A Little Bartering

A few years ago (I think two but maybe three?), we redid our kitchen.  I loved every change we made and am so happy that we did it (even if we did have to host Christmas with no countertops and a fridge in the dining room).  Ever since the renovation, I have been on the lookout for curtains for this huge (and bright) window over the sink, but NEVER found anything even close to what I was imagining.

A few months ago, I decided that the beautiful (big, hardly played with, almost mint-condition) dollhouse in the playroom needed to find a new home.  The girls played with their American Girl dolls much more and they were stuck up in their room due to space.  Moving the dollhouse out of the playroom made room for this smaller cart which has room for the dolls, the bigger accessories and bins of clothes and hair accessories too.

I put up pics of the dollhouse all over social media and was so excited when Danielle of Drawstring Studio contacted me.  Matt was a little surprised that I had traded a dollhouse for curtains, but it was seriously one of the best trades ever!  Danielle was super patient with me in helping me pick the perfect fabric.  I wanted a simple, modern print with more than one color, but I didn't want it to be too busy either.  The walls of our kitchen are bright green...the print had to include the green, but not make things brighter. (See, I told you Danielle was patient with me!)  I knew this print was perfect the moment I saw it and the curtains are just beautiful (and custom-sized to our window as well).

The curtains are the perfect finishing touch to our kitchen makeover.  I'm so thankful to Drawstring Studio!

Worry Guys

Two years ago, EJ had major surgery on her ear.  She was so worried about the surgery (she had a smaller surgery earlier, but was too young to remember it) and couldn't sleep, asked a lot of question, and was not giving her usual smile all that often either.  My Mom gave her a meerkat named Worrywart (pictured above with his own hospital collar) that EJ could tell all her worries to and he would get rid of them.  As you can see, she used him at the surgery, but he has also slept with her every night since the surgery and has become known as her "worry guy."

Today my Mom is having major surgery and EJ was determined to get Grandma her own worry guy.  She picked this one out based on size and Grandma's love of elephants.  She slept with it on Monday night so that her worry guy could teach Grandma's guy how to do his job.  And then yesterday she gave it to Grandma with the biggest smile across her little face.  I hope the elephant paid attention during training, because Grandma is nervous!

Missing A Kid

We had one of those summer weekends where we always seemed to be without one of the kids due to birthday parties, sleepovers, bike riding with friends, naps, etc.  I guess that is summer, but it always feels weird to me!

For the most part, it was EJ who was gone spending a lot of time with her cousin "twin" which was a nice treat after having a bit of a rough week.  Last Wednesday, EJ had three teeth pulled in order to make space for her adult teeth to come through (she had no space for her baby teeth) and it went really well (which is good because there is more to come).  This was her as the numbing was wearing off (one side back to normal)...not too shabby of a smile.

We hit up a neighborhood brewery this weekend and Livie worked on her tipping skills.  We played bags and pinball and got to bed a little late (even for a Friday night).

The next night, EJ was being dropped off around dinnertime and so we invited them to stay for dinner and game night.  Super fun, but we got to bed even later on Saturday night.  Needless to say, Livie had a very hard time waking up on Sunday (and even took a nap that day...first of the summer).

We did have a little downtime this weekend to do some experimenting.  We did one new experiment and two "new to Livie" experiments (we've done them in past years but she does not remember them).

Dancing Raisins, Gummy Bear Experiment, Naked Eggs

The raisins were super cool to watch and they kept floating around much longer than we all expected.  We took the gummy bears out of the water today and they were huge!  I used generic bears this time around and they grew a lot faster than the last time we did the experiment.  Still super cool though.  The egg is foaming and I think will be ready tomorrow or the next day.  All three of these are quick experiments with minimal items required...highly recommend them to break up outside time!