A weekend for Mama

I have been working on a post for weeks that speaks of the awesomeness of my husband.  It's still coming.  In the meantime I will note that one of the awesome things he has done for me lately is take the children on vacation...without me.  Alone.  In our house.  For 2 nights and 2 days.  AMAZING!

I have been able to tackle some big projects as well as watch a ton of tv while doing it:)

I did accomplish a switcharoo to our art cabinet to include a bunch of Olympic themed trays.

Bookmarks to color from activity village.

Coloring page from abcteach.

Collage tray.  I put gold and silver and "bronze" in here as well as red white and blue.  We haven't done one of these for months so I know Ada will be excited.  The spoon is for the colored rice.

Stamps and glitter- USA and red white and blue...GO TEAM USA!

And made a Pinterest inspired "toy" for the girls as well.

I still have 2 boxes of paperwork to go through, but the craft closet has finally had it's much needed face lift.

Before (I took this months ago when I wanted to get this job done)....

And after months I finally covered boxes with contact paper (instead of the fabric I had planned on) and wrote on them with sharpies (instead of the little labels I had planned on making)...and it is wonderful!

The floor is clean and you can close the closet doors and walk through the room without stepping over piles.  I have one empty box on the shelf so I have a little room to grow.  I'm so psyched!


I got the hallway painted and hung up some of the girl's artwork in those little glass clip frames and I did my best to hang them in a straight line.  I had toyed with the idea of painting a stripe of a different color down the hall, but I like this MUCH better!

I didn't specifically take a before picture, but I have one from when Ada had us put up a "gate" each night to keep the "alligators" out of her room.

It was the same color as our living room.  Not a bad color, just a little dark for a hallway.

Most of the pieces are Ada's, but there are a few of Emma's.  The walls are the same color as the kitchen- pale honey.  It's bright and cheery and pretty neutral.  Mostly though- it feels like our house.  Once our bedroom is painted I'll feel like the house is "done" as far as paint goes.

My favorite one is the middle one here.  One night Ada was talking about her "friend" James.  It was clear to us that this was an imaginary friend so we asked Ada to draw a picture of him.  This is what she drew, then said, "This is James.  He is tall."  I love this girl!

These ones are hung horizontally and are 8 x 11.

These are on the oposite wall and are hung vertically and are 4 x 6

A wonderful weekend indeed.  Thanks to my fantastic husband for facilitating it!  I feel refreshed and ready to play with these kids all week long!!

***************UPDATE***********

The new stuff was a hit.  The diaper box-gone car toy was the first thing Ada noticed and was all into it.  We went to the beach and camping and parked in the garage.  She doesn't always play with things the way I envision so I was thrilled that this one worked out. Emma woke up and joined in too :)

After breakfast Ada changed into a ballerina and we did some artwork.

Ada working on a collage (she loved using the colored rice).  She made a shark.  Used rice for the body, puff ball for the head and tinfoil for teeth.  

The collages here are Emma's.  The bookmark on the left is Em and Ada's is on the right.