Setting Boundries

Landon and Libbie love to watch their shows in the morning, which is fine, the fact that they try and watch them with their faces plastered to the TV is not! We tried putting seat down for the kids, but that only worked for a bit. Before you knew it, they were back to kissing the TV. I was fed up with telling them to "back up" so I created a boundary zone.
All I did was take painters tape to the wood floor (no damage) to create a boundary zone. The kids are not allowed to go into the area when the TV is on.
I did this while the kids were napping and when Landon came down he immediately wanted to know why there was tape on the floor. I explained to him that when he watches TV he has to be outside the box. Landon got the concept immediately and most often sits on the couch now. Libbie still has some work to do!
Libbie has a harder time with this because we have toys stored under the TV unit. This way the kids can play upstairs but the toys do not have to be seen on a regular basis.
She'll get the hang of it eventually!

The Finished Product

Ok...so this post and last post aren't the most exciting posts but if I've shown you all the mess I made, I might as well show you the end result.

After getting started in the basement, I channeled all my energy to other closets (hiding places) in the house. I sorted through our entry closet that houses our jackets, shoes, purses/bags, art material, cameras. I was able to find homes for most of the items in the basement due to the empty space and I also rid ourselves of some jackets and bags.

Here it is now...nothing special but we did not have any space above the jackets.
I also went through our linen closet upstairs. Again, it doesn't look like much but I'm telling you there is much more room.
Finally, here is the basement. So when you are walking into the storage area, this is what you see. Yep...there's my wedding dress all packaged for what, I have no idea, but I for sure not getting rid of that!
Some of the space on the shelves above will soon be open. I want to get a book shelf for the basement family room to house the books in the container above. Those orange comforters will soon be leaving. Those are going in the kids room (another project I'm slowly working on).

Now if you turn left, here's the view to the washer and dryer.
I was able to make a little work station that houses our printer (already there), art supplies, my crafts, stationary, etc.
When you are at the washer & dryer and look left, here's what you'll now see. I apologize for the big blue bag, it's Andrew's soccer bag for impromptu games. I have since moved the bouncy seat and added a few more storage bins (empty might I add).
Since I was simultaneously working on the kids room and the basement, I needed to find a permanent home for Landon's and Libbie's "night you were born" pictures. I don't think I'll have room in their room when I'm done with it and Libbie's picture has never been hung. I decided the basement is the perfect place or both pictures due to the fact the basement is mostly their playroom.

I'm feeling a bit relieved because the house is a bit more organized. I just hate getting rid of stuff we may need in the future (baby stuff) but we don't have the space in our tiny home and we refused to get a storage unit!

Oh well...onto the next project!

Summer Cleaning

Now that we are home (for 2.5-3 weeks) it's time for me to get some organizing done around the house. We had guests (Brian, Debbie & Connelly) this past weekend (so I didn't want to get started last week for fear of not getting it done in time. So when they left on Sunday, I got to work.

I'm sure many of you deal with or dealt with the same struggles of a a growing family and the accumulation of stuff around the house. In order to get through everyday this stuff gets organized into places that hide it from plain view. I can do this for so long and then I have a breaking point and it's like an itch I have to scratch...I have to get rid of the stuff!

Because Libbie will be growing out of her crib soon, I need to organize the kids room for their new bunk beds. This means I need to find a place for Landon's bed and Libbie's crib. The only place to store those (without renting a storage unit) is in our basement laundry/storage area. In order to get the bed and crib into the storage area, everything had to come out. This gives me the opportunity to sort through all the items into "keep", "donate", and "trash" piles. Many of the items are things that I hold onto wither because I think I'll need them later or because I was not ready to get rid of the item when I stored it....note the welcome home boards for Landon and Libbie when they were born!

Why I kept these, I have no idea! I guess they fit into items I wasn't ready to get rid of when it was time to take them down. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy when they saw these in the trash pile (Landon's I was holding onto for almost 4 years!).
Here is everything from the storage area piled on top of our existing furniture and toys in the basement family/play area. This pile included tv trays, bedding, children's clothes, baby items, home decor, wedding stuff (again...I wasn't ready to part with some of that stuff), suitcases, coolers, etc.
Once everything was out, I really didn't know where to begin. I couldn't start putting items (things we have to keep) back in the storage area without putting in the kids beds.
I spent the rest of Sunday sorting through clothes and items and organizing items into their designated piles. I did as much as I could and then swept out the storage area. Please excuse the dreariness of this area with it's cinder block walks and cement floor. It's not the happiest room in the house but it serves its function.

The area is shaped like an "L" so when you walk in, you turn left to head to the washer & dryer pictured above. Then you turn left again to a shorter storage area. This is where all our permanent items go or items that we don't use on a regular basis
It doesn't look like much progress, I should have take a before picture, but it made me feel better.

*Note...I have been typing these posts as they happen and scheduling for their release, so the time frame is a bit off. This actually took place July 31...just in case you were wondering.

Bethany Beach

Once we arrived at BWI on the Sunday after Green Bay we drove straight to Bethany Beach, Delaware for Andrew's family vacation. Last year we spent the week in Dewey Beach which is just north of Bethany. Andrew's parents decided to try something new and picked Bethany which is a much more family friendly beach environment.

We started our first day walking around the center of town which contains all the shops and restaurants, and of course, the board walk.
Hermit crabs are at almost every souvenir store and Landon requested I take a picture of one.
This picture is taken from the center pavilion looking out to the entrance to Bethany Beach, the boardwalk is just behind me taking the picture.
If you turn yourself around from the previous picture and look left, this was a view of the boardwalk. I didn't take on looking right but it is pretty much the same thing.
There is a diner called the Penguin Diner that has a cute picture with the year on the scarf. I thought that if we continue to come here, this would be for a great yearly picture with the kids. I didn't get one of them together (they weren't cooperating) so I just posted Landon's.
At night time, maybe 7 or so, the temperature drops and the wind picks up. Everyone brings out their kites to fly on the beach. Luckily we had 2 from Leland that we didn't use, so this gave us the perfect opportunity to use them. Andrew headed out with Landon to help him.
Landon enjoyed flying the kite,
and Grandpa helped Libbie.
Once Landon saw a teenager fishing from the beach, the kite was no longer an interest. Landon started watching the boy just in time to watch him reel in a skate.
We spent a few days on the beach but Libbie wasn't quite a fan. The sand gets extremely hot, not to mention the temperature and she doesn't like to be near the water where it is much cooler. It made it much harder for us to spend time together on the beach. Usually one parent was with Libbie and one was with Landon and then we switched.
During nap time Libbie decided to color all over herself. Landon gave her the marker but nothing to color on, so what else is she to do?
I bought a 1000 piece puzzle to work on at night and days that we hung around the house. This is the finished product with 2 pieces missing...not too bad with a 2 and 4 year old knocking pieces off the table.
We spent most of our days on the deck, since both kids could play quite easily. Grandma bought a baby pool for the kids and it worked perfectly. The house was right on the beach so we were able to view the beach while playing on the deck.
One of the last night we were there, a family came up to the lifeguard stand that the kids were playing on and asked if they could take their annual family picture on the stand. Once they were done, I of course, had to do the same. So here's our 2011 family picture on the lifeguard stand.
Our final night we took pictures on the deck of the house looking out onto the beach (the view we had everyday).

We had a wonderful relaxing time!

A First for All

After our trip to Leland, we had about a week and a half before our trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was the first time any of us had been to Green Bay. We were headed there for my cousin's wedding and in order to get there, we flew into Milwaukee and drove the 2 hours to Green Bay.

We started our weekend by taking a drive by Lambeau Field. My brother, Danny and I drove by it on Friday morning on our way to watch the final Harry Potter. Andrew, Brian and Danny went and walked around the stadium on Saturday before the wedding. They had wanted to take a tour but didn't going early enough...oh well.
We headed to the ceremony which was at the church on the campus of where Becky and Colin attended college and where Becky is now a professor.

We then headed to the reception that was located at the hotel we were staying. Our favors on the tables were a bag of chocolate rocks...fitting since Becky is the "Rock Doctor", a paleontologist.
They placed running shoe boxes together to be the place where you put any cards for the couple. I thought this was super cute since they were both cross country runners in college and Colin works at one currently.
All the numbers on the table were race bibs, along with our table name cards.
It was quite a long reception but we had no problem filling it with fun at the table,
eating, playing with cousins, dancing, and drinking!
This was my only picture of the couple and half of the couple was missing! Becky did make for a beautiful bride!
After all the festivities we headed back to Milwaukee on Sunday for a flight to our next trip (another post). We had a later flight so we spent some time on the Marquette campus.

Then we headed to Miller Field to watch the Women's World Cup Finals with another cousin (brother of the groom) and his fiance.

Swamp Cake

My sister-in-law, Debbie, brought this swamp cake to Leland. Its a no bake cake for children to make in a bucket. It comes with all the ingredients except the milk, cool whip and cream cheese. She brought it for the kids to make in case it rained, which it did! We just never found the time to make it. As we moved into our second week, we thought that there would be plenty of time to make it, and there was, we just didn't get our act together.

As we packed up for home I thought for sure I could make this with Landon when we got back to Virginia. I was going to have about a week and a half with the kids before our next trip so this would be a perfect activity one afternoon.

One afternoon, while Libbie was napping, Landon and I got everything together to make the swamp cake. Landon was really excited! I think mostly to eat the gummy gators packaged in the bucket.
He helped me mix the pudding and milk.
Then we stirred in the cool whip and cream cheese.
Now we had to layer the cookie crumb and the pudding mixture. The cookie crumb went first and then you alternated until the cookies were on top.
The last thing to do was put the gators on the cake!
It turned out cute and yummy!

Thanks Aunt Debbie!