Bunny Hop

I met a friend at a local play place today. The kids had a blast! Zia was all over the place and kept jumping off of these foam bunny things. I use the word "jump" lightly. She was really just throwing herself off and crash landing. It must have been fun though because she did it over and over again.

Onion

I haven't published the blog in 5 weeks. During the time, I have barely written any entries to save to publish later. Usually when there is a long silence from me, I type entries and save them for later and don't publish until I have photos watermarked. So now I try to play catch up. I was working on the doll house almost every free night during the last few weeks, so at least I have a good excuse for missing entries.

Eiley and Arya are very into pretend play right now. The doll house has been perfect for that. They don't just play house with it, they play all sorts of things, which is great to listen to. They are full of amusement right now. I heard Eiley say today "Oh my God! Child! That is so nasty!" I have no one to blame but myself for that. I often open Zia's diaper to tell her "Child, that is so nasty". I know I say "Oh my God" when I'm super frustrated with them. Looks like I need to make a better effort to not say that.

Zia is full of imitation too. Cork told her to not "Do not touch that" and she mimicked it back to him with the correct tone of voice, syllables, and wave of her finger. The words weren't right, but she was definitely being sassy. She understand what we're saying, but that does not mean she listens. I was starting dinner tonight and she stole and onion that I'd cut in half and peeled. I told her to put it down and that she wouldn't want to eat it. She licked it and then took a big bite. I don't think she'll be doing that again any time soon.

TV Stand Doll House

This was our big present to the girls this Christmas. We didn't give it to them on Christmas since we were at my parent's house. The kids LOVE it. I bought the tv stand for $10 and had most of the paint. Overall, I spent about $100 on this project including the wood, paint, furniture, fabric, yarn, and everything.

I sanded the whole thing, tore off the wood from the back, took off the doors, and took out all of the shelves except where the tv would have gone.

Cork and I cut new wood for the back, then primed and painted it.

And we built a roof. I primed and painted the inside of the roof before installing it.

I primed and painted the rest of the doll house with two coats of both primer and paint. The purple is the color of the twins' beds and the off white is paint that a paint store mixed up for us incorrectly a few years ago, then gave us for free.

I cut over 700 jumbo popsicle sticks in half and glued them onto the roof like shingles, one at a time. I could only do a few rows and then clamped them down or the tops of the sticks would start sticking up. I needed to make sure they laid as flat as possible.

I installed a pull out shelf from another tv stand to use as an extension to the living room. This took more time than I had hoped. I measured the extra wood we needed inside and my dad cut it to fit. My measurements and his cuts were awesome, but they were so good that the pull out was too tight of a fit and it wouldn't roll. It took time to get it to fit and we spent a full night working on just this. I sanded, primed, and painted the drawer and the extra wood before installing.

It took me a long time to decide on a roof color. Originally I thought I would paint it the same off white as the inside, but that just didn't seem right once the popsicle sticks were installed. Then I was thinking of staining them; which I think would have looked awesome on another project, but not on a kid's doll house. My dad came up with the dark purple idea after looking at their play tent colors. One of the best decisions I made during this project was buying the more expensive paint that included primer. Putting two coats on this roof was so much faster, and probably cheaper overall , than priming and then painting. My only primer at home is white, and I don't think the purple would have covered that very well. To finish off the roof, I bought a few random pieces of wood at Home Depot, painted them, and glued them on to make it look decent.

In the middle of working on the doll house itself, I was busy working on things for the inside. I got most of the furniture at Goodwill. I had to sew cushions for the couches, and I painted a cabinet and counter for the bathroom. I used lots of different colors of paint for the counter. Most of that paint I've bought over the years at Home Depot for other projects and all except the gold and black were $1 cans of oops paint. The gold and black are acrylics I bought for another project. I used tiny pieces of paper towel to paint the "granite" counter.

The almost finished project. I still need to frame a picture for the living room and make a flat screen tv for over the fireplace. I am making bunkbeds for the bedroom...but they don't fit. LOL. The kids don't mind. They will play with the beds outside of the house. I sewed pillows, matresses, and blankets for the beds. For the bathroom, I used an existing tub and toilet we already had. I would love to get more realistic ones, but the kids don't care, so for now these work great. The bathroom floor tile was on clearance at Menards and a friend gave me tile for the fireplace from a leftover backsplash project. The "grout" is light weight spackle.

We plan on moving the doll house down into the basement and anchoring it to the wall. It is a bit top heavy and I do not trust the kids to stay out of it. The last thing we need is this awesome project turning into a nightmare. I've checked for anchors at a few stores, but haven't found any yet. I may have to order them online.

A Dog's Life

How cute is this. Arya laid down and tried to position herself just like the dog.

That is one giant bottle of wine.

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas. It may be the last Christmas with so many of my siblings together. Three of my brothers and one of my sisters were there along with spouses and some of their kids. I'm not sure what the twins favorite gift was. One thing they got was a rainbow loom from their Uncle Greg. These are the huge thing around here right now. While they are a bit young for it and need help, they really do love it. They really do love everything the got, which is nice when we didn't go overboard and I really thought about their presents. Zia's favorite toy was a toss up between the wrapping paper and cardboard boxes.

18 Month Old Hair Loss

April pulled a big trick for Christmas eve. I feel like this is the type of stuff I'll need to do more often next year. I don't think they'll be happy with me dropping her anywhere.

My almost two year old nephew decided to pull a chunk of hair out of Zia's head today.

Cork and I ran an errand today. When we got home, my mom showed me that Eiley had fallen asleep. Poor kid must have been exhausted to sleep there.

Child Labor

Child labor at its finest. Seriously though, Zia was so into this old sewing machine. She was slowly turning the wheel and watching the needle go up and down. She had no idea anyone was watching her at first. She posed like this once she saw me.

My Old Dress

There was a pretty big snow storm last night. We drove home from Madison before it hit. This morning, the roads were not ideal, but we were up, so we went to church. Cork helped the girls get dressed while I was in the shower. Eiley picked out a dress that was mine when I was a kid.

Thanks to April, the girls got to make a whole village of marshmallow people today. They turned out pretty cute.

An Early Christmas

We did Christmas at Mema and Bepa's house today. Zia surprised me. I thought she would be so into ripping paper off presents, but she was very reserved. She happily let others help her with the paper.

Too Early Wake Up Call

Zia was up before 5:00 am this morning. Not fun. She was all over the bed and then back to sleep after the rest of us were up for the day. She looks calm at 5:34, but she wasn't, she was all over the place.

Eiley had a great time at her class party today. Zia had so much fun playing in the classroom and was a huge distraction for the rest of the kids.

Fat Lip

Silly April made a marshmallow snowman for the girls.

Zia gave herself a fat lip. A month later I don't even remember how she did it.

Cheese Snowmen

I made these today with the older two for Eiley's class holiday party. I wanted to send something that wasn't total junk, so I opened pinterest and this is what I found. The twins made some too. I should have taken a picture of those. They looked like they were from a horror movie.

Arya's class does not get to have a holiday party; which really bums me out. She has two boys in her class that are allergic to multiple food items. Her teacher doesn't want to exclude them, so he decided not to have a party. While I completely understand, I also think that the kids could have had a party with the regular foods they had during snack time and they would have just as much fun as Eiley's class will. Both classes will be singing songs and parents are invited, so we will at least get to go into her classroom after Eiley's party.

April is so lame. She drove a car last night..and the kids loved it. Zia was the one who found her this morning.

Popcorn Strings

April left the girls snow flakes today.

I don't know where this request for this came from, but the twins wanted to string popcorn for the Christmas tree. I gave them each thread and a needle and they got to work. Arya dropped her needle over and over again. Eiley only needed me to rethread her needle a couple times. Both did a great job though and neither poked herself.

Oh Puppy

Arya and Eiley wanted to make Christmas cookies today. They picked these colorful concoctions. I really didn't want to make them at first, then I realized that it would be good for them. They could work on understanding patterns, a pre-math skill, and work on rolling balls that were all about the same size. They did pretty good on both and rolled about half of the balls before getting bored and leaving.

The shirt says it all. This was Eiley's shirt, but it's pretty appropriate for Zia too.

The puppy strikes again.

Crazy Girls

Who doesn't love to run around in a giant sweat shirt?

Happy Birthday to Me

Arya and Eiley made me a birthday cake today. I helped frost it, but they did the decorating I'm very impressed with their writing skills. I had to tell them which letters to put, but they wrote it themselves I don't write well with a gel icing. They did fantastic though.

I had a very challenging day with all three kids today. Our plan was to go out for dinner as a family. By the time Cork got home, I wasn't sure that was a good idea. I wasn't sure any of them could behave long enough to get through a meal at a restaurant. The older two promised that they would behave, so we braved it and went out. The girls did pretty good. They sat politely most of the time we were there and ate well. Zia was a typical 18 month old. She was ready to be done before we were. With a little distraction here and there, she lasted until we were done.

Zia celebrated her 18 m birthday by being as obnoxious to her sisters as possible. She followed them around, took their stuff, and screamed in a high pitch scream all day. It was amusing at first, but the amusement didn't last. She is pretty funny most of the time though. She loves to do things and then yell "ah ha" to draw attention to herself. She likes to loudly run through all the name she knows, especially Arya and Dada"Papa, Dada, Arya, Mama, Dada, Arya, Dada, Arya, Nana, Dada, Arya". She calls both Arya and Eiley "Arya" and has even started using that for herself when you ask her to say Zia.

I had a late night working on the doll house and wrapping presents last night. I was super lame and took one scrap of paper and wrapped up April. The girls loved it.

The twins finished reading 1,000 books last week. I keep forgetting to take their picture with the chart. I asked what they wanted as a prize and again they wanted ice cream. I won't argue with that. With all the holiday junk food right now, it may be awhile before we take them.

Lipstick Baby

Someone got into my lipstick today.

Tiny Dancer

Eiley had her first home work assignment today. She had a gingerbread cut out that we were supposed to decorate as a family. Every person in the family was supposed to participate. We did most of it before Cork came home, but he helped her with the final touches. Even Zia helped. I know she ate at least one, probably more, M&Ms with tacky glue. I forgot to take a picture of the finished gingerbread girl, so hopefully we eventually get it back from school. Eiley decided she wanted a girl and not a boy, so I drew a skirt onto the paper before and and Arya cut it out. Their cutting it out made me realize how much more advanced Eiley is right now in writing and cutting. She just loves to do both and will spend lots of time in the office doing both each day. Arya likes to play with her dolls and cuddle more. I need to come up with ways to help her along. I don't think she's falling behind. She still writes well, but I want to make it fun for her.

I love when Zia photo bombs us.

Zia loves to dance, and by dance I mean spin. She danced so hard that she fell over into the fireplace hearth tonight. Poor kid.