A Big Boy Room

Today was the BIG day. The bunk beds arrived and were assembled by the fantastic delivery team. (We had originally ordered the beds from IKEA, but after 8 hours of pain and sweat from my dear husband and mom, we determined that not only did the holes not line up in certain places but in other places the holes were not drilled correctly at all and wouldn't allow the pieces to go together. So we sent them back and went to Value City. There we found even nicer beds and found out that the delivery men actually assemble the beds! Score!) I rushed home from work early this evening in order to get the room all decorated and set up before Brian brought the boys home from previewing the new train exhibit at the science center.

The beds are great, and the Steelers room looks great! We ended up getting thinner mattresses than what are normally sold for twin beds and that allows Matthew to have a protective railing on the top bunk. We moved Matthew to a toddler bed when he was 22 months old, but we felt like Noah was ready to move. And Matthew was definitely outgrowing his toddler bed. So we decided to make the move out of the crib earlier for Noah at 18 months. We were nervous at first, but at bed time tonight, I tucked him in and he snuggled right under his covers with his new pillow and fell fast asleep. No crying and no fuss. And Matthew, well he was just super excited to finally have the bunk beds to sleep in. He loves the fact that Noah sleeps below him. We are beyond happy that we chose the bunk bed route for the boys. It's a huge space saver and at the same time, gives them more room to sleep comfortably. And you can never go wrong with a Steelers theme in the Burgh. :)

Enjoy the excessive photos that are about to appear below. :)

Bunk beds!

A baby blanket makes a great curtain!

I bought this light switch plate in high school, and my parents let me take it to use for the boys.

Awesome rug from Walmart.

Our Icon Corner still stands. :)

Matthew's top bunk and his new bunk bed bear that we built this past weekend named Troy.

I've also had this license plate decoration since high school. Goes great above the boys' door. (Don't worry. Their crucifix stands on the night stand. It was blessed by JPII.)

I designed their new name posters and had them printed at Staples on foam board.

Noah's bottom bunk and his new bunk bed bear that we built this past weekend, Heath. 

I had a blast decorating, and hopefully, the boys will have a blast sleeping in it. :) Good night!

DIY: Milk Jug Pumpkins

Today we decided to get crafty at our house and made milk jug pumpkins. They were easy, not messy, and fun for Matthew to complete. Plus, they look great as indoor fall decorations! Here's how we did it.

1. Gather the supplies.

 

You will need: Empty milk jugs, a hot glue gun, orange poster paint, construction paper, scissors, and a covering of some sort for the table.

2. Paint the milk jugs

  Pour the orange poster paint into the milk jugs. You can really use any color. You will need to pour in quite a good amount. Then, put the lid on tightly and shake the jug until the entire inside is coated in the orange paint.

3. Painted milk jugs

4. Cut out eyes,  nose, mouth, and stem for each pumpkin. 

5. Using hot glue, glue the pieces to the outside of the milk jugs. You can use any kind of glue you like, but we like hot glue in our house because it dries quickly. Once that's done, you have milk jug pumpkins!

Happy crafting! :)

DIY: Preschool Snacks

Since Matthew started preschool, I have felt all kinds of crafty again! :) I used to be very into crafts when I was younger, but lost touch with the crafting world through high school, college, and the early years of  young adult life. Now, however, I'm back at it, and I'm loving every second! Matthew's first turn to bring snack to school is tomorrow, so I knew we had to do something fun when he announced that he wanted to bring grapes. I found this idea online, but I added a few personal touches, and I think I executed it really well. Enjoy!

Butterfly Grapes

 First, gather all of your supplies. You will need snack baggies, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, clothes pins (we chose multicolored clothes pins to make it more fun), and a hot glue gun. And of course, you need grapes. I found every thing at the Dollar Store, except the grapes and glue gun. The glue gun cost a mere $3 at Walmart, and I have a feeling I will be using it a lot more this year!

Next, you want to measure and cut apart the pipe cleaners and then fold them into antennas for the butterflies. There are only nine students in Matthew's class, so we didn't need too many. You could even get fancy and make the antennas swirly, but we kept it simple this time around.

After you have twisted all the antennas, it's time to glue them to the clothes pins. The hot glue worked really well to do this, and I would NOT recommend using craft glue. It takes too long to set and I'm pretty sure our antennas would have fallen off instantly without the heat of the hot glue.

Add on the googly eyes with the hot glue once all of the antennas are in place. Hot glue dries very quickly, so we didn't have to wait long before we could add the eyes. Some of our eyes we even glued on top of the antennas. I liked the look better that way.

Finally, you fill the snack baggies with grapes. (We put 16 in each baggie. Even numbers are easier to split.) Then, divide the grapes into the two sides of the bag and pinch it closed in the middle with the clothes pin. And magically you have Butterfly Grapes!

This project was easy, cheap, and fun. Matthew even got to help out a bit, and I really had a good time with that. I am already lining up ideas for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to more DIY crafting projects in the future! :)

Seven Quick Takes: The Fall Edition

I know I'm a day late. Yesterday was just a no good, really hard, really sad day. So I'm making up for it now with my belated Seven Quick Takes about my favorite time of year, Fall.

1. Matthew had a Build 'n Grow Clinic at Lowes today. If you haven't done one of these, you are missing out. They are completely FREE! Matthew has been participating since March and has built about two dozen projects. The best part is that while Matthew and Daddy build, Mommy and Noah get set loose in Lowes. Oh and today was just so wonderful there. We found a new door mat, Mums on sale, a hay bale, and a corn stalk! Time for some fall decorating of our front yard! I'm not done yet....I have a few more DIY touches to add, but I am just in love with the outside of our house. It is too cute!

2. Dunkin Donuts has pumpkin muffins and pumpkin lattes and while just today my size 6 jeans started to fall off when I stand up (I hear size 4's and a shopping trip calling my name!), I worked extra hard at the gym all week so that I can go and enjoy a pumpkin muffin after Mass tomorrow. Yum, yum, and more yum! :) Ssshhhh. Don't tell Christi!

3. The weather here the past two days has been gorgeous! In the low 60's and sunny. Perfect hoodie and jeans weather. And I love my hoodies. I have missed them so much since the beginning of May. My hardest decision getting dressed the past two days has been which college I feel like supporting that day. Yesterday I chose my Alma Mater, today I chose Pitt and maybe I'll switch to Penn State before they kick off at 6. Some may call this a lazy look, but for Brian, it's his all time favorite look of mine. And if it makes him happy, all the better.

Brian's favorite look of mine...messy pony tail and all. Glad he likes it.

4. With fall comes FOOTBALL! I especially LOVE Friday Night Lights. Oh, heck I also love Saturdays full of college ball and Sundays full of the NFL. I love it all. It is the best sport ever invented. Last night, we headed over to see my old high school play a game at the local stadium. It was fun....we were an awesome football team when I was there. Not sure what's going on now, but hey, I'll just say we're rebuilding. :)

My boys enjoying the game. Love this pic!

5. Today Brian helped me do some Fall cleaning of the shed out back. I just love cleaning for Fall. It actually motivates me to make the house spic and span. It doesn't stay that way long, but it sure looks nice for a few minutes.

6. Also with Fall cleaning, comes major organizing from me. I LOVE bins. Bins are amazing little things that keep toys in one place and keep everything organized and together. They keep my living areas clutter free, and they actually make for very easy clean up. I used my Cartwheel at Target and got the bins on clearance, too, so I scored some major deals yesterday! And now my house is happy and organized. Evidence is below. :)

7. And here's one last photo that just screams FALL to me. Skinnygirl + football. Doesn't get much better than that!

 

Happy Weekend, everyone!

DIY Teacher Gifts

Matthew starts Preschool this coming Tuesday morning. It will be a big day for all of us. In many ways, I feel totally ready to let go and in others, I feel quite protective. He has already met both of his teachers and a few fellow classmates, and he enjoyed every single one.

As a former teacher, I thought it would be nice for Matthew and I to make his teachers a little gift for the beginning of the year. We decided to make Teacher Survival Kits and completed them this afternoon. Here's how the process played out:

We went to CVS and the Dollar Store and bought the fillings for the Survival Kits. We decided to put inside: tissues, TicTacs, Airborne, hand sanitizer, pens, chap stick, notepads, and a cookie from Potomac Bakery. Technically, I could have baked the cookies myself, but for 60 cents a piece, it was worth not having to turn on the oven in this heat! The bags contents total cost about $10 a piece. Not bad.

 I printed this graphic from the internet and then filled in information like the title of the gift, teacher's name, school year, and Matthew's name with Crayola markers. Matthew then used crayons to decorate the labels in his own original way.

 Here are the finished products.We used freezer storage bags as the actual container and since I already had those laying around, they didn't cost anything. Matthew is excited to have something for his teachers on the first day of school, and I think they will be excited to receive them. Not bad for one of my first DIY projects!