Dressed up Home Depot style...

Yep, those are my kids! Aren't they cute and smart looking? They are taking the "coneheads" look to a whole new level!

It's finally time for a big girl bed!

It has been a long time coming, but we are FINALLY getting new bedroom furniture for Ava. Our poor, little Miss is still in her crib (feet hanging out the slats and all)! New furniture isn't in the budget right now and so I have been scouring Craigslist for the right stuff and we're really happy with what we found! Here is the hutch for the desk...

And the base of the desk...

We decided to paint everything a soft white to match some frames in Ava's room...

Here's the dresser (minus the drawers)...

This is how I painted the drawers...

And here's the dresser...

This is how the headboard looked before...

And after!

Now, I would have to say there is a serious perk with Greg's business...there is a paint room there! We took all of the furniture there and could paint without needing to put anything down and without worrying about fumes or temperature (Duluth isn't the best place to paint in February without a ventilated, temperature controlled room). So, we were able to prime and paint it all on Saturday and it's now upstairs in the closets just waiting for Ava's birthday - we are going to suprise her with a completed room!

Big girl bed, here she comes!

Budget? Are we on a budget?

The Harlem Globetrotters are coming to the Amsoil Arena in Duluth in April. I knew as soon as I saw the first commercial that I wanted to take the family and so I was extra, extra excited when the Cub Scout office sent out a group order form today with discount tickets. They said that they are first come, first serve for good seats...so I called RIGHT AWAY!!

Now, take a good look at the picture above...do you notice what I noticed right away? Who are those kids with the Globetrotters? That question is where my trouble began!!

I called the Globetrotter group ticket coordinator and just HAD to ask. Turns out that there are 4 tickets per game that are called "The Globetrotter Experience". The tickets are a "buy all" package and the market size determines the price. In major cities, the 4 tickets and experience cost $3000, but in Duluth...they are a "bargin" at $1000 for the 4 tickets.

Then came my bargaining..."is there any way I could buy just 1 ticket", "would you please think about splitting them up", "is there some kind of discount", "I make a mean brownie and I would be willing to sweep floors" (I really did say all of that). The coordinator said she would see what she could do and would call me back.

She did call back and offered to let me buy 1 ticket for $250 or 2 tickets for $400!!! I know, I know, I know. $400 is some crazy money, but I called Greg anyway. Let's just say he wasn't exactly feeling my same excitement. Eventually we decided to see if another parent wanted to send their son for $200 and go from there.

Within about 7 minutes of calling Andrew's best friend's mom and asking, she had called her husband and they had decided to send Alex if Andrew was going. So...we are doing it.

I know it's kind of crazy, but the boys are going to have a blast! They get to sit on the bench with the team during the game, they get a team jersey, a basketball (that the team will sign), the program and a private 1 on 1 meet and greet. And then, I even got the coordinator to throw in 2 extra back stage passes for the meet and greet (so each of the boys can have a parent go with them).

Now I just have to save $50/week out of our budget for the next month...totally worth it to me! I think Andrew will love it and remember it forever (and so will I)!!

Guess who?

Yep, the little Miss...

That's the Z...

And who could mistake Andrew?

This is a project that has been on my radar for a little while now and the other day when I went to Melissa's house (we hadn't talked about it) I saw that she had just done some of these for her kids! It gave me extra fuel to bump this up on my project list! There are tutorials online about how to make these, but I knew what I wanted my end product to be - painted silhouettes on canvas - so I just did it my own way...here's what I did in case you want to duplicate...

I took profile pictures of the kids - a couple of each so I knew they wouldn't have to sit still again - and then I downloaded them and picked my favorite. Once I knew which one I was using, I made a page in publisher with the dimensions for the frames I was using. Then, I imported the pictures and sized them to the frame. Next, I printed the picture (just do it on a draft print...why waste the ink) and then very, very carefully cut out the pictures. You want to be extra careful not to miss the little details or else you won't be able to identify the person in the end!

Once I had everything cut, I taped down the picture from behind and traced the profile onto the canvas with a ball point pen (I wanted something fine tipped and couldn't find a mechanical pencil). Then came the really tedious part...painting in the silhouette!

I made a mistake on Ava's with her hair when I was tracing and so I needed to paint the backgrounds in to cover the mistake on the canvas (which I am really happy about in the long run). Ideally, you would want to paint your back ground color first and then trace the profile...I didn't do that and so I got to do the tedious, detail painting twice - once in black then again to outline the black with the teal...not the most time effective, but hey, now I know...and so do you!

I really couldn't be happier with how these turned out and I'm really excited to have this stage of my kids "captured" in a way I can display them! Now, on to the next project...

A happy Valentine's Day

On the night of the 13th, Greg and I were in bed talking and he asked what I wanted to do for Valentine's Day. I told him that if I could have anything I wanted, I would have him take the day off, I would sleep in instead of getting the boys up, we would go to brunch and then he would come to school with me and help with the boys' class parties. Afterwards we would go out somewhere as a family - maybe the aquarium - and go out to dinner. After the kids were in bed all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch with him, watch The Bachelor and eat Cold Stone ice cream. A girl can dream right??!!?

Well, that's exactly what he did. It was such a fun day and I couldn't believe he just dropped everything and spent the day doing what I wanted...what a great Valentine's present. The Mexican resaurant we went to even had salsa dancing lessons for free and we all got up and salsa danced for a while...the kids were so cute! Oh happy, happy Valentine's day!

Just in case you were wondering what I did this week...

I was talking to my friend Tami about wanting to have some extra spending money and she suggested I try to sell some of my things to a local store. This is something that I have considered doing before (and have even gone into a store in Grosse Pointe once), but have never actually done. I decided to do it and went into Serendipity here in Duluth. It's a really cute store and lucky for me, the owner wanted some of my things...

This is a picture of the little felt squares I had to cut out to start my first project...I guess I didn't realize just how many little squares it would take to make 10 of these flowers!

Let's just say - I was really happy when I finally got through the piles of felt and finished these flower pins. They are pretty tedious, but I do love these!

I brought an example of these hair bows into the store, but was asked to make some and turn them into pins as well...so I did! She also wanted 4 of the headbands...

Here's a closer look at the headbands...

She also ordered 3 little girls' aprons from me. Here's #1...

#2 (who knows why this picture is sideways - it's not on my computer!!)

and #3

Now here's a real blast from the past!! This is what I originally took into the shop in Grosse Pointe to sell (they wanted 10 or something and I was too overwhelmed to do it at the time). She had two cigar box purses at Serendipity - but they were just handles on a cigar box - no decorations - so she was wanting to do something different with them. So I'm bringing her this to show her how to glam them up a bit!

You'll probably recognize these as well (from Holly and my Do, Make, Bake debut). I took these and then added the hand stitching around them and am really happy with how they turned out (again who knows why this picture is turned).

So...just in case you were wondering what I did this week while Greg was out of town...this is what I did! Like Holly said, I ran my own sweat shop!

I'm glad I decided to do this (at least once). It would be a little depressing to figure out exactly what I made an hour to do this, but it was fun to put these labels on everything and know that my stuff will be in a really cute store! She pays for everything up front - no consignment - and so I will get my little pay day on Tuesday when I turn everything in. That will be really fun! So for now, the sweat shop is closed, but you never know when it will open again...if only my kids could sew and use a glue gun!

It took me almost as long as it took Moses...

I finally finished reading the Old Testament on Friday. I decided that I wanted to read it cover to cover (something I had never done before) even though I knew it would be quite an undertaking. I'm really glad I decided to do it and am also really glad for what I learned. It wasn't the quickest read, but definitely worth the time and effort.

I can't believe we are at this stage...

This is Mont du lac. It's a small ski area here in Duluth and it's where we went skiing last weekend - all of us - yep, all of us!

Here's another shot of one of the runs...

And a final view from the top of the hill...

It's really amazing to me that the kids are all going skiing with us now - and we aren't talking about the bunny hill! They are all going up on the lifts, the boys are totally on their own and then Ava skis in front of Greg with a harness. No more baby sitters when we go skiing...what???

We've never had our youngest child be this old and it is really fun! She is getting so, so big and I just can't believe all of the fun things that we've been doing this winter...It's amazing how quickly these types of things are changing!

Here's Andrew and Sarah Gore (we love to go skiing with the Gores - the kids match up great and we love Dave and Kathy). Last night we went to Spirit Mountain and when the boys were on the bunny hill they were skiing backwards!! Crazy to think they were just going on their first ski lift the week between Christmas and New Years! I really can't believe we are at this stage in our family!!

18 Extra Magic Hours with all the pictures to prove it...

Okay, seriously - this blog post is for me. There are about 50 pictures...so, feel free to skip it! This is where the magic all started...in the hotel. The kids were so excited when we got there and it didn't stop until we left! We had a wonderful time and I think we made memories we'll all have forever...

Come on...classic shot!

I got picked out of the audience to be an extra at the Indiana Jones show. I am the 3rd from the right - I think ducking from an explosion of some kind? Very fun to be down there!

Zach was so excited to ride the Rock-N-Rollercoaster. It was his first upside down coaster!! He said he was going to faint after he rode it...

So we had him "faint" for posterity...

In the 50's diner - a super fun restaurant with great decor!

The dance party at Playhouse Disney is one of my favorite things in all of the parks. My kids (and I) danced with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, The Little Einsteins and Hanny Manny - hello? How awesome is that??

Zach was also big enough (just barely) to drive the race cars. I was his passenger and was greatful that there was a center rail keeping us "on track"!

The boys are in jail with Zurg...right where they belong!

We got a lot of great pictures, but this is one of my favorites.

Nemo and friends...

When you play hard...

You sleep hard!

We were waiting in line to see The Lion King when they had to cancel the performance for a technical problem. Most people left right away, but for those of us who waited, they invited us in to meet the cast - totally worth the little bit of hassle.

Ava was really interested in this bird princess. It was so fun to meet everyone and get a bunch of pictures and then come back for the next show!

We can never pass these things up!

In front of the Expedition Everest mountain...another great coaster!

The kids all love animals, but Zach was especially excited about all of the birds in the parks. He was hand feeding this one little pieces of popcorn. There was no line to feed a bird, but I bet he would have waited in one if there was!

This tree is amazing to me. I really couldn't get enough of it.

The carvings are awesome. I loved looking at all of the different animals and the amazing work!

Here are the kids hanging out with an iguana!

and me with the rhino and eagle!

Giant ants (no wait, tiny children) in Honey I Shrunk the Kids!

Dun da da da dun, da da da dun, da da da dun dun...

The boys got to go through Jedi training...

They both fought Darth Vader and were awesome defending and using the force!

Late at night, everyone wanted to take a little break from standing. Greg makes a great resting place at about 11:30 p.m.!!

Oh no.

We went to the new American Idol experience and it was really fun! The guy I voted for even won!

Tough boys!

Andrew and Zach were making us laugh pretty hard while having a "who can keep the lemon in their mouth the longest" contest. It doesn't look like it's going to happen in this picture, but Zach actually won!

This is at one of the restaurants where the characters come to your table during dinner. They did a party dance a few times during dinner too. They wanted everyone to stand up and wave their napkins...Ava was all over it!

Here's Andrew in the pool. It was beautiful while we were there and the kids took full advantage!

Little Miss A in the A...

When we were at Epcot, Zach wanted to lay down in the grass. He's the one who has the hardest time with the long winter and when he saw green grass...he just couldn't resist!

Beautiful Epcot.

Inside the Mexican temple exhibit...eating lunch!

My little Minnesota vikings!

Shhhh...

We saw the Beauty & the Beast show earlier in the week, and seeing Belle and Beast in person was a highlight for Ava especially!

I could have posted all of the pictures from this sequence. Ava was so, so taken by Sleeping Beauty. It literally brought tears to my eyes.

The first night we went to the Magic Kingdom, we went to the Lilo and Stitch show - without realizing it had the "may be scary for children" warning. Well, it was. Ava and Zach were very scared, but somehow Stitch became one of their favorite characters during the trip. Zach ended up spending his money on this Stitch. We came back to our room one day and housekeeping had helped him get into his usual trouble!

The t.v. was also on (cartoons of course) and this little crew was watching! Such a fun thing for the kids to come home to.

And finally, here's Ava on the last night (in a dress I made right before we left for the trip). Too pooped to get into pajamas! We had expected to come back to the hotel for a few hours each day (like we did last time), let people nap and get off their feet and then return to the park and stay for the late extra magic hours. I don't know how they did it, but the kids didn't need the naps! We stayed in the parks the whole time and through the magic hours. What great little troupers! We figured it meant that during the week we spent 18 hours longer in the parks than the last time we were there!

It was amazing to be at Disney with the kids and it was amazing to me that when we left, there was nothing that we hadn't done (that we wanted to) - we can thank the extra 18 hours for that!!