Momma VS. Toys

So the playroom (i.e. basement) and I finally battled it out. Ya know, I was just DONE wading through toys and dress-up clothes strewn all over. Are you up on your Berenstain Bears reading? Well, I about had the same meltdown that Mama Bear had over the kids' room...big box ready to clear it all out and pitch it!

Instead, I've opted to try and sell it! During my hemming and hawing over exactly what to do with all the piles of plastic, I ran into my friend Jennifer at the park. Just so happens she bought the Here We Grow Again kid's consignment sale franchise and was gearing up for their first sale (details will follow). And so began the clearing and the organizing like never before...we've even packed up all the baby things now that we're done (Lord willing) with newborns!

Our van is loaded and ready to roll to drop off approximately 275 items tomorrow morning!!! Clothes and books and toys and baby equipment out the wazoo!


I really think everyone is happier with our nice and livable playroom now...see all their pretty smiles sitting on my side-of-the-road-find loveseat? (BTW I'm going to slipcover it for my bedroom one of these days).

Zane is discovering all kinds of new fun toys that were before hidden in the masses...here's his first look at a yo-yo. Hmmmm....

All the toys are sorted in to baskets, boxes or fabric cubes and I had a ball making laminated labels with clip art to tie on--with pretty ribbons, of course! (Yeeeee....don't you just LOVE the hum of a laminator?) I think the best part is that I actually had all the containers, just repurposed some things to make them work.

When we refinished our basement 7 years ago, I had Eric turn the space under the stairs into a playroom. My mom's best friend's house had one of these and I have some of my favorite childhood memories playing under there.

This would be the alternate entrance....

And here are all the nice neat toys...believe it or not, it still looks about like this three weeks later. And we've played down there a lot! (Oh, that shelf just happens to be another side of the road find!--a waterbed headboard that I panted white.)

I suppose there is still a lot of play equipment, but someday we'll be ready to set up the ping-pong table again!

Well, hopefully this was a little inspiration to clean out your toys before the Christmas reboot OR I've talked you into heading out to the Here We Grow Again sale this week to buy more fun stuff for your kiddos! It's actually a great place to get a head start on Christmas shopping!! The sale opens to the public at 7 a.m. this Thursday at the Crystal Ballroom/Roadway Inn just off 71 Highway and 155th Street. Saturday is the half-price day and you can shop from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Happy Shopping...or Organizing!

The Great Henna Experiment Continues

I have final before/after pics of my own henna'ed head at the end of this post, but this time it was my sister Jodi's turn! Her head has about twice as much hair on it as mine...we're talking a veritable mop. It's beautiful, thick and naturally wavy (jealous!).



We're glad our husbands are such good sports with all the hair coloring experiments we've tried over the years. Nate looks like he thinks we're crazy or something! I can't imagine why?



It took every last bit of 300g's of henna mixed with lemon juice and some raspberry tea to stretch it to cover her locks. It was a heavy load on top of her head!



Ahhh, but the results! This is day one for her...almost the same as my final color so I'm anxious to see how rich and dark it will get.



Here's my before (again) and....today, two weeks after henna. I think this experiment is a keeper!

Another Sojourn to Wichita

This time we visited Wichita just for a couple days...one of them VERY important. It was Stella Joy's 4th birthday! YAY!

Kai and Stell were playing with a little toy frog on a chilly evening...for those of you who don't know Stella, well, she poses for every picture. I'm guessing this one snapped before the whole angelic look was set!


Ahhh, baby Ava is such a dolly!


This is actually what most of my pictures of these hoodlums looked like! They were BUSY!

On our way out of town, we went with the Hart's to their Monday morning hang-out place, Squeak's! Only the best donuts for us!


Mmmmmmph, Momma, I wuv donut holes!

Elena's Half Birthday

Not sure how we started celebrating half-birthdays, but it sure is fun! We figure any excuse for cupcakes is a good one! Since Elena is SEVEN and a HALF now, I let her use the hand mixer for the first time. She did great!


My kids are never anxious for cake or anything...


And seven just really is a great age...some days we're all grown up and then some days...yay, the little girl is still there!


And then there's the one and a half year old...oh dear!

A Couple Firsts

Kai's first tooth...is missing! Yay!

His two bottom teeth were super wiggly so with a little help from Daddy with the pliers (yikes) out it came! This was last Sunday (9.26) I believe, and he pulled out his second one last night. The tooth fairy left him five golden dollars for the first one since it's extra special and two golden dollars last night.

I think Kai is most stoked because he's only 5 1/2 and Elena was 6 before she lost one. Plus, he's the first one of his Kindergarten buddies to pull one out!

Last week we also took Elena and Kai to their first KC Royals game.

I haven't been to the stadium since I was 13 so there were a bunch of changes, to say the least. The "Little K" area was fun to explore before the game. They did a couple of the ball games then rode the carousel.



Our seats were AWESOME (thanks Shawn) and we were ready for fly balls, but only "almost " caught a hot dog launched by the mascot dude (it actually was several rows away, but to Elena girl, that's almost). We also ran into one of our favorite neighbors, Miss Angie, and some of our friends, the Hodges...all sitting in our same section. That was fun times.


Oh, yes, and a giant E thanks to the Hall of Fame for our two family E-namers: