Over the weekend, I've tried my best to get the house cleaned up a bit, kinda ignored for over 2 weeks. Then after some shopping this last week, I had a few projects to tackle.
First on the list was some new pictures for the kitchen. We've decided it would be fun to do a beach theme, not nautical, but beach. So I found this set of postcards and framed them, hung them above the kitchen sink in the weird open area, all little beach cottages.
Then I found another picture to pair with the one from Christmas, Dog digging in the sand. So now we also have kids jumping off the pier, then both seam to fit so well!
In my travels this week, I headed off to the kitchen department of Ikea to find some things for the bathroom. They have these great hanging bars that you can get all kids of different baskets and things to hang off of them. This is perfect for getting things off the counter-top, but close at hand. The vanity has small drawers and isn't a great layout, so this is a nice option. Plus all together it was only $8.
Onto something I've been eye-balling for a while, but haven't taken the time to do. At Ikea, they have these wires, strung between two brackets, then you use clips to hang pictures, Awesome! Then I looked at the wire set itself and scratched my head, $14 for 2 feet of pretty wire with pretty brackets. Ummm, no. So I bought their clip set, 24 really nice clips for $4, and headed over to Walmart and found 75 feet of wire for $2 and a package of wood screws for $1. Much more my style. Here's how it turned out...
Tyler was excited to see all his art work displayed. Cody also has a few piece up, but the majority of his things are tucked away in the Me Book binder we made at the last parents night, a scrapbook for the year. I'll have to pull a few things out to hang up, but he didn't seam to mind not having much on the walls. He told me "I really like the pictures, Mom!" Then pointed out the couple he knew were his.
The toy room was also in need of some better organiziation. They needed more open floor space to build and play, so hopefully that was acheived.
These were sitting along the wall, now they are tucked into the closet.
The second part of the project, not quite finished yet, was to take pictures of the toys where they should live. So I went around the room, taking pictures of all the shelves, the drawers under the train table and all the bins, like this.
Next, I'll print off the pictures, and label the bins and drawers. Now, when they clean, they can't tell me they don't know where something goes!
On my to do list:
Organizing fabric closet in the office.
Make a fun sign to hang in the toy room
Paint some beach houses to hang in the kitchen.
Find a saying to put up in the kitchen/dining area. (Any ideas???)
Tie-Dye some summer shirts for the boys, including a St Patty's for Cody.
Please tell me I've found my crafty again! Please, oh Please!
After riding the train we headed over the to the center. We were broken into small groups and led around, visiting different stations. First we toured through an old caboose. Cody was happy that his latest girlfriend was in his group, the trail together, with brief periods of holding hands. 
After the caboose we looked through old horse-drawn carriages, an old hunter's cabin, farm implements, then put the kids to work. First they were shown how you used to get water from the pump, each of them were given a chance to try. They have a recycle system that pumps the water out, then pushes it back through to pump out again, learning some about conservation. 
Next was showing them how they used to grind down the stones. Cody on one side, two other friends on the other. 
We were then taken to pan for gold, they have actual gold sprinkled through-out if you are lucky. No one in our group found any, but the group leader found some earlier in the morning and saved it out so we could see what we were looking for. Then he passed out "gold nuggets" to all the kids to keep. 
The blacksmith showed us some of the practical things he could make, like horse shoes, tools, and a industrial strength bubble blower. 
On our way back to meet the light rail we stopped by the old turn table. They have restored it, but it's where it's always been. Things have come up and down around it, but it's stayed there. Pretty cool. 
