Room Fit For a Tween

We have a 4 bedroom house. 
Up til a week ago, the girls shared a room and boys shared a room.
Well you know how girls mature faster than boys?
My 9 yr old girl has all the makings of a tween.
And sharing a room with a messy, invasive 5 yr old about had her in hives.
(Boys, 11 and 7 have no interest in splitting up.)
So once our house listing expired (bummer) we decided to finally mix things up around here.

Kalla got the 'extra' room.
The one we used sort of as office (not really), guest room (rarely) and storage (mostly).
So it got a clean coat of white paint and some fun accessories.


Quilt was found at our local Goodwill, but is Target brand and I've seen them there.
SMILE pennant was made by the 2 of us over Thanksgiving break.


Curtains made by me.
Fabric from Hobby Lobby--hard to see here, but it's a pink and white geometric design.


Biggest wish was a space to set up a permanent doll bedroom.
Don't you adore the poster doll bed made for me as a girl by my paw paw and patch quilt made by my great grandmother.
To be honest, I've had to convince Kalla how much more awesome they are than the sparkly trendy doll beds in AG catalog.


Desk is a cheapy piece from Goodwill.
I painted it's veneer wood a bright white.
Chair is just a stand in til I can figure out how to get the vintage metal one I thrifted's cushion off so I can paint and reupholster it.

Decorated the white desk a bit with some washi tape.
Orange silverware holder holds all her little notebooks, mp3 player and cutsie erasers and pens.
Clear chevron box from Target holds her craft stuff.


Mirror is cheap plastic thrift find painted orange.
Blue lamp thrifted.
Painted blue plaque keeps her bowl of bracelets and sunglasses organized.
Replaced glass of cheap frame with cork board to hang necklaces on.
Far Beautiful printable from Joys Hope here.


Giant bulletin boards to hang anything she likes from Hobby Lobby.
Framed out with some washi tape.


Bed was hubby's old bed with storage underneath...SO NICE.
Don't look too close and you'll see I haven't finished painting it yet.  :)

Boys got moved to the girls' old room since it was the largest and biggest closet.
Maressa now has the bunk beds to herself and is enjoying the top bunk.
Her room will get a coat of white and some special things eventually.

But for now I'm sick.
Hence the time to post as I can't work on projects feeling like this!

Lunches for the Queen of Picky

Ok, so she's not exactly picky in the traditional sense.
She's actually a good eater for a 5 yr old, but unlike my other kiddos, a sandwich for lunch will just not do.

She's not a huge bread eater (weird I know!)  Unless it's sweet cornbread or muffins or the like.
So coming up with lunch to send to school has been a challenge.

I've tried variations of the cold cut lunch with ham and cheese tortilla wraps or homemade lunchables.
But they come home mostly uneaten.

So we've moved to hot in a thermos type lunches.
She doesn't really do soup, so I've had to be creative.

So thought I'm surely not alone in this dilemma and would share our current hot lunch list:

Maressa's Thermos Lunches

*Mac n cheese (an obvious choice, but not my fav since she will only eat the neon powdered cheese kind which on occasion is fine, but don't like her to eat it daily)
with a side of bite sized ham to eat with it

*Whole wheat egg noodles and chicken (current fav--directions on how I prepare it at bottom of post)

*chili (bean-and-chunky-anything-less) served with side of shredded cheese to sprinkle on top and sweet cornbread and crackers

*taco meat served again with cheese and tortilla chips

*scrambled eggs and cheese

*grilled chicken pieces with side of bbq sauce for dipping (I don't send breaded chicken nuggets or anything like that due to the fact it gets soggy)

*spaghetti and mini meatballs

So there you have it.  Husband says she's spoiled with these gourmet lunches, but it's often leftover dinner stuff.  Or I make a weeks worth of chicken and noodles at one time to just heat up in the mornings...actually quicker and easier than making a sandwich.  And her thermos is always completely empty when she gets home.  And she doesn't have the I'm still hungry crankiness after school. ;)

****************************************************************************
Easy & Quick Chicken and Noodles

Cook wheat egg noodles in water according to directions. 
Drain.
Stir in some butter and sprinkling of garlic powder and black pepper.
Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces (I use a rotisserie chicken from grocery store deli)
Toss and serve.  :)

How to throw a super simple birthday party for an 11 year old boy.

Back in September my oldest turned 11 years old.  Ugh. 
He is 5 foot tall now ( a mere 7" shorter than me) and in his last year of elementary school.

I threw him a small, simple party this year.


He invited a handful of friends to come celebrate.
I filled the kitchen table with junk food, koolaide and labeled plates and cups.


Party favors in paper cups I got at Target dollar spot.
I put googly eyes on and filled with a few party favors from Party City and gum.


Outside a bowl of styrofoam airplanes, glow sticks and silly string.


They came to hang out for 3 hours and just ate and played as they pleased.


Kickball and football in the front yard.


Silly string in the back yard.






Foam light saber whacking and wrestling on the trampoline.


Dinner was Z's favs...chicken tacos and watermelon.


Cookie cake (decked out in Clemson colors) and sparklers to end the night.  :)

Luke, Susan, Alice and a Storm Trooper

Hello there!
Just popping by to share my characters.  :)


Meet Susan Pevensie of Narnia


Alice in Wonderland (had a bit of injury during the fall down the rabbit hole).


Luke Skywalker


And of course a Storm Trooper

Sorry for the absence.  I guess you guys are used to the fact I come and go.  :)
Life and laziness get in the way.

Been busy painting the house up a storm.  Living room and kitchen getting a bit of a redo. 
The kids and I are crafting our way through Christmas gifts.
And I've had some luck thrifting.
So will be sharing all that hopefully soon.

And oh, I am over an Instagram now.
Due to my love of anything visual, I take lots of pics.
So if you are so inclined to keep up with me and my kidsand projects between my blog posts you can follow me at:   dmbender73



Oh and happy Election Day!
Today I did 2 very important things....had my first mammogram and voted.
One was more painful than the other!  ;)

Oh the Hair Ties

 
A while back I got some really cool hair ties online.
I thought from the picture I knew what they were made of and confirmed upon arrival.


FOE otherwise know as fold over elastic.
Back in my children’s boutique designing and selling days on eBay FOE became a trendy item to add colorful and stretchy elastic in clothes.
Most commonly FOE is used in trim in panties.
Comes in a wide array of colors and is soft and stretchy.

One day I was wearing my new pony holder and a friend asked about it.
Apparently I was trendy and didn’t even know it. :)
 A local day spa were selling them (for like $3 a piece!!)  And the local high school girls all wear them.
So went to eBay and found 17 colors and 70 yds for about $20.
They take seconds to make.
Nine inches and tie in knot.  Melt ends with lighter.
I made me a big batch (though honestly brown is my fav since it’s the color of my hair.)
And I have so much I make them for friends and their kids.


My girls wanted some of their own as well. Pink please. And lime green.

Fun fun!

Simple Large DIY Outdoor Tent

The tent I made for Kalla’s latest bday bash was quick n easy.
Just like I like.


This particular one needs to hang from something.
I did not make supports to hold it up.
I hung it from a tree limb that hangs over our patio.
Here’s what I used:
Three 10ft pvc pipe
2 cheap queen sized flat sheets
Assorted ribbons
String of Christmas lights


I first sewed a bunch of colorful ribbons across the bottom seams of each of the flat sheets.
Then I hung one pvc pipe with twine to limb.
I wrapped the Christmas lights around the pipe hanging and then tied the sheets together at the top on each side.


At the top of each queen sheet was a wide hem that was open on one end and I inserted another pipe into each.
The pipes were a bit longer than the width of the sheets and I simply cut the extra off with large tree pruning cutters.
I used bricks to hold each side open as wide as it would go.


And inside I used a large quilt (king sized) inside for the girls to sit on.
I hope to get some more pipe to try to figure out how to make it free standing one day.  If I do, I’ll be sure to share!

Hello Weekend

Well, we sent this one off to kindergarten last week.
I was able to avoid the tears because she goes to her same preschool for kindergarten…it feels the same and she gets out early just like before.  So I’m in denial.
She has mixed feelings about kindergarten. 
She was anxious to learn to spell immediately and catch up to her siblings.

I’m still a bit in my back-to-school funk.
Hopefully this 3 day weekend will help some.

Apparently the new schedule, affected Rex too.
 He was half in and half out his rock for most of the day. :)


Meanwhile, baseball is up and running strong.
This guy, 10 yrs, hit his first over the fence home run in his last tournament. 
He’s been floating on air all week.








At another tournament, their first of the season, they won the championship. 
Love this pic of the team running for their trophy.


Micah is playing fall ball too.
SO CUTE in the catcher’s gear!


This is how Kalla likes to spend her time at the ball field.


So summer is done and we’ve traded in our swim suits for the scooters.


I can’t get over this crazy adorable princess helmet I found for M at Target!

This weekend, we have one last swimming party tonight.
Back to school Luau at our neighborhood pool.
Tomorrow, baseball practice for the big guy.
After that, just the park, picnics and lots more scooter time.

Mom’s No-Nag Morning Lists

Today was the first day back to school for the oldest 3.

I came up with this genius-ness Sunday afternoon.

In the years past, every school morning was semi-chaotic.  Trying to get all 4 out the door early.
The children are all early risers, but I’m not a morning person.  So they get up before me and they don’t see me til I’ve had a shower, I need them to get started getting ready before I come out.
The temptation of course is getting right down to playing.
So this was my game plan.  I placed each kids cards in their spot at the kitchen table.
I decided to make separate cards instead of a chart, because I could foresee fighting over access to it.
Let me tell you I’ve never seen 4 kids happily busy getting ready on the first day of school.


Here’s Zachary’s list.
Silly as it is, we used to fight over him combing his hair in the mornings and yes, he did whine when he saw it on his list last night, but it was checked off before school today without mom nagging.


Maressa can’t read yet, but insisted she needed her own list.
So I drew a few pictures to help her know what to do.


I used large notecards to make these that I already had on hand.
Then blinged them out a little with some washi tape.
Once I had them like I wanted I used peel and stick laminate paper to cover them.
They use dry erase markers to mark off their list.


This is my 5th grader.  He heads to school earlier than the others.


2nd and 3rd graders.
Apparently it is orange day.   lol


This is why Z man is early to school every day.
As a 5th grader he has one of the coveted safety patrol positions.
Pretty light day as every one walks their kids in on the first day.

Tomorrow my baby starts kindergarten…someone pass the tissues will ya?