Before and After

Ok, I FINALLY have some before and afters for you!  I still don’t have it all decorated like I want, but this is what it is going to look like for now. 

I wish I had the original befores but I can’t find them (since we lost our first laptop).  Bug’s room, when we first moved in, was painted a dark, dingy gray color and it looked like there had been posters ALL over the walls and ceilings because small chunks of paint were missing every few inches, like where tape would have been on the back of pictures.  I painted her room a green color before we moved her upstairs the first time so these befores are all from after that. 

Here’s her “first” room.

And now what it looks like! 

It’s hard to appreciate the improvements from just pictures.  The whole upstairs smelled because of the previous carpet which was stained and ripped in places, and it just felt dirty up there.  All the lath and plaster walls were crumbling with big holes in places, and now they are nice and smooth sheet rock.  It feels like a brand new house!

Here’s  a close up of her shelves with some cute frames I made at our church ladies’ group.

Here is her dormer…minus the floor which is already covered in toys and such.  So far we haven’t developed a good system for keeping their rooms clean.  I need to work on that!

And here’s her playroom that was previously unused, nasty attic space.   I originally had her Princess castle where the rocking chair is now, for about two weeks, but the constant clutter of tiny dresses, shoes, accessories was driving me CRAZY!  Thankfully by turning it on it’s side the castle was able to slide into the playroom and now all that clutter is still there but at least I’m not stepping on it. :)

We also put the overflowing bin of Princess dresses in her playroom.  Well…some of the dresses.  We also have another bin downstairs, and another dress up bin in the basement.

And here is what one wall of her room used to look like.

And now!  This is one of my favorite things we’ve done.  I have always loved in-wall beds and this one turned out great!  We will probably have to lose the bed and just put mattresses in there when she gets a little older.  She fits fine now, but I can’t sit up on the bed at all without hitting my head so when she gets a little taller she won’t be able to either.

I know these little shelf/cubbies were a pain for T to do, but I’m so happy he did.  They turned out so cute and are perfect for holding all her little things!

Here is the before of her closet.

And the after!

Before it was a single door and you had to reach around the corner to grab clothes off some homemade shelving.  It was a tight fit.

So they opened it up to a double bi-fold door with a big header and now it’s much more accessible, and bigger than it originally was.  We got some closet organization systems from Lowe’s and I’m loving them.  I need to do my closet next!  We got the cute little flower laundry baskets from Target.  The only problem is that Bug likes to fill hers “ALL THE WAY UP!” before letting me do her laundry. :)

And now on to Boo’s room.  Here room was actually a color I could live with, although a little on the minty side, but once again the walls were crumbling in places and just not great.  This picture is after we’d already replaced the old wood windows.

And now!  Yay!  I love how it turned out.  She got Bug’s old bed and I love how my little pennant banner turned out.  It was really simple too!  It only took me about an hour one day at my mom’s house using scrap fabrics I found in her bins. 

After literally months of searching I found the white and purple flowered curtains at Target.  I like how they look old-fashioned, and they tie in with the quilt. 

We got the miniature chandelier at a Booster Club auction two years ago and it’s been sitting in a box just waiting for a home this whole time.  I thought it was perfect for a little Princesses’ room. :)

This was Boo’s East wall.

And now!  This is in the running for the top spot of my #1 favorite thing we have done on the house!  I am SOOOO happy with how it turned out!  We wanted to take all the wasted attic space on that side and have built-ins, and it worked beautifully.  T had never made a bookshelf or a dresser before and look how amazing it turned out!!!  They are absolutely perfect and I love them!  I love the symmetry and the way he put each shelf at the same level of the drawers so there are nice long lines going through it.  Perfect!

And another angle…just because they are so pretty. :)

Here is the other wall before.

And the after.

And Boo’s new closet.  It’s about the same size it was before (maybe a little bigger) but with the closet system it’s much more efficient.  She has plenty of space for clothes since she has the built-in dresser.

I found this mirror at the local school auction last year and my grandma helped me paint and distress it.

Boo’s dormer.  These really opened up the rooms, but the biggest plus is the extra window in them.  The whole upstairs used to feel like a dark cave with only one window on each end of the house.  Now the space feels light and airy, and so much more cheerful.

Here is the inside of Boo’s playroom.  Bug’s is the princess area and Boo’s is set up like a little house.

I really wish I had a before picture of the old attic space.  You could only walk in about two feet before you would hit your head on the rafters and it was all dark and nasty with insulation hanging down everywhere.  It was a totally unusable space.  I had two small things in there for storage, but there was a big hole under the eaves where you could actually see outside so I didn’t want to store much in there for fear of birds or squirrels coming in.

And now….it’s a pretty little guest room! 

Poor baby girl is going to get the short end of the stick when she moves up there.  The room is MUCH smaller than Bug and Boo’s, and the closet is teeny.  She does have access to Bug’s playroom and our hope is that by the time she gets old enough to want to use it that Bug will be too big for it and ready to give it up.  T built a cute little door for it to give guests privacy.

We’ll have to figure out some good space saving techniques when it’s baby’s turn for a big girl room, but for now it is the perfect size for a guest room.

Well that’s all the pictures I have for now.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make some cute decorations to fill all those empty walls.  T is loving it.  He hates “clutter” on the walls…which he considers to be more than one picture or decoration per 10 square feet so he’s thrilled with all the blank walls.  I, on the other hand, have been bitten by the decorating bug.  I’ll have to keep it toned down for him, but there’s definitely going to be some more stuff going up!  Pictures of that as it comes.

Our Graduate

Last week Buggy had another big milestone moment:  Preschool graduation!  I had to get a picture of her on the way out the door to her last day…

Her face has really changed and matured over the last 9 months!  Here’s her 1st day picture.

I can also tell she’s done a lot of growing because I bought this blue flowered dress at the beginning of the year and it was so big she couldn’t wear it.  It would fall off her shoulders.  Now it fits perfectly up top and is actually getting a little short.

Here she is with her whole class. Four of them graduated and the other four will go back next year.

Miss J had a graduation celebration and BBQ on the last day.  I think this was the first time Boo had been in the backyard there.  She thought this preschool stuff is pretty fun!

Our big little graduate. :)

Bug got to hold the flag for us to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Then they performed several songs and poems for us and each child said their name, address, and phone number which Miss J had helped them memorize.  The poem that goes with this picture is: If I had a spoon as big as the sky, I’d scoop up the clouds as they passed me by.  I’d take them inside for mother to cook and see if they tasted as good as they look.  :)

They also did their ABC’s with the accompanying sign language and letter sounds for us.  Then Miss J gave them a certificate and a sweet little scrapbook with pictures from their different activities throughout the year.  She is such an awesome teacher!

She also provided a BBQ for all of us.

Bug had such a fun year.  I’m so thankful that she got to experience this year of preschool.  It has been so good for her and it’s also been good for Boo and I to have special time on our own three mornings a week.  Miss J also does summer “playschool” so I signed them up to go to it twice a month.  She said Boo would be welcome to come too since it’s less structured.  I think they will have a lot of fun.

Here’s K with two of her girlfriends.  Miss J calls them the Three Musketeers. :)

Bug and Miss J.

What a great year!

When we got home we had a small graduation/welcome to summer gift for the girls, just a new shovel and pail and some bubbles.  I saw these bubbles in the store the other day and was so excited!  They said squeeze bubbles on the front so I thought you would just flip the lid and squeeze the bottle and bubbles would come out the top.  Alas, it was just the wand that would pop out and then you could blow so whenever they squeezed it (of course too hard) bubble stuff would come flowing up and down the sides.  I was hoping it would be less messy but I think it was actually worse than the regular kind (you can see the mess on Boo’s coat).  I definitely won’t be buying these again!  Especially since they were $3 and used up in one sitting, but they enjoyed it and that’s what counts, right? :)

We also had our last bible study on Wednesday.  Dance class is now over, and our last T-ball game is Thursday!  I am SOOO looking forward to slowing down, taking it easy, and having an un-busy couple of months!  Hooray for summer!!!!

Recital

On Saturday Buggy had her big end of the year dance recital.  It was so good!  I was really impressed with how well all the kiddos did, and how much work must have gone into the whole thing!  Miss K put on quite the show!  There were 15 different acts and it took a good hour and half. It was so fun to watch all the groups because we know kids in each class.

On Friday Bug and I went to the dress rehearsal and they got their pictures taken.  I thought the background was really cute. 

There were two shows on Saturday so Bug and I ended up being there for over 5 hours total…which explains why I got a little video happy. When you are waiting somewhere for that long you want to video the entire 90 seconds you came for. :) (T stayed home with Boo so she could sleep since the first show was right during naptime.) I think I got at least a dozen videos, but I narrowed it down to these few. :)

Each group did a ballet and then later did a tap dance.  This is the ballet in the 1st show.  I thought this video was the cutest because they had a little “freestyle” section.  So funny.

For their tap dance they did La Bamba.  They have one boy in their class and his mom had his costume specially made.  So cute. 

I just had to put this video in here.  This boy goes to our church and is only 11 years old!!!  He totally blew us away!  I knew he was a good dancer but he did an awesome job with a Michael Jackson montage. This is just a small clip.  The whole thing was 3-4 minutes long with probably 5 or 6 songs in it.  It was great!  Miss K even had someone ask her if she’d had him brought in as special guest act! 

After the first show we went home and since it was right in the middle of naps and Bug was all hyper from her big performance I let her stay up.  Noni, Papa, Mama, Grandma, and Grandpa all arrived and we had dinner before running back to the second show. 

That’s when I realized I should have tried to get her a nap.  I dropped her off in the “staging” room and went to sit down.  Noni had come with me to help save seats for everyone and then one of the other moms came out and said Bug was crying.  She had bumped her leg and it didn’t even have a mark but she was so tired that she just cried and cried.  I had to sit back there with her for 15 minutes before she finally calmed down enough for me to leave.  She pulled it together though and, although not quite as focused on the routine, did a great job again. :)

Here’s the “freestyle” part again.  She got a little more into it this time with her twirling and whirling.  She was in the back row at the second performance so you can’t see her quite as well…just look for the giant red hairbows. :)

And here’s the La Bamba again.  She and her friend S, the other brunette, are two of the oldest ones there.  You can tell the smaller ones would rather just do their own thing than try to follow the routine, but that’s what makes them so cute. :)

I thought their little bow at the end was cute.  She had so much fun! 

At the end they all gathered up on stage and did the end of the year stuff.  Miss K gave them little trophies that look like a star.

Back in the staging room she said, “Mom, take my picture!” and struck this pose. :)

What a great experience! I am so happy Bug had the chance to do this!  We are already looking forward to next year!

Shoes

Boo loves shoes.  She especially loves some “new” princess tennis shoes that were handed down from a friend.  They are pretty scruffy looking and I was happy to get them to use as play shoes in the backyard.  I don’t like having to worry about them ruining their shoes.  Little did I know she would become attached to them and want to wear them ALL the time.  Literally.  The minute she gets up in the morning she wants to put them on and it’s a struggle every night to get her to give them up for bed. 

The funny thing is that she calls them her “ex-er shoes”.  I think she only sees me put on tennis shoes when I’m going to exercise so she has labeled any and all tennis shoes as exercise shoes.   When she’s not calling them “ex-er shoes” they are her “bouncy shoes” because they light up when she bounces.  I had to get a little video of her and her shoes since I know these cute little pronunciations will quickly fade away.  She also calls her Crocs “rocks” and her sandals “candles”.

Birthday Presents

Well, I took the computer in for a scan yesterday and they said there is some sort of software virus, but T did something to it and it seems to be working.  We’ll see if it lasts.  I thought I’d better blog quickly before we lose it again.

I got so caught up in vacation posts I never posted about K opening her birthday presents.  She opened most of her presents in Florida but we had left some here too.  We left our big present because…well it was big. :)  We had bought this present on black Friday and it had been in Grandpa’s closet ever since.  I think this set of Barbie sized Princess dolls is usually around $60 but we hit a doorbuster and got it for $25.

Daddy had to free the damsels from their plastic twist tie, rubber banded prison.  It’s amazing how much packaging they use on toys now-a-days!

Yay!  Princesses!

Pawpaw and Nana sent an adorable Princess jewelry box. 

Bug was so happy with her “big girl” gift.

She took it upstairs right away to put her play jewelry in.

She also got money from Grandma V and Grandpa J and gift cards to Target from Uncle Jason, Aunt Heather, Uncle Mike, and Auntie Nina.  We’ve been to Target once and she wants to buy a big Strawberry Shortcake house.  T wanted her to think it over (since she so randomly decided that’s what she wanted) so we didn’t buy it then but she is still talking about it so I think we’ll go back and get it soon.

Here is the rest of Noni and Papa’s present…and a sneak peak of Bug’s room.

Isn’t it adorable?!?  I saw this reading tent tutorial on Pinterest and sent the link to my mom.  She had some fabric leftover from when she made Bug’s quilt and made a matching one.  It turned out SOOO cute!  I love it!  And Buggy does too. :)

I need to get some decorations up on the walls and then I will give you the before and afters.  Right now it’s pretty blank upstairs.

Thanks everyone for all the sweet birthday gifts for Bug (a month ago).  :) 

Hopefully the computer will keep working and I’ll be able to get some more posts up soon!