Room (s) Redo, step one

First off, let me just say, Pinterest is crazy. I can't stop. Hopefully I'll be able to pull myself away log enough to do some of the things I've pinned!

Week 2 was scout camp, enough said, crazy week.

June 18th

our front rooms (dining room and formal living room) are really multi purpose rooms. We hardly know what to call them, music, office, sewing, crafting, reading...room. They are such a hodge podge of hand me downs and really lack style. I thought maybe some rearranging might give us a good start to work with. This is them before...

Above, the computer desk and my desk are now on this wall with the filing cabinet in the middle, the couch and buffet are in the same place. The tv is gone (we don't have tv anyway, didn't think I'd miss it, come to find out I watched movies and shows on dvd more than I realized, oh well.)
Above, the piano is now on the wall where those bookshelves are, which is good, I hear you are supposed to have pianos on an interior wall. The sewing desk and machine are in the same place, the birds have moved.
Above, Peyton's dollhouse is about where the chair is, the chair and the lamp are more to the right, the birds are to the right of where the computer desk is in the picture.
Above, the 2 large bookshelves are on the wall that the small bookshelf is on, the small bookshelf is in our hall, at the end of it. It sounds weird but I like it.

June 21st

Below are all the new locations
The desks below can close now and I love the arrangement so much better now. We stole that mirror from our bathroom. The birds and dollhouse have since switched places.
My book wreath is now on that spot of empty wall. I am going to make some new pillows for the couch and chair to bring in aqua and maybe some orange and white. I want to change out some knick knacks too.
It has room to improve but I like it much better now.

Summertime!

Here I am documenting week one of summer vacation and we're practically half way through already. Isn't that how it always goes? Well, day one found me dropping the little ones off at Aunt Mo's and taking the big boys to day camp. We pulled into the Rodeo Grounds about 3 minutes early, well, one week and 3 minutes early! There were no cars, just a single plastic bag blowing across the deserted lot. So, on day one we headed back over to Aunt Mo's and enjoyed the pool.

Day 2

Hanging out at the water park with friends. After waiting forever to get our pass pictures taken we got to enjoy the water park with the Olsen's.

The kids and I have been enjoying the library, like always, and having some reading time out of the heat.

Ben has been working on his reading and his math facts gearing up for first grade.
Every morning (almost) the boys have an extra summer chore, weeding. As I type this from our backyard swing I can see that maybe daddy needs to help on this chore a bit.

I think Jacob picked the right section, he has hardly any weeds in his.
I have my own set of summer chores as well. You know all those areas that just rarely get cleaned, on top of cabinets and armoirs, fake plants and plant shelves, top of fridge, light fixtures? That's my summer duty. In this pic below you can see the contrast where I started to clean. So, for those of you always talking about how clean my house always is, it wasn't, but it will be, as long as this phase can last!
Day 4 takes us back to the water park, this was a special day because Peyton has finally decided to venture away from the small purple octopus slide and go on ALL of the kiddie slides. Yippee!
Peyton also thinks she is a swimmer. She is starting to swim and I'm sure by the end of the summer she will be doing quite well.
She likes to jump in too, and where the water is deep she just kind of happily does swimming motions under the water after her jump. Silly girl, reminds me a bit of Ben. He was sneaky though. Ben would wait until he thought no one was watching him and then he'd jump in.
These are just SOME of the things I found up on the tops of the kitchen cabinets and plant shelf in the kitchen.
Lots and lots of dust. Maybe allergies will improve now that all that dust is gone.
This is a picture after I cleaned that area. It was so gross, I had to really scrub the knick knacks I'm glad I don't cook with more oil than I do! Light fixtures in the kitchen are next...
I discovered our plant shelves are strong enough to hold my weight and the weight of my Kirby vacuum. Good to know. Also, for the first time ever I took all of the fake plants and out fake tree out in the backyard and sprayed them with the hose, it was SO much easier than wiping them leaf by leaf!
More summer to come!