the hand railings and painting the widow's walk.  The kiddos played outside a good part of the time, but they were so ready to stop watching Mom hold the ladder while Dad painted and head home.  This was Ryleigh at Ninja Zone, but trust me--the face was the same at the house.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to share my latest decorating touch.  I've been making some tweaks to freshen things up in the living area.  It has been awhile since I added something to a wall, so I thought I'd continue with my modern country thing with a rural-inspired wall grouping to include a photo I took of a windmill near Downey Farms.  I like how it turned out!

 
This week should be pretty normal, once again.  Friday night we're going to do a little staycation and stay in downtown Norfolk to spend a free hotel night we won at last year's GW Birthday Bash.  We're also taking in a minor league hockey game with RJ's school's PTA. Hopefully the hockey game won't be as long as last summer's baseball game.  As always, pics to come.

Until next time, cheers!