Start your engines!

The kids spent Saturday afternoon with Dad. First, they visited the Speedster show.

This was Ryan's favorite car.

Emma in a Legend

Then he took Ryan racing. This was his first time on a larger track.

Number 25...moving out!

He decided that he LOVED racing. He and Dad have plans to go once a month.

Dad got into the driver's seat. It's amazing how

fast the adults go!

Emma enjoyed cheering on Ryan and Dad.

A chip off the ol' block!

Thanks, Dad, got being such a great "Hop" to the kids!

They'll remember these times with you their whole lives!

Emma's room...

...is done for now!

Emma's room is painted, organized and ready to play in!

I was able to get rid of the dresser and another piece of furniture, which gives her a

ton of playing space. That corner to the right of the bed is going to be her dress-up area.

We have plans for this corner! We're going to make a lovely, comfortable

reading area for Emma. We'll post pics when it's finished!

This is the desk/chair set that Mom and Dad got Ryan when he turned one!
It's been such a wonderful addition to each of the kids' rooms. The chalkboard top
lifts up for storage of coloring books, etc.
That's the door just behind it...it's still leaning against the kitchen wall
waiting for me to paint the back of it (tomorrow's job).

This is how we solved the closet door issue.
The closet had bi-fold doors which were always open and stuck out
quite far into the room. That area to the left between the window and the closet was
totally useless. We got rid of the doors (yay!) and bought curtains. I'm sure they'll
be open most of the time...

...but they look very nice when they are closed.
(I still love this ceiling fan!)


This is how I found the kids before dinner tonight. Ryan was
reading and Emma was playing her Leapster. It's nice to see them
have moments like this...in between the moments when they are bickering!
~~
So that's her room for now. We have several craft projects to start and finish...
Once this is done, it's time to switch gears to sports and the color blue!

Kindergarden!

Kindergarden: must be a pretty place because there's a garden in it!

-Ryan's thoughts back when he was entering Kindergarten

With mixed feelings, I registered Emma for Kindergarten today.

I can't believe that it's that time already!

The kids received a passport that received stickers at each station.

And a new bright green t-shirt!

We were SO excited to see Miss Erin at registration. This is the
FABULOUS lady that does Wednesday morning storytime. She and her sidekick, Monkey, so an awesome job with stories, games and songs. I'm always amazed that Emma will still read with me...Miss Erin makes it so exciting!
If we get into morning K next year, we will miss seeing her each week!

She can't be old enough, could she?!

Ryan's class is participating in a third grade cabbage growing contest.

He got to bring his cabbage plant home today...we'll see how big they'll get!

"This is how you spell my name."

The math table.

She's all ready!

Of course I'm ready, Mom!

After cleaning and organizing Emma's room today, we needed to go to the store.

I came down the hall to see if she was ready. She thought she was!

I see in her future...

...a love of sewing.

(My future might involve battles for the sewing machine!)

Madhouse!

For about fifteen minutes each evening (more when it's not

tax season), we live in a madhouse!

Oh, those blue eyes

We had a little vistor yesterday afternoon.

It was so nice to have a six-month-old in the house.

Luckily he has older brothers and is very tolerant as

Emma was very entertaining!

Ceiling fan makeover

Emma and I got to play with tools today. While I borrowed Bob's

drill, Emma learned how to use the screwdriver.

I LOVE how this turned out. Em has a tiny ceiling fan in her room...the blades are just
11" long. It made it super easy to cover with three pieces of patterned scrapbook
paper and some ModgePodge.
The glow-in-the-dark stars were on the ceiling when we moved in...the one thing I'm not allowed to change in Emma's room. She loves to look at them at night.

Almost finished!

The end is in sight!

Just a little bit more pink...

We're still working on Emma's room. The walls are done, along with one wall of woodwork.

Here are a couple of pics...more to follow once everything's done and the room is put back together.

Three walls are the light pink on the left and just one wall is the darker pink (thankfully!)

This is the woodwork issue we were working with. The beadboard is white and the moulding across the top is white. But, the woodwork around the door, closet, windows and bottom of the floor is dark brown. I decided to try my hand at painting it all white. Luckily, Ryan has informed me that his can stay brown!

Here's a corner with the two paint colors and the woodwork complete. You can
see the that moulding along the floor on the dark pink wall is not yet white.
Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow! Thank goodness for rainy days....