Point Defiance Zoo!

I also found this post in my drafts that I forgot about....oops! 

 During the summer Michael took a day off and we used our passes to take the kids to Point Defiance Zoo as a family.

Ready to head in for a day of fun! 

We got to the zoo right around lunch time so the first order of business was to eat. We went down to this grassy area set up the blanket and sat down. What we didn't know was that this area of grass was kind of swampy. Oops...I think I was the only one that actually had a wet tushy though! 

My love!!! 

That's a lot of teeth! 

This was Zeke's first time seeing the sharks as a big boy. We did go to the zoo a few more times after this later in the summer and he did great seeing the sharks and loved it. This first though he was FREAKED out. He was clinging to Michael and pushing away from the glass. He just didn't understand how that shark wasn't going to eat him up. Poor guy! 

We love the elephants! 

Normally when we see a tiger it's behind the glass, but this tiger was in a different location. 

It was so awesome to see this beautiful creature up close! 

And just like any other cat he was super sleepy! 

So cute and yet so dangerous! 

The penguins were having a good time swimming around. 

Cute little white fox! 

It was so hot the day we were there...at one point we just went into one of the viewing areas to get out of the sun and have a snack. There wasn't any animals that we could actually see, but just us being there made people thing there were animals so they would come in to check and see what we were doing in there. After a while though we got an up close look at an animal....

Out they came with a skunk on a leach! It was actually really cute and his spray glands had been removed so there was no concern there. They did make sure that we stayed back and didn't get too close though. 

Off to see the wolves! This was the coolest part of the day. I have never seen the wolves so active. 

At first they were over in a different section of the their enclosure and they were in the way back. The boys decided they should howl and maybe that would make them come. Sure enough....seriously...the wolves came over. Right up to where we were of course they were down low inside the enclosure, but the wolf came right up grabbed a water bottle that some person had thrown in there and started playing with it. 

It was so amazing to get such great views of the animals. In fact during this particular trip even though it was so hot we saw almost all the animals. They were all quite active! 

After the wolves we got a picture with the statues and then it was time to head home. 

It was such a fun family day! 

The Finishing Touches!

I just noticed this post that I was supposed to upload months ago about the laundry room. Oops! 

Even though the bathroom/laundry room was officially open for business it didn't mean that it was completely finished. There was still a little bit of installation and decorating to be done!!!

I knew that I wanted there to be a shelf directing behind the washer and dryer. There's nothing worse than having something fall behind there. Michael used the same wood and stain as he did for the other cabinets he built me. He also installed the two shelves between my cabinets. I know that the whole cabinet fiasco was an accident, but honestly I LOVE it. I'm so happy they didn't fit the way they were supposed to. I did lose out on cabinet space, but you know what this room would have lost out on a lot of character if they had fit. The area above would have been just a big white bore! The tile and those shelves are just so gorgeous!

I had purchased these under cabinet lights at IKEA and we put them in the closet where the cubbies used to be. Since the cubbies are built in now and aren't tucked into a closet where it's dark they were no longer needed there. I thought it would be so fun to have them above the washer and dryer. It looks so neat when the lights are turned on...illuminating the washer and dryer and all there wonderfulness! They were a pain in the tushie to put up though. Michael had to drill holes in the cabinets and staple gun all the cords so you couldn't see them. Of course he worked his magic again and it all worked out and looks amazing!

I wasn't sure what I actually wanted to put on those two shelves....I didn't really like the idea of covering up the beautiful tile, but Michael did go to the trouble of mounting them so I needed to make use of that space. I found these two matching baskets being used for various things around the house...the bigger one was the library basket and it was actually too small and the littler one was used to hold the kids Halloween bags. They work perfect in those spaces and look so nice. I bigger basket is actually perfect to put the kids clothes in so they can take them upstairs and put them away. Of course I only load one kids clothes in at a time. The littler basket I used to store my Norwex clothes. 

Michael had packed up all the previous bathrooms decorations and put them in a storage container. I knew that not everything would look right in the new room. For one a lot of the old decorations were purple and that just wasn't going to fly. So I just through them and picked the ones that would work. I love the metal pitcher and I'm using that to put all the change I find when doing laundry. The washboard is something I probably picked up at a garage sale and the candle is one of the crafts we made at MOPS this last year. 

I saw a bunch of cute things that people had done on Pinterest for lost socks, but I just didn't really want them displayed on clips so I went with this cute bucket I got at Lowe's and then I used a chalkboard label to add some character to it. The old HEAVY metal iron and the wooden bar of soap I found years ago at an antique store.

I found these cute printables online. You could download them for free in all different colors. I just like the chalkboard look. I printed them in 4x6 from the library for free and then went to The Dollar Tree and picked up the frames! 

This over on the windowsill. Random cute laundry things I found at garage sales probably. The picture frame with the cute poem was given to us as part of a housewarming present from some friends of ours almost 11 years ago now! 

This is the utility garage that's behind the door and just to the left of the sink. I love the functionality of it. Michael put those two shelves up to hold those baskets. They have random vacuum attachments, vacuum bags and mop attachments. What I don't like is how the baskets don't match and I don't really want my guests to see all this functional stuff when they go to use the facilities. 

I knew I wanted to put a curtain up and at first I was just going to cover up the vacuum and mop at the bottom and let the shelves be exposed, but then I decided I'd rather cover that whole section. I figured I'd find material at Joann's and then sew it....when I got around to it. I'm so behind on my sewing! Then when I was at Lowe's picking up a few things I saw that they sold curtains. I ended up finding this perfect match on clearance for $15. That was still a little expensive for my blood, but I figured with the time it would take me to actually sew the curtains it was worth $15! 

We didn't really want to attach anything with screws to the wall in this area so I went to Fred Meyer's and picked up a small tension rod. The next day I was able to hemmed the curtain about 3 inches and  it looks great! 

While I was at Fred Meyer's I found this in the clearance section....for only $5.99!

I had been looking on Amazon for something like this and was so excited to find one in the store. The only problem is you can't put them on freshly painted walls. You have to wait 3 weeks after you paint to apply them.....one more week to go! 

That was my original post and here is what the laundry room looks like now. The sun was shining in through the window so that's why the picture is so washed out. 

I love how the laundry sign turned out and it was super easy to put up. I didn't end up using any of the other stickers that came with the set. I really wanted it to be more of a minimal look in regards to decorations. 

The latest addition has been my Grandma's cabinet. I posted about this on Facebook. My parents when back to Wyoming at the beginning of October and brought this and a bunch of other stuff back. My grandma had this cabinet on her kitchen counter-top and it looked great. I didn't have the room in my kitchen for it, but I had been really wanted something in the bathroom to set a laundry basket on when I'm folding clothes. I don't really want to set a basket on top of the dryer because I don't want to accidentally scratch the finish. This cabinet is the perfect size. First off the dryer door can open all the way without touching it and the cabinet is small enough that it doesn't stick out too far into the room and it doesn't cover up the heat register. 

The only thing that we did to change the cabinet was spray paint it white. It had been a cream color, but that just didn't look right in the laundry room. I also added the old clothes pins to the drawers. It's really nice to have some extra storage in the bathroom and a place to put a laundry basket so I'm not having to bend over again and again taking clothes out of the basket. 

The only other change that's happened is Charlie's litter box is where the vacuum and mop were. They have now been moved out to the garage and that's okay with me. The litter box fits in there perfectly and when no ones in the bathroom and the door is open you can't even see it since it's right behind the door. Having it in such a central location has been great too because we are always on top of cleaning it.

Pumpkin Carving!

This year we got pumpkins from our garden!!! Two nice size ones, one a bit smaller and then a little guy I was hoping would turn orange, but sadly didn't make it. I told the kids this year we were not going to carve our pumpkins as early as we did last year. Those pumpkins didn't even make it to Halloween and then pretty much turned into pumpkin soup on our front porch. It was a really good place to start a fruit fly colony though!!! ;P

The kids had been counting down the days until October 25th when the dissection of gourds would commence. They were super stoked! Sadly the little bit smaller pumpkin had already gone south. Of course that would be Ella's pumpkin and she was in full on crocodile tears because of it. Zeke was actually at Ga-Ga & Pa's so he wasn't in on the action either. Since the small green one didn't turn orange and instead got all mushy Ga-Ga was already planning on buy Zeke his own pumpkin. After a quick text Ga-Ga had an additional pumpkin on her shopping list. Ella and Zeke would get to enjoy painting them together later in the week. Unfortunately I was busy making dinner and ended up with zero pictures of them painting so you'll just have to imagine it.  

I penciled in the line so the boys knew where to cut the tops off at. 

Charlie was interested in pumpkin. I'm sure he was wondering if it was something yummy to eat. After getting a good smell he walked away so I'm thinking that pumpkin isn't high up on the kitty list of yummy foods! 

Ella was able to recover from the heartbreak of losing her home grown pumpkin and Jack was so kind he even let her help him a bit with some of the cutting. 

Siblings....they CAN have sweet moments! 

Ewww...that's gross!!! 

Yanking the top off! 

This year I got tough with Owen and made him clean out his pumpkin. He is so freaked out about getting messy and touching gross stuff so it was time for him to face his fear and move on. He did great, but he never really did stop making his completely grossed out face. I did use the spoon to scrape down the sides of the pumpkin, but I made him take out all the gunk. 

I scraped down the sides for Jack too, but he was great....he ain't afraid of no slime!!! 

Jackson wanted his pumpkin to look scary. He drew a picture of it on paper and then I cut it out on the pumpkin. Earlier in the day I picked up a whole bag of Halloween decorations from the Des Moines Buy Nothing Facebook page. One of the things in the bag was this cool color changing light that you can put inside the pumpkin. 

It looked pretty creepy when it changed to red! 

Owen carved his all by himself! 

He wanted his to have vampire teeth! 

So proud of his pumpkin! 

While the boys were carving their pumpkins Michael was out working...he was on call the whole week and got an after hours call and had to head out. He got back right when we finished up....just in time for a fall time treat! Green apples and caramel sauce! 

Cute princess girl! 

The dreaded bunny ears! Silly Owen! 

Even though Zeke wasn't with us we still had fun and he wasn't lacking fun being at Ga-Ga and Pa's all by himself with no other children he had to take turns with on the TV or the Kindle! 

Oh yeah and he got to go play on the toys at the mall!

Morning Routine!

So the bus situation has still not been fixed and I'm kind of over it. Thankfully the kids don't seem to mind riding on it in the morning for 25 minutes....in the afternoon they hated it so at least that got fixed. As for the safety issue it's not my kids and I can only do so much....the transportation department will just have to deal with it if some kid ends up getting hit by a car. I am going to try one last ditch effort of emailing the lady in charge to see if I get any sort of response. After that it's just out of my hands as I can't deal with the stress and the frustration anymore. 

Now that the bus leaves at 7:32 the kids have to just get a move on in the morning. I wake them up at 6:45 to start their day. This school thing isn't a new thing they have been doing it for years now, but the whole having to rush thing is new. In order to keep them on track in the morning I thought a picture chart was in order. 

I had remembered my friend Starr had made something similar, but she used magnets to hold up the flaps. I tried that since I had some magnet sheets handy, but they just weren't strong enough to go through two layers of cardstock. Enter the Mill Creek Garage sales and I found a brand new package of sticky velcro for $1!!! Yahoo! 

I found all the images on Google....I just typed in clip art toothbrush or lunch or breakfast and up came a ton of pictures. I copied them onto a word document, re-sized them and then printed them in color at the library for free. 

All the kids have the same clip art pictures except for the first picture for getting dressed and the thumbs up kid when you complete your task. 

At first I was just going to put a check mark on the outside, but then I saw a picture of a boy with his thumbs up and I thought that was more appropriate since that's something the kids use a lot at school when they agree with something or someone has done a good job. 

So far this has helped the kids to stay on task and know what they need to be doing. I also added in an incentive if they finish their chart by 7:20...5 minutes before we leave...they can add an extra piece of candy to their lunch. So far Jack and Owen have been able to make that happen, but my sweet Ella Beanie is such a slow poke!!! I guess that candy just isn't motivation enough! 

Crazy Kitty!

Charlie is such an odd cat really. I say that with love! He just doesn't act like a typical cat. 

For one thing he actually LOVES his cat condo. I'm super happy about that for sure, but again it's just odd. Most of the time you get a cat a toy and they will sit right next to it. Thankfully we got it for free off the Des Moines Buy Nothing Facebook page. Score! 

Another thing is he plays with toys that are almost as big as he is. 

He literally will pick this dinosaur up with his mouth carry it across the room or down the stairs and just kick the living snot out of it. When he carries it he has to walk like a bulldog in order to move since the dinosaur is so big. 

He has to be in the middle of everything. He doesn't like to be on the sidelines. In this picture of the boys were playing on the X-box and they were moving all over, jumping up and down and making all sorts of noise and there was Charlie....asleep on the floor one foot from the action. I was even worried that he'd get stomped on!!! 

Another thing when it comes to the kids he can not stand it when they go outside. It's like he's a guard dog and he's so worried about them. He will run to the window so he can see them and then he whimpers because he wants to go outside with them. Oh and he has access to their rooms all day long, but he never goes in them....until it's bed time and then he thinks their rooms are the greatest thing in the world! Silly cat!  

He also falls asleep in the strangest positions. Sometimes on his back completely stretched out showing off his tummy. 

Or in this case at the top of his cat condo with his head dangling over the edge! 

He's a goofball and we love him!!! 

Artist Expression!

Normally the school doesn't let parents volunteer until later in October. I think it's to help the kids establish a good routine in the classroom and also to see their teacher as an authority figure. Since I've volunteered at school a lot my kids are used to seeing me so it's no big deal. All of their teachers were more than happy to let me start volunteering earlier than October. It's so much fun to be at school and see what's going on and getting to help the teachers. One of my tasks a couple weeks ago was to glue the kids self portraits onto paper so they could be displayed in the hallway. As I was going through the portraits I was just blown away by how amazing some of them were. They were great! I mean I probably couldn't even draw that well. I was quite impressed. Now normally I wouldn't think that this would be something that Owen would have taken his time on. I know my kid and I know that art is not his thing. Doing art would be taking up valuable reading time. I know that about him and I love that about him. But after seeing so many wonderful portraits I got to thinking maybe by some miracle Owen's teacher got him to take his time and make a really good self portrait of himself. Then I got to his portrait.......and I about died laughing!!!! 

Now don't misinterpret this! I love my child and I love that I KNOW my child. This portrait is really not surprising at all. Art is honestly useless to Owen. This is actually the way Ga-Ga feels too although she has started to work on those adult coloring books that are all the rave right now. But give Ga-Ga a book or coloring and she'll chose the book every time. That is how Owen is and it's what makes him Owen. He loves other things more and that's okay! 

The part that had me laughing my head off was the fact that my milky white skinned, blonde hair boy drew himself as a brown boy with redish brown hair! Also I have no idea why he drew himself with a black line on his cheek. One day when I visited him in class he did have black dry erase maker on his face so maybe that's the same day they did their self portraits so he was making it true to life. I don't know, but it's one of those things where whenever I see this picture I'm going to laugh...not a teasing laugh, but a loving laugh because I know my boy so well!!! 

So Many Pieces!!

One day during school Zeke and I decided to put together a puzzle....well of course the puzzle was missing a piece. I was pretty sure we weren't missing the piece and that it was just in the wrong bag or box. So that meant we had to put together all the puzzles to find it. Zeke and I put a few together, but then it was time to get the bigger kids from the bus. Ella wanted to help put her girly puzzles together. It was really fun working together and we did find the missing piece. The kids were so proud of their accomplishment we had to leave the puzzles up so Daddy could see them all!