Bunk Bed to Cottage House

 We bought this bunk bed off Craigslist in the summer with the intent of adding a facade to make it look more like a cottage house.  I bought the stairs at a consignment store in Redding for $50, so after a 2 hr drive I crammed those stairs in the car and barely had room for the kids!  But, I knew I wanted stairs for Megan as I didn't trust her to climb up and down the outside rail during the middle of the night without major accident or injury.  So, I drew a few hours drawing up the plans and blueprint of what I was wanting, bought some wood at the big box store and my dad came and helped my dream become a reality.

 We, of course, had to lots of refiguring and remeasuring to make it work best.  I wanted the bottom windows as large as possible to allow light in for Kendra.

 Mikayla even got in on the power tool action.

 Here they are enjoying the bunk bed as is for the last time!

 The side panel went up first.  We found these sheets of Masonite at Home Depot that looke like fake siding and painted it white.  We trimmed out the big window with 1x4 and painted it blue.

 We then added on the frame support for the top story.

 Cut down the other sheet of siding to size, and attached it on top.  We made window boxes for the smaller windows and painted those pink.  I LOVE these window boxes, they turned out exactly like I had imagined!

 My original plan was to have shutters that actually open and close.  If they closed, they'd be hitting the flowers in the window box, therefore negating the need for a window box.  So, we asked the girls if they'd rather have working shutters or flowers.  Flowers.  Unanimously.  :)  So, all that time we spent measuring, reconfiguring, buying hinges, drilling, and re-drilling--and it was all for naught.  We then simply screwed the shutters onto the trim and boom, it was done!

 I didn't want flowers int he window boxes, because I thought it would be super cute and functional to have them double as book holders.  Love it!

It really turned out just as I had pictured if not better than I imagined!  HUGE thank you to my dad and all his hard work and time in helping this little dream come true.  It was a fun project for us to work on together and then girls LOVE their new bunk bed!

One of the worst looking owies ever!

Kara was eating breakfast on a stool in the kitchen.  She dropped her muffin, lost her balance, and fell forehead-first onto the tile.  It immediately swelled up and looked TERRIBLE!  We had to leave minutes later for the girl's basketball games and everyone was amazed at the size of her forehead.  Poor girl!

 Kendra loved learning all about penguins at school.

 Big girl on her 100th day of TK!

 We took an early morning run to the park and Kara does whatever she can to try and scare Mom!

Silly girl!  I am SERIOUSLY going to miss these boots when she grows out of them...

Resurrected the Go-Cart from my childhood

The big girls loved riding it on their own--Kendra thought I was going WAY too fast!  Justin put a new motor on the go-cart and now we get to enjoy spending some time out riding it.  So much fun!

First Day in Pigtails!

Art in Megan's Class: Polar Bears

 We drew them with white chalk, added facial features with black crayon, cut them out, and glued them onto a background embellished with torn paper snow, and chalk snowflakes.

 Megan's is on the far left.

They really turned out cute and I think I'll add this one into my art rotation each year!

Hungry For Death?

After we'd been driving in the car most of the day, Kendra said, "I'm hungry for death."
We asked her to repeat that and she did.  We were still confused and asked what in the world she meant.
 "You know, I'm so hungry I'm dying!!"
 Then I got it.

"Oh, you mean you're STARVING TO DEATH!"

Hahaha, we got the best laugh over that one!

"Megan, I bought the purse for you, so you owe me $6." I said.
Megan ran up to her room and came back with her wallet.  She pulled out a $20 bill, a $5, and a $1.  She said, "Here's $26, and I expect change."  I was dying laughing.

Conversations with Kendra

Kendra: Mom, can you put mascara on me?
Me: Um, no, it's the first day of school, not the prom!

Me: So Kendra, did you make any new friends at school?
Kendra: No, there is too much girls with black hair in my class.  I can't tell who is who.

Me: Do you want some practice changing diapers by doing one of Kara's?
Kendra: No, when I'm older I'll just have my husband do it.
Me: Oh really. Well, what will you do when he's at work?
Kendra: We'll have to get someone else to do it.  I'm going to be too busy being the mayor to change diapers and when I'm at home from being the mayor I'll be too tired, so my husband will just do it.

This 4 Year Old Scares Me A Bit!

*We went to Megan's class picnic day and as we were driving away Kendra said, "Mom, all the boys in Megan's class think I'm pretty."   "Um, did they tell you that?" I said.  "No, I just know it," she said with a big grin on her face.  Come again, say what?  You are 4 still right?  Ay yay yay...

*"Mom, I want to go to Hawaii and North Winter and Paradise.  It would just be so much fun there."  Um, okay...have fun! lol

*Kendra came around the corner dressed in only her underwear and struck a pose:  "Welcome to Kendra's world, it's naked party time!  Oh yeah!  Uh huh!  Naked party!  It's your birthday..."  We were busting up laughing and wondering where the heck she gets this stuff...

A Bit of June

 Picnics outside,

 pulling Greek yogurt containers out of the trash and getting super messy with the remains,

 splash pad fun,

 entertaining sisters in the morning,

 doing big girl stuff,

 wearing fun tutus just because,

 and lots of watermelon,

 Mom got a new haircut,

 taught lots of Body Pump,

 is taking up running,

and we're going on lots of family bike rides.  This is how to start summer off right!