Our Fun Typhoon Weekend at Home

Well, we experienced our 2nd typhoon on the island. This one wasn't so bad either, but it allowed Avery and Steve to stay home from school/work today. It felt like the perfect rainy day (for three days). Sometimes we all get stir crazy being cooped up in the house, but things went so smoothly this weekend. The kids are starting to play really well together. Avery always has ideas up her sleeves on what to do next.=)

We put a desk in our living room corner. It was packaged in all this crumbly foam that got EVERYWHERE! The kids pretended it was snow. I think I vacuumed a total of 4 times and I'm still finding some!

Here's what it looks like. I stuck two storage ottomans we got from Amazon underneath. They fit perfectly (and slide out to sit in), and are great for storing the printer, camera, etc. One is actually empty (probably not for long). Go us!

It comes in handy when the kids want to play in a box.=)

Here's the view from the other side of our living room (it's on it's 1,233rd layout in 9 months...). We are selling the rug. As comfortable as it was, we want something lighter. It looks out of place with the light colors we have going on in there. And we're not fans of the scratchy brown chair cushions. I think my mom's going to make us some off white ones=) =) Or maybe a fun print....It may seem crazy to be tweaking the house so much since we only have a little over two years left in it. Recently, I've realized how much nicer it is to have a house that you LOVE. I used to never really care too much about home decor, organization, etc. For me it's important now. I want to love being at home since I'm home a lot. Things do run smoother with kids when we know where things are.

 Will need to get some fun pillows and maybe a throw for the chairs. We really thought about going with a really bold print, but I'm scared I'll get tired of it. And sewing chair cushions isn't just a simple task. I'm so happy my mom can sew! Once of these days I'll learn maybe.

I ordered a new book the kids LOVE. The Wheels on the Bus by Paul O Zelinsky. It's the cutest pop up book I've ever seen.  

Avery loves reading to Noah.

They also enjoy playing the IPad together. Noah is content to just watch Avery. He never touches it for some reason. And I'm not pushing it! I'm enjoying them not fighting over that for the time being. I should download some new apps. I'm no techy, so I don't get into it too much. I downloaded a bunch when we first got it almost a year ago, and that's what they're still playing. I often overhear Monkey's Lunchbox and the Bob Books being played.

Hide your eyes if you don't want to see a mess! lol, I spent about 30 minutes cleaning out our (coat?) closet, and I love the end result. I think we'll be able to maintain the system for once. There's a lot of space, but it's so narrow, so it's a little hard to work with. It such a pain to walk through, so I had a container at the front to put things in that I was too lazy to put away (too lazy to walk to the end of the closet to the desk in there). I got rid of that because it was always overflowing! When I have enough light, I'll take a picture of the "after." This is when I cleared a lot of it out!

 Avery loves helping me mop the floor. It's not child labor when they want to, right?! She likes to "ice skate" on it.

This was a fun activity...water marbles! I ordered these water crystals from Amazon for about $2.00. We put about half of each package in a bowl of water in the morning. We would check them throughout the day as they kept getting bigger and bigger.

Avery had the most fun of all playing with them in the bowl throughout the day.

 Maybe because when they reached their full size, I gave them each a bowl and made them go outside with them (maybe that was mean...?). It wasn't raining anymore and the wind wasn't too strong. But still, Avery doesn't like wind AT ALL, so she took hers inside. Noah enjoyed throwing his and watching them bounce. There's probably a million learning activities you can do with these, but this first time they just liked bouncing and feeling them.=)

Lots of tea parties go on in this house (like the makeshift rug?)

This was such a good idea that I adapted from here. She did a superhero scavenger hunt for her boys, but I did a princess one. Basically, Dora left a note saying that the witch had captured all the princesses, and she needed our help finding them. The clues were very basic. For example, "Thank you for saving me. The witch said she was going to put Ariel outside by the door." Or "Sleeping Beauty is in the closet upstairs." Of course, this can be made more challenging for older kids.

Their amazed faces as I reached up and "rescued" Ariel.

The last clue was that the rest of the princesses were in the freezer. I've never seen Avery look so suprised/amazed/worried because her princesses were almost frozen! Luckily, they had only been sitting in the water for an hour or so so they popped right out of the half way frozen ice. The girl who I got the idea from had the superheros frozen all the way, and her son loved hammering away at the ice to free them.=)

They found them all!

So fun! Avery said "That was so much fun! I'm tired from rescuing them. I'm going to go lay down for a minute."

It wasn't long before she came out ready to play some more. I got all this Mr. Potato Head stuff for $10 from Okinawa Yard Sales. I don't think I'll ever buy a new toy again. 

"Papa Potato Head" (because of the mustache)

 I can't even tell you how many blanket train rides the kids got this week. They are enjoying not having a rug for that reason! When Steve and my arms get tired Avery eventually pulls Noah around a few times. Noah isn't happy when Avery gets tired of it.=) We've started pulling them around the house before bed. It's their "nighttime train ride" where they say goodnight to things in the house and they are dropped off at the bathroom to brush their teeth. Then Steve reads to Noah, and I read to Avery. And lately they've both been going right to sleep! Whatever works, right?!

I've been DIYing a lot of projects around the house since we moved in (it all started because of Pinterest....). A quick one I did this weekend was spray some painters tape a metallic color and use it to line the boring black mirror above the living room desk.

I like how it now ties in better with some of the gold accents on the desk.

Like this new bowl I made. Just a plain $1.00 white bowl that i drew on with a gold paint marker. So simple.

And the lamp. Now we just need a little lamp for the desk.

See the bag under the desk (it's there so this picture taking addict always has it on hand)? It's my new camera bag from Steve. It's from Jo Totes and I LOVE it! Now I can go places with my camera without a bag that shouts "Here comes my camera!" Good choice, Steve. He may have gotten a little nagging hint from me a few times all the store, but the color and style was all him. And I love it.