Happy Valentines Day!

This year we made Harrison’s Valentines Day cards, he whet to town drawing on each and every card – unfortunately before he got through the last few cards he came down with a nasty cold.

Fortunately the last few cards were for the girls, so he drew hearts and flower gardens which seemed to be faster and easier.

He said to me, “Don’t say that I love so-and-so!”
“What? Why would I say that?” I responded.
(Because I tease him about loving girls every day…NOT)
He held up a card for me to see and pointing to each said, “Because I drew - one, two, three, four, five, six, SEVEN hearts on her card.” 
“Okay.”
“She is cute though.”
[pause]
”And nice. But I don’t love her!”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” he repeated and continued drawing hearts on the rest of the cards.
Sadly, he didn’t get to pass his cards out today, he stayed home - still sick.

Earlier today as he looked at a picture of the cards with the heart shaped lollipop. He asked what happened to the heart-shaped lollipops. “I threw them away because they are REALLY bad-for-you candy.
“Hey, Wait! Why do you let ME eat the bad-for-me candy!?”

good point kid.

The Next Best Thing

Yes, some days I hate living in a condo.
Because honestly, some days I just don’t feel like going down to the nearest park for outside time.

Some days Harrison hates living in a condo.
Not because I won’t go down to the park for outside time.

No.

Because he wants a tree house.
And why not, he’s a boy.

Heck, I wanted a tree house when I was a kid… and I’m a girl.

Anyway, this summer I did the next best thing I could do, I went to Home Depot, picked up some wood and put together a portable tent, all for less than $10. I’m so handy - I even drilled the holes in the wood for bolts so I could fold it and move it when need be (I guess those Theater set building classes in college finally paid off)!

It’s a little big for inside this home, however we had to give it a test run.



Then we set it up outside on the deck.  Yup. I used a curtain rod to hold up the fabric (which I already had).



After some select toys, pillows, blanket and twinkle lights, he was set.



He spent hours out there… until the rain set in a couple months later and we had to take it down for the season.



Back yards and tree houses are highly overrated anyway.


Not Really.

A Big-Kid Room

It’s actually been MONTHS since we re did Harrison’s room.  After we moved we had to combine Harrison’s room with the toys from the guest room/playroom/TV room. Not to mention the toys big Brother brought over to the house before he went off to college.
 
It quickly become obvious that just moving the furniture from Harrison’s nursery wasn’t going to cut it in the new space. We had to let some of it go to move forward in a new environment.

I searched for a good couple months. Finally, I landed on the Ikea Expedit shelves as the perfect resolution to my space issues. Shelving that could grow with Harrison.

So off we went to Ikea to get the new furniture – only to find out they were changing manufacturers and would have the units for two – three months!

Let me tell you, we have three Ikeas within a 50 mile radius – I tracked them all and I became very well acquainted with Craigslist to no avail.
Finally, they were back in stock and I drug the hubby to the nearest Ikea as fast as humanly possible. 
I didn’t get the walls painted yet, but we love the outcome of Harrison’s room.
Harrison loves the outcome of his room.

In the picture above, you can see the clear bins that hold all of Harrison’s Legos. I love these; most of the time he only dumps one small bin at a time as opposed to dumping a giant tub all over the floor.

We swapped out the smaller unit in the closet with the vintage chest of drawers. It works much better next to the bed and still fits the pails that hold miscellaneous toys.
As he cleaned his room the other day to prepare for a play date, he stood back to take it all in. Suddenly he jumped up on the bed and announced, “There’s room here for another person! Hey, Can I have a sleepover! I’m ready for a sleep over now!”

The question is: Am I ready for a sleep over.

Oh, and notice how good he looks in those jeans… just sayin’.

Crafting Some Christmas Spirit

 After quiet and careful examination of the delicate objects spilling out of the Christmas boxes, he took a lick of the over-sized lollipop and exuberantly announced, "we need to make a Christmas Star for the top of our Christmas tree!"

Armed with a little bit of cardboard, aluminum foil and tape, we went to work creating a star.

Six bottles of glitter glue later...
 

we're still waiting for it to dry.

That was Sunday.

roots

I'm not sure why I didn't latch on to my painting abilities and the enjoyment I get from it more than I did. After all, I breezed through all my scene painting classes in college with A's and painted murals for friends but I didn't really stop to focus on it or what I could do with it. I still enjoy it though, when I get a chance to paint - uninterrupted.

Art is in the blood though. My grandmother had it, my mother had it, I have it, my son has it.

The desire to create.

We always make time for that.

Happy Tuesday.

{originally posted at Just Add Color}