Last Day as a 3 year old

Today was Eliza's last day as a 3 year old. Lets be honest, she's a pretty amazing 3 year old. She has really hit her stride this year, it will be sad to go almost a whole year without a 3 year old in the house.
So today as her last day as a 3 year old, here is what she did:

• ate toast - asked for additional breakfast foods that she didn't eat
• took snacks to Preschool
• got a birthday present from her teacher
• ate all the candy in the birthday present from her teacher
• played outside - hit wiffle balls, swung, jumped on the trampoline, helped me pick weeds
• played a card game
• reminded us all 50 times that it was her birthday tomorrow
• sat through 1/4 of a reading lesson
• scrubbed toilets and shower door
• watched TV
• ate dinner (tikka masala with rice and naan) followed by ice cream
• brushed teeth and went to bed

Pretty full schedule, if you think about it.

So on to tomorrow, where we will have a 4 year old and entirely new dynamic in the family. I hope we can handle it. It has been quite a long time since we had a 4 year old around.

Hanging Elk

Safety first!

I conned Thad into helping me hang my giant elk. He is the very best.

Doesn't it look smashing? It is fantastic.

Busy weekend, house pics

We had a very stressful week and a very productive weekend of getting the house into living-shape. So here are a few pics with explanation

This area shall henceforth be known as the Command Center it is a built in desk kitchen-adjacent - the center of everything, so mom doesn't forget everything - just occasional things.

This is our new living space, also kitchen adjacent, we are so happy to finally have some seating, a tv and how about that rug! Love it.

We got the long lost other half of our couch - I recovered our half of it in the gray fabric 6 months ago, now it looks like I have another project to start on. This is the "front room" aka the home teacher room. But that couch is one of the most comfortable in the house.

Behind the couches are new bookshelves and the piano. (And a pile of unhung art) Not pictured here: boxes and boxes of books to unpack.

In conclusion, Ben also found time to bake cookies for us today, which I used in place of making dinner - win-win!

Back to IKEA

Now THIS is what you can accomplish when you don't have kids with you. Boo-yah!

At Ikea

It was very AMBITIOUS of me to take two little kids to IKEA with me.

It was very FOOLISH of me not to take a stroller to IKEA with me.

It was quite ADMIRABLE how I was able to make accurate decisions with two little kids at IKEA.

It was UNBELIEVABLE that I loaded up 4 heavy boxes of shelf-pieces into a cart at IKEA while two little kids had to trail behind.

It was GENIUS of me not to try to buy a couch while I had 2 little kids, 4 boxes of shelving and no stroller while at IKEA.

Another day I will go to IKEA with no kids and try to buy a couch instead.

Old video of Eliza

This is Eliza about 10 days before she turned 2

remember how she only said "blu"? and slurping for a drink? so cute

Summer Picnic

These pics are from our first week in our house - we took a break from unpacking and Anna made us a picnic to share in the backyard under a beautiful shade tree.

Playhouse

So our new house has this awesome 2 story cottage playhouse - but it needs some work, so this is the "before" picture. It has a broken window and was basically a bug and spider habitat for a few years. And weeds all around in the pavers.

First assignment was vacuuming it out. It has carpets on the floors (main floor the carpet is laid on top of brick pavers) and upstairs I had never seen quite so many fly/bee/wasp carcasses, but they all vacuumed up and it is no longer scary to go in. Thank goodness

Next was blocking the window. Eliza helped me tape up some plastic. 

There is lots to do- I am planning to let the girls make a lot of design decisions, so it may end up looking worse, but at least they will feel included.

Space

"Mommy look! I drew space!"

Upon further questioning she admitted that space is actually blue. But I still like the picture. And the artist.

Craziest First Day

This little munchkin started preschool this morning! She was so excited. We had to spend 10 minutes looking for her backpack, then she couldn't find one of her new shoes so we spent 20 minutes there and still didn't find it. Then I had to scramble to write her teachers check and take the obligatory picture and get her in the car. I left Calvin and Anna home - and gave Anna instruction to leave at X:XX figuring I would be back before then. Unfortunately, I was not and when I got home the garage door and the front door were left open. As I began gathering my own breakfast I noticed Anna's lunchbox still on the counter and her backpack still on the stairs. So I grabbed Calvin and a hair elastic (remembering what she looked like when I left for preschool and hoping she had at least changed her clothes) and we jumped on the car with the backpack. We found her walking towards us at the end of the block. So I did her hair, gave her the backpack and drove her back to the school. Then I finally got home to have my breakfast and enjoy 2.5 hours home with just Calvin.

Picking Eliza up from preschool was one of the most redemptive moments ever. She came out of the door, scanned the crowd of moms and spotted me. She shouted "MY MOM!" to nobody in particular as she started running as fast as her short little legs could carry her and I stood on the sidewalk- arms out ready to catch her as she jumped into my arms. We were both smiling like crazy, so happy she has entered a new chapter in her life, and so have I.