Whiners, grouches and cupcakes

You know how there are some days that just seem destined to suck? Today was that day. It's Sunday which is supposed to be the day that we all sleep late. Sleeping late around here means 8am. So when I woke up to the sound of Rebecca crying at 6:30am I knew we were not off to a great start. Rebecca's whimpering woke up Lily, who, still tired from Fridays sleepover, began grouching loudly. There was only one thing to be done. Turn on the tv and pray for a miracle.

You don't need all the details, just trust me when I say that most of the morning involved Lily whining and Rebecca yelling. It was awesome. I realized that there was only one way to turn this day around.

Cupcakes!

Once the children heard the word cupcakes the day was transformed. I even took out all the sprinkles and let the kids go to town decorating. You can tell by looking at the pictures. I prefer a "less is more" approach. The kids are firm believers in more is more. Even David got in on the act. Look at how cute that man is!




After the cupcake induced bliss, the gods of refined sugar were celebrated in a raucous rain dance. Not a bad ending if you ask me.

Happiness is a fresh can of paint...

A miracle happened here folks and it is called "Rebecca wants her room painted pink!"

Since Rebecca learned to speak she has always let us know that her favorite color is blue. Her toothbrush is blue. Her earrings are blue. When all the other little girls had pink tutus, Rebecca's was blue. She loves blue. So you can imagine how shocked I was when she said that she no longer wanted her walls to be the deep purple blue color of Larkspur Bouquet (Benjamin Moore). She wants pink. She told me yesterday. So of course today we went to the paint store for samples. Then we went to my favorite mecca of home decor inspiration- T.J. Maxx. How do I love T.J.Maxx? I love it with all my heart. It is always an adventure to wander the bedding aisles and see what treasures need a good home.

Today the gods of T.J.Maxx were smiling on us because Rebecca and I found the perfect quilt to use as the basis for our color choices.

You can't see it perfectly here but the quilt is a turquoise blue with pink roses and lavender lilacs. I love it. Rebecca loves it. Tomorrow we'll start putting up some paint samples on the wall. The whole thing should be done in a few days.
When it comes to painting, time waits for no one. Especially not Rebecca!

Where did my baby go....

Today Lily is attending her first slumber party. She packed her toothbrush and teddy. She is an overachiever so she wore her jammies there.

Here she is with her pile of stuff.

I'm trying to be excited for her but it's a struggle. Lily is my late night visitor. Every night she starts out in her bed and every morning I wake up to find her next to me. If I wake up first I get to stare at her for a while and sniff her. You don't sniff your kids while they sleep? Whatever. I'm a mammal. It's what I do.

I know some parents forbid their kids from nighttime visits. They don't know what they're missing.
Look at this child.

Yes, that is a cat sleeping next to her head. He's a mammal too. He likes the body heat.

Weekend mornings are the best because sometimes I also wake up to this.

When David travels both girls end up in bed with me. I never notice when they crawl in- they know not to wake me. Mornings when I get to watch these humans- my humans sleeping so close to me I know without a doubt that I am the luckiest girl ever.

Well here it is five days since my last painting project. Ahhh, it feels so great to be done. You know? Because now my house is all set. Yes sir....

Except now Rebecca's room is sortof bugging me. Here's what it looks like.
Pretend it's not so cluttered.

Wow. It's worse when you look at in pictures. It's just so cold, you know? It wasn't too bad until Rebecca started putting the rainbow butterflies on the wall by her bed which really do not enhance the room. And then there is all the crap which she won't let me get rid of.

I am trying not to give into the urge to paint it a pale turquoise blue which is her favorite color and then use pink or red accents. Or maybe a pale lavender....What would you do with this room?

Why I am not a beauty shop guy....

Today I am taking Rebecca to the beauty shop to get her bangs trimmed. I know. I am paying money so that my 10 year old can have 4 inches of hair on her forehead trimmed. I have to because I swore to her that I would never cut her hair myself again. It's because of this.

See the sadness? She's trying not to cry.

After this picture was taken there were lots and lots of tears.

I did that by cutting her hair and giving her bangs. She hadn't had bangs since she was three. I thought it would be cute. And fun! It turns out that cutting bangs on thick wavy hair is not as easy as cutting bangs on straight fine hair. Now I know. I was in over my head.

I made an emergency 911 call to my hairdresser Toni who made it all better.

This how she looked after Toni waved her magic scissors and hairdryer over my babys hair. So beautiful. And she forgave me. Mostly.

Here's Lily. See how straight and fine her hair is? So easy to cut and not look like your mom cut your hair. She got a fancy hair cut that day too. Because I am a mom who would prefer having two children happy with me than just one.

See this sweet guy? No hair cuts required!

Prisoner of love...

Do you ever wake up and realize that you need to spend the day wandering around IKEA? Me too. So today after the dog walk during which TJIC mocked my blog name I got an ice coffee and headed down to Stoughton. I managed to spend under $100 which felt like a victory. I purchased many important things like this fun shoehorn because Lily can't get her shoes on without it. My favorite part of the trip, besides scoring this mirror in the clearance area, was this plea written on one of the cartons of picture frames.



Not everyone loves IKEA.

Can't stay away from the paint...

I tried. I really did. When we bought our house 5 years ago it wasn't exactly my dream house, but it had potential. The ad for the house described the woodwork as "pristine". And it was pristine- dark brown wainscotting and woodwork throughout most of the living room and dining room. When we walked into the house for the first time, I turned to my husband and said, "I love the woodwork. Of course we'll have to paint it all white." Now understand, this man usually lets me do anything I want to our houses but on this issue he put his foot down. "Do you see the ad?" He asked. "Pristine woodwork! You don't paint over pristine woodwork." Oh well. There was nothing else in our price range that fit our needs. We bought it. And I tried to love that damn woodwork- I swear it! I tried to embrace it by painting the walls jewel tones. The walls were red, then purple, then green, but no matter what happened it still looked like a hunting lodge.

After living in the house for about a year David came home from his yearly physical announcing that he had high cholesterol. The cure: lots of exercise! The man loves to excercise. He was ecstatic! He had a workout plan all figured out, new sneakers were purchased and the gym membership in his hot little hand. I listened to his plan. I admired his sneakers. And then I yelled, "How come I don't have the disease for which the cure is white woodwork!!!!????" And bless that mans heart. He told me to go ahead, paint the woodwork. The next day I got a gallon of white paint and started painting. It took three years of painting during the childrens naps, after they had gone to bed, while they were at school, while they ate chocolate chip cookies while watching tv but I finally got it done. Sort of.

The problem is that I keep shifting the finish line. First I only cared about the downstairs. Once that was all white and cheery I had to paint the upstairs woodwork. Then the crappy kitchen cabinets. Then the steps leading to the attic. Then the basement steps. That is where I was last week when I stumbled upon this beauty http://www.doorsixteen.com/2009/01/26/white-painted-floor-back-room/and knew how to deal with the beat up floors on the second floor.

I bought Benjamin Moore Floor Paint and started painting. I did the girls rooms first and didn't sand first because I have been known to skip boring and messy steps. I should have sanded first. I know this now because the paint did not grab all that well to the floor. Whatever- onward! For the hallway I sanded and holy moly what a difference! That paint is not going anywhere! I absolutely love how it came out in spite of the inevitable footprints and pawprints that show up on a white floor.