It's All In The Details

With our last two moves, I have made sure that Noah's room is the very first one in the house that is unpacked and 'complete'. He is the one that has the most difficulty with change, and having his room filled with all of his own stuff to 'ground' him is a good thing.

As it stands right now....I think Noah's bedroom is still the only room in the house that I would consider 'done'. Now, if you spoke to Kevin, I am sure he would give you a very different assessment of the state of our house....but he is a man, and we all know that men see these things through very different eyes.

It took me forever to decide on the paint colour for Noah's room.... It might be hard to tell in the photos, but I settled on a pale green. It ties in nicely with all of the green 'dragon stuff' that is in the room. So, you may have guessed it by now...but Noah's room is decorated in a dragon, castle, knight kind of theme...right down to the smallest details. In my opinion, it's the details that make the room.

From the curtains with the fire breathing dragons.....

...to the dragon storage pocket hanging thingy....

....to the much loved chest with padlock.......

.....to the infamous Playmobil castle......

.....to the rug with yet another dragon......

....to the mirror that looks like a castle window....(this is another favourite).....

....to the working torches that are mounted on the wall on either side of the bed....

....and last, but certainly not least, Noah's fire breathing dragon that stands guard while he sleeps.

I love how Noah's room turned out.

So, one down, and countless more to go.....

Rainy Day Activities

Saturday was day eight of Kevin's time away....and it is safe to say that the kids and I are getting on each others' nerves. To top it off, it was rainy and damp and gloomy ALL day Saturday. Saturday....when there is no school and no activities to break up the LONG day! Noah was actually supposed to have soccer...but it was cancelled due to the weather. So, inside we stayed....all day.

Noah love to help me cook. So, I decided that doing some baking would be a good way to pass the time. First we made jello (not really baking, but fun for a five year old nonetheless). Then we baked chocolate cupcakes.

One the agenda today, was frosting and decorating the above mentioned cupcakes. I decided to go with a Halloween theme, and this is what we came up with......

SKULLS!

The chin is made from a marshmallow that has been cut in half. You pull the paper cup down and place the marshmallow in there. You then frost over the cupcake and the marshmallow. The eyes are made from Quaker Granola Bites (you could use Junior Mints), the nose is a chocolate chip, and the teeth are slivered almonds.

The decorating part was a bit labour intensive, and Noah wasn't really able to help that much, but the kids loved the end result.

Now I just have to find someone to share my 24 skulls with.....

First Haircut

I had to take Noah to get a haircut in preparation for his picture day at school. He was looking a bit on the shaggy side, and I didn't really want to memorialize kindergarten forever by having him look scruffy in his photos.

At the last minute, I decided that Rebekah needed a trim too. Her hair was really uneven due to the pulling. Her hair is SO fine that for the longest time I just couldn't bear to cut what little she had. It was getting very long in spots, and not so long in others. So, the time had come!

So, off we went to a cool place called Kingdom Cuts. It was recommended to me by a friend, and what a great place for the kiddies! They each got to choose a video to watch while getting their trim, and the whole place was decorated with a castle theme. What fun! Bekah talked about it for days.



Getting ready for the very first snip, snip.

Watching Strawberry Shortcake with a degree of focus I didn't think possible of a two year old child.

The end result.

I am very please with the decision to trim it up. It looks much thicker and is still very cute despite its shorter length. And the trim even seems to have enhanced her waves. That is a HUGE deal to me considering I come from a family of people with poker straight hair!

But on the sad side...don't you think it makes her look so grown up?!

Oh Joy....

So, I just finished mopping all of the hardwood....not a small feat, and long overdue. Rebekah then decided to spill what appeared to be pretty much a whole yogurt drink on the freshly mopped floor. It didn't look like any of the drink actually ended up inside the child.

Well, I stand corrected.

Moments ago, Rebekah got out of a time out. She threw a toy because I turned off her Dora show. After a warning, she threw another toy. As I picked her up to put her in her time out spot, she managed to belch in my face. It smelled like yogurt drink.

Like I said, I stand corrected.

On an up note, at least the mop was still out. :)

My Sweet Little Boy

I have to write about Noah and a conversation we had this morning. After a string of rough days, I have to sometimes remind myself what a sweet child he truly is. I want to remember the good moments!

Yesterday was ROUGH. Rough enough, that after being seated at a table in a restaurant (Kevin is away for NINE days and I am flying solo with the kiddies), I actually told the waitress that we needed to leave because my children weren't behaving themselves. I walked out with both of them kicking and screaming and took them home to eat cereal and toast for dinner. NOT GOOD!

So, this morning as Noah was getting ready for school, I explained to him that I had put money in his backpack so that he could choose a book at the school book fair. He told me that he was going to find a Dora book for Bekah. I thought that was very sweet of him. I did explain though, that he may not have enough money for a book for himself AND a book for Bekah. He then told me, "I'll just get a Dora book for Bekah then. I don't mind."

Those are the moments that make me realize that maybe, just maybe, the things we are trying to teach him at home are getting through!

My Little Gymnast

One of the activities that Bekah and I have been doing over the last several weeks is a gymnastics class at the YMCA. She LOVES this class. She loves it so much that she actually looses all control of herself when we get into the gym.




I hear all of the giggles and snickers from the mouths of the other mothers as my child runs spastically from one activity center to the next....they shake their heads and say, 'wow, she has a lot of energy'. Yeah, no kidding. It is impossible for me to take her to this class and not break a sweat. It kills me to see all of the other little kids sitting nicely in the circle while Bekah runs shrieking away from me. Sigh....




While my mom and dad were visiting I managed to get a few good pics. I would have never attempted it while at the class with Rebekah on my own...but since my mom was there with me, the opportunity was calling.




She looks so angelic in the photos, doesn't she?!

Infestation!

The weather in New England this fall has been very strange. One week it is cold and only 60 degrees F, and the next we are back to wearing shorts and t-shirts as the temperatures soar back up to 80 degrees F.

Well, with the latest warm front, our neighbourhood has had a 'few' little visitors of the insect variety. We have fallen victim to SWARMS of lady bugs. They are coming into all of the houses on our street. For us, the biggest problem has been in the kitchen. Our back door, leading to the deck, seems to have a bit of a gap between it and the door frame. The gap seems to be the perfect size for our lady bug visitors to make their way into our house in an attempt to find a warm place to settle in for the winter.

This photo was taken before it even got bad. By the end of the day, I had about 50 of these little beetles in my kitchen.




Thank goodness for the internet. I don't know what we did before it existed! A quick google query armed me with the info that I needed to defeat these little pests. It seems that they aren't really 'lady bugs' in the true sense of the word...but they are a variation, and in actual fact, are a form of beetle. They are harmless and can actually be good to have around as they eat other types of insects that are not so pleasant to have around.

One the down side though, if you have enough of them, they can clog up vents and cause some major issues. Also, when they feel threatened the ooze this red fluid which can stain fabrics and wood. Not good!

The advice that I found online was to vacuum them up, while making sure not to leave the hose hanging loosely around the handle of the vacuum after the job was done. Apparently they will crawl back out! So, a piece of crunched up paper towel served as an effective road block at the end of the vacuum hose, while a whole lot of tape served the purpose of sealing up my back door for the few days until they are supposed to move onto some other unassuming neighbourhood!

Two Little Monkeys

Here are a couple of recent pics of my two little monkeys. :)

Takin' Some Heat!

So, I guess a few of you have been wondering what happened to me lately. I have been taking some "heat" for my lack of recent posts! I am glad to know I am missed!

We are all here, and fine...just busy with life! Lots of appointments to go to, a visit from my Mom and Dad, A TRIP TO VEGAS for Kevin and I, extra curricular activities, my scrapbooking business, etc. Those are the things that have been keeping me away from my blog.

So, I am here today to begin the catching up. Keep checking back for new posts...I will do my best to fill you in on the happenings!