Random pictures I didn't bother to blog about for a month

Wiza likes her bouncer! Tamsie likes her sister!





Enjoying our food...





Splashing in the dragon pool...



And being silly!



And while Grandma Linda was visiting, Eliza learned to sit up...







I found a reading lamp...



And organized my craft cabinet! Now all crafty supplies are in one spot. I divided our stuff into three categories:

• A $3.00 bin from Target corralling markers, crayons, chalk, watercolors, stamps & stamp pads, glue, paper bags, paper doilies, pipe cleaners, feathers, and masking tape
• A pencil caddy from Goodwill with popsicle sticks, wooden dowels, paint brushes, and glue sticks
• A spice rack from DI with ribbon, glitter, sequins, buttons, and googly eyes

I also have a bin full of fingerpaints, playdough, and cookie cutters, and above that, I store stacks of construction and watercolor paper, coloring books, and sheets of foam and felt.





This little cabinet is a lifesaver around 4:00 in the afternoon when we're about to turn on one another. I love the idea of Pinterest-worthy craft ideas, but crafting with a two-year-old is a soul-sucking epic fail, so getting out the supplies and letting them just go for it works for me. When I'm feeling saucy, I make little puppets out of felt for my world-class The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly puppet collection. So far I've made the fly. I showed it to Karl, feeling proud of myself. "Aww...is that Shaun the Sheep?" he asked.

See? Epic fail.

Bunkbeds, Phase One

They're up! I'm so sick of spindles I can hardly look in the girls' room without my eyelid twitching, but they're up and the girls love them. So far, no one's fallen out of bed or strangled themselves on the Daddy-rigged safety rail. I've yet to, oh, paint the room/put up art/add throw pillows/hang clothing hooks/do anything else, but I'm happy for now. The state of their room five minutes after they wake up is such that I'm not clamoring to pretty things up. One thing at a time!

I replaced the original dresser pulls after stealing the glass ones for the entryway desk, and somehow managed to misplace one screw. Hence one missing pull. This dresser is so ghetto.



Their closet, now pretty much the only place to play!



And the beds! You only get to see one corner—I'll show more once I manage to hide those unmatching Pillow Pals the girls insist on sleeping with.

The Fourth

A few sparkly snaps of our Fourth of July (which, little kids and all, was a bit of a non-event)!

Someone was coaxed onto the porch against her will



The man of the house shows us the ropes



This face totally makes me want to hand out lit fireworks



Getting into the spirit of things!

Project du Jour

Last week I inherited my dad's old high school desk, a battered old beast in need of an upcycling. Three evenings' worth of sanding, painting, and picking off a bajillion bugs in a 90-plus-degree garage, and it's now gracing our front hall as an entryway table! I rolled on three layers of paint left over from the Great Bunk Bed Redo (coming soon!), then swapped out the old knobs for the ones on the girls' dresser (which would not stay tight and gave me the heebie jeebies whenever I opened a drawer) and topped it with some leftover fabric. Gorgeous.

Pre-updo, obviously.



Yeah...no. No good.



Much better now!



Voila!



Just imagine...soon it'll be buried under utility bills and Wired magazines.

Happy Father's Day, Karl!

Happy Father's Day to the daddy they want when they're scared at night, who chases away the bad guys with his Hulk Smash and makes the best nutella sandwiches. Happy Father's Day to the daddy who fixes ponytails just right and is willing to play Barbies just this once. Happy Father's Day to the king of our hearts. We love you so!







Oldest child loves Daddy, too. She was just too busy accessorizing to sit for the group pictures.

Happy Birthday, Camryn K.!

Saturday my little Bundle Boo turned five years old! Where has the time gone? Wasn't this my little Cameroo just yesterday?



Anyway, after breakfast and presents...



(Eliza was so overcome by the birthday excitement, she upended her oatmeal into her high chair)





We went to Boondocks, that mecca of kid fun Camryn's been pining for all year. She had a blast.





Everyone needs a little lunch before the main events!







It's hard when you're too little for the race cars. Eating candy is a decent second option.





And what would a birthday be without the cake? How we love our five-year-old big girl Camryn!