Organizing the Playroom...

So one of the first projects that we did in our new home was to get the playroom somewhat organized; which, understand, is a constant work in progress...We pulled this room together with things we already had, which made it pretty easy to do, and inexpensive.  It all started with our old media cabinet.  It was to big for our new space so we figured it would make a great toy cabinet.  It is still going to be painted white, but that will come with time.  For now it is housing a lot of toys large and small.  I will show pictures of the inside of the cabinet in a future post as it is also still a work in progress.  I find we have to live with things a while to see how to best organize them rather than do and redoing over and over.  We also re-purposed the white shelves.  They were left in the boys room when we moved and we didn't really care for their placement, so we thought they would be perfect for more storage and it makes the toys look a bit like art, if that is possible for toys.   I also had to put a sitting area in the room.  I had these wing chairs and thought they would work well.  I love it for reading and it is a great place to sit and just watch the boys play.  I also think it helps the room not just look like a big toy room.  
This shelf is one that was used in our old playroom along with the baskets.  I also will be painting this shelf white, but it works for now.  I tried to keep this room bright, colorful and fun.  It was an adjustment having the play room on the main floor.  In our old home it was in the basement.  But it has been nice as they enjoy going in there and playing and having it set up this way it is also easy for them to clean up, which is nice for me...

Here is the way the room looked before we moved in.  I think with the new paint color, white curtains and other changes we have made, it has really brightened up the room and it is working for our family and making it feel like our home.

It is a stormy day today so it sounds good to curl up right here with a good book and listen to the rain...well, maybe I'll curl up with 3 boys and a good book instead...

A Super Spider-Man Birthday Party

So I had the pleasure of putting together this Super Spider-Man Birthday party for my, now,  4 year old.  This is my 11th party I have had for one of my boys.  Hard to believe.  This one was fun, but man; I hope I never have to work with red fondant ever again!!!  My cake didn't turn out quite how I was hoping, but the boys all loved it and that is truly what matters! 

We had to include lost of sweets.  I can't have a birthday party for this boy without jelly beans.

I went with very simple, but super, snacks.  

This was a fun project.  I'm not a huge fan of goody bags, but I do like to send the kids home with something.  Usually it is a sugar cookie.  To the sugar cookies I added super hero capes.  They seemed to be a big hit with all of them.  They were easy to make too.  Well, I made them easy anyhow.  I was by no means going for perfection, that's for sure.

Here is how I made them:

I cut fabric in a half circle then the circle in half.  To get a good half circle I tied a marker to a string and held it at one end then made the circle (kind of like a compass).  After cutting them and then cutting them in half I did the same thing making a smaller half circle at the top and cutting that out.  If you feel inclined, this is when you could hem the fabric.  I skipped this step.  It just didn't seem worth it for 14 capes that would probably be ruined faster than the time it took me to make them.  At this point, I sewed on a ribbon at the top and then used fabric tape to tape hook and loop so they would be safe and easy to put on and off.  This kids enjoyed this and my 3 boys have enjoyed running around the house after each other in them!

These are the invitations that I made.  I only wish that I had this picture before I made them...oh well, what are you gonna do!

The weather was so beautiful we spent alot of time out in the yard and they kids enjoyed doing an super hero training course.

We had a super time, that's for sure!!!