For those of you that don't know, I had wide feet growing up. Like, had to shop at Stride Rite for EEE width shoes growing up and only having 2 choices of dress shoes wide feet. Oh, did I mention they are completely flat? Then I got pregnant with Carter and now have DOUBLE WIDE feet. It's rediculous. I have flippers.
Lately I've been feeling stiffled by the two kids as they are constantly in my face knowing that a new baby is coming along, so I finally found another mom who was also desperately in need of some mid-week mommy time and swapped babysitting today. She went to get her hair done.
I ended up checking out the wide width shoe store in Shoreline
http://www.wideshoes.cc/html/contact.html
I went in to this tiny shop thinking, oh, wow, maybe I'll find one pair to take home.
It was incredible. I almost wept. After being told for years that I have 2 ugly choices and they will be $200 for shoes that fit (thanks, Nordstroms!), I went into this store and was surrounded by shoes that all came in my double-wide width. It was heavenly. I actually had to decide. I had so many pairs of shoes around me that I looked like a spoiled kid at Christmas. The little old lady who came in had to hide in a corner because I was taking up so much room with my goodies.
Oh, did I mention the prices were 1/2 of what I'd been paying???
5 pairs of shoes and $500 later, I came home and put 7 pairs of shoes that never really fit well into the charity pile that is about 10 trash bags from my spring cleaning for the blind to come pick up tomorrow.
The best part? I had a $93 gift card from signing up for Verizon and my last paycheck from my tax season job came in the mail last week.
Mommy day was a success.
I'll have to post a picture, but I got black sandals, 2 pairs of black heels (yes, heels! Nordy's never carried heels in double-wide width!) Brown heels and brown cute, overday shoes, all leather. Sigh.
Paul and Carter looked at them as Paul taught Carter how to appropriately ooh and aah over something you have absolutely no interest in. I told Paul this day was right up there with our wedding day and the birth of our children.
Combine that with last night going to bed in my completely clean house with my chores all done (dishwasher was empty, even, and the only dirty clothes were the ones we wore yesterday). Tomorrow I go for accupuncture for my carpel tunnel that has been acting up so maybe I'll finally get a good sleep tomorrow night AND our house is being painted (note: I'll have to put up pics of that too-if you come over, look for a blue house, not a green one!) this is turning out to be an excellent week!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The boys' new room!
Carter requested Lightning McQueen for his next bedroom decor. Since Henri's room is slightly larger and already grey, we moved the boys into what was originally our guest room, then Henri's room (Henri's still sleeping in the crib in what was Carter's room).
We're excited with the results! First up, the lamp with fabric cut outs from Carter's duvet cover that I used Terrificly Tacky tape on to attach to the plain white lamp shade. Lamp was $10 new. The nightlight I got for $5 off a mom at MOPS.
We're excited with the results! First up, the lamp with fabric cut outs from Carter's duvet cover that I used Terrificly Tacky tape on to attach to the plain white lamp shade. Lamp was $10 new. The nightlight I got for $5 off a mom at MOPS.
Next is Clock from Oriental Trading, paper/stickers from Sandy Lion (Oriental Trading) Numbers cut with Base Camp Cricut Cartridge
Red picture frames reused from Curious George room, Used Cricut Cartridge for Cars set at 5 inches
Carter's new duvet cover reusing his Curious George comforter. I used one full set of sheets that had been returned to Target and was marked down $10 because of repackaging. Pillowcase was in the set as well, back of duvet is a flat sheet my grandma found for me a few years ago.
Henri's bed. I couldn't find toddler bedding that matched, so I ripped out the elastic from the full sheet set fitted sheet and used it for the back of the duvet cover. The front of the duvet cover is a second pillowcase from the set that I cut in half and pieced with extra fabric from the fitted sheet. The flat sheet peeking out is one of two I made from regular fabric at the fabric store since we have a ton of fitted crib sheets, but no toddler flat sheets.
Overview of the room
It feels a bit cramped to me, but the boys think it is cozy, so as long as they are happy and keep their toys picked up, I'm happy :)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Spring Cleaning!
After recovering from Spring Break comes Spring Cleaning. I found great lists on this website: http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/cleaning101/a/springclnngguid.htm
Monday I spent in the kitchen/dining room, Tuesday we ran errands, Wednesday was living/playrooms, Thursday was Bathrooms, Friday was bedrooms. You'll notice that Wed & Friday were rooms that I needed to go through Carter's accumulations and he was in school. He inherited my packrat gene. Luckily he also inherited Paul's not noticing things gene, so he hasn't noticed things are gone! I ended up getting a little off track due to a horrible cold/sinus thing that made me feel like my feet weighed 400 pounds each!
We also switched bedrooms around while I was doing bedrooms. Now Carter's room is the new baby's room, but that's where Henri's sleeping since it has the crib in it. Carter's bed, the toddler bed and two dressers are in what was Henri's room, which I had painted grey last year, which will go well with the Cars/Lightening McQueen theme Carter wants. so the Curious George stuff is moving out. Don't know what I'm doing with baby's room yet, but there may be paint involved. We've lived here almost 6 years now and that room was the first one to be painted and it is starting to show!
Carter's very excited about sharing a room with Henri as well as a new baby coming. However, he is having to learn to pick up his toys in his bedroom more often, especially the legos that are living in there due to the fact that there is much less space in there, now! It feels crowded to me, but apparently I'm the only one, so I think as long as it's all picked up it will be fine. Plus, when we bought the house we figured the small bedrooms were ok since there was an extra living area (now the playroom).
Anyways, that's what we've been up to. Decorating the bedrooms will probably be the next project, so there will be some more pictures coming up. For the rest of the week, though, I'm resting!
Today (Wednesday) I'm getting together with my dear friend Faith who I haven't seen in YEARS and found via FaceBook was working at the hospital just down the street!
Tomorrow I'm babysitting two girls, then Friday is coffee with my MOPs table at a toddler friendly coffee house and a massage, which I desperately need after the week of spring cleaning!
Monday I spent in the kitchen/dining room, Tuesday we ran errands, Wednesday was living/playrooms, Thursday was Bathrooms, Friday was bedrooms. You'll notice that Wed & Friday were rooms that I needed to go through Carter's accumulations and he was in school. He inherited my packrat gene. Luckily he also inherited Paul's not noticing things gene, so he hasn't noticed things are gone! I ended up getting a little off track due to a horrible cold/sinus thing that made me feel like my feet weighed 400 pounds each!
We also switched bedrooms around while I was doing bedrooms. Now Carter's room is the new baby's room, but that's where Henri's sleeping since it has the crib in it. Carter's bed, the toddler bed and two dressers are in what was Henri's room, which I had painted grey last year, which will go well with the Cars/Lightening McQueen theme Carter wants. so the Curious George stuff is moving out. Don't know what I'm doing with baby's room yet, but there may be paint involved. We've lived here almost 6 years now and that room was the first one to be painted and it is starting to show!
Carter's very excited about sharing a room with Henri as well as a new baby coming. However, he is having to learn to pick up his toys in his bedroom more often, especially the legos that are living in there due to the fact that there is much less space in there, now! It feels crowded to me, but apparently I'm the only one, so I think as long as it's all picked up it will be fine. Plus, when we bought the house we figured the small bedrooms were ok since there was an extra living area (now the playroom).
Anyways, that's what we've been up to. Decorating the bedrooms will probably be the next project, so there will be some more pictures coming up. For the rest of the week, though, I'm resting!
Today (Wednesday) I'm getting together with my dear friend Faith who I haven't seen in YEARS and found via FaceBook was working at the hospital just down the street!
Tomorrow I'm babysitting two girls, then Friday is coffee with my MOPs table at a toddler friendly coffee house and a massage, which I desperately need after the week of spring cleaning!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Spring Break-Thursday
sday Amanda & her boys came over. The boys stayed in pajamas and played Mario Party on the Wii all day, Amanda downloaded digital scrapbook freebies and I used premade scrapbook pages to complete 29 pages! Then Saturday morning I got up before the kids and put the titles on them.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Spring Break-Wednesday
We took our time having breakfast and making a Star Wars Lego set Carter got for his birthday yesterday. Then we got dressed and headed out to the Burke Museum on the University of Washington Campus in Seattle. http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/ Cost for us was $11.50 because we got $2 off each Carter and I for having a Prime Card and Henri was free. Children are 5-17. The museum focuses on Natural History and Northwest history. I was a little worried about it being too old for Carter. A friend was worried her 3 year old would be scared of the American Indian masks and dinosaur bones.
I think she was right, 3 may not be the right age for this museum, but my boys at 5 and 16 months LOVED it. It's pretty small, so it didn't take very long and we had time for a snack in the cafe. Carter loved the dinosaur bones and even thought the Native American art and even the dead animals (stuffed) were really cool. Henri loved looking at everything as a lot of it was low enough for him to see from the stroller. He's also not really old enough to think about being scared of such things.
After a stop at the cafe, we headed back over to Bellevue near the community college for Dizzy's Busstop. Dizzy Tumblebusses are converted school busses that have tumbling and play equipment and go to local daycares and children's centers. The Bus Stop is relatively new and is a fixed location for the buses to park and to play at. http://www.dizzybus.com/ Open playtime is 1:30-4:00 most weekdays and was $7 per kid, you supervise your own kids. They have a cubby area where you can snack and leave shoes and coats and bags, a small toy area, a workroom where they set out activities for the kids and a small tumbling type area. Each area has gates so you can contain kids and keep an eye on them.
I'll admit it when I first went in I was a bit underwhelmed. The toys were in a small hallway, the tumbling area is a set of hanging rings, monkey bars, a slide, a trampoline and there are some balls and some movable tumbling cushions. There was also camp going on this week for spring break, and I'm not the biggest fan of other people's kids, they were all older.
However, the instructors of the camp kept a fairly good eye on the campers and reminded them that there was a baby and they should watch out for him. Also, the campers were moved to different areas every 15-20 minutes, so it was easy to be not in the group if we wanted to, though the campers seemed amused by Henri and Carter liked talking to kids his age and jumping with them. As underwhelmed as I was at first, the kids did have fun. Carter liked the trampoline, checked out the workroom, even though he didn't participate, Henri went on the slide over and over again and they both played in the toy area for a bit as well.
I think we have better, cheaper options way closer to us; however, if I was taking the kids to Bellevue and we had an hour or 90 minutes between appointments during open gym, I'd consider going again.
Sorry, no pics to share today (museum doesn't allow them and I forgot my camera in the bag in the lobby and didnt' want to climb over the campers having snack to get it), but there was a lovely video of Henri dancing in the car I'll share later today or tonight.
I think she was right, 3 may not be the right age for this museum, but my boys at 5 and 16 months LOVED it. It's pretty small, so it didn't take very long and we had time for a snack in the cafe. Carter loved the dinosaur bones and even thought the Native American art and even the dead animals (stuffed) were really cool. Henri loved looking at everything as a lot of it was low enough for him to see from the stroller. He's also not really old enough to think about being scared of such things.
After a stop at the cafe, we headed back over to Bellevue near the community college for Dizzy's Busstop. Dizzy Tumblebusses are converted school busses that have tumbling and play equipment and go to local daycares and children's centers. The Bus Stop is relatively new and is a fixed location for the buses to park and to play at. http://www.dizzybus.com/ Open playtime is 1:30-4:00 most weekdays and was $7 per kid, you supervise your own kids. They have a cubby area where you can snack and leave shoes and coats and bags, a small toy area, a workroom where they set out activities for the kids and a small tumbling type area. Each area has gates so you can contain kids and keep an eye on them.
I'll admit it when I first went in I was a bit underwhelmed. The toys were in a small hallway, the tumbling area is a set of hanging rings, monkey bars, a slide, a trampoline and there are some balls and some movable tumbling cushions. There was also camp going on this week for spring break, and I'm not the biggest fan of other people's kids, they were all older.
However, the instructors of the camp kept a fairly good eye on the campers and reminded them that there was a baby and they should watch out for him. Also, the campers were moved to different areas every 15-20 minutes, so it was easy to be not in the group if we wanted to, though the campers seemed amused by Henri and Carter liked talking to kids his age and jumping with them. As underwhelmed as I was at first, the kids did have fun. Carter liked the trampoline, checked out the workroom, even though he didn't participate, Henri went on the slide over and over again and they both played in the toy area for a bit as well.
I think we have better, cheaper options way closer to us; however, if I was taking the kids to Bellevue and we had an hour or 90 minutes between appointments during open gym, I'd consider going again.
Sorry, no pics to share today (museum doesn't allow them and I forgot my camera in the bag in the lobby and didnt' want to climb over the campers having snack to get it), but there was a lovely video of Henri dancing in the car I'll share later today or tonight.
Spring Break-Tuesday
So I'm posting Wednesday morning. Monday night had some trouble sleeping, so Tuesday night I laid down for "just a minute" after the boys went to bed and was out until the next morning. Spring Break is wearing me out!
Tuesday was Carter's FIFTH birthday!!!
Tuesday we had breakfast at Ruby's (which I sadly have no pictures of :( ) but we were joined by the Vaughns, Wetzels & Rebers and it made for a party of 4 moms and 10 kids-quite the breakfast party!
Then we were off to the Pacific Science Museum. We didn't get very far, but had a lot of fun. First stop was the butterflies. The butterflies are great for kids Henri's age because you can get close enough to see them!
Boys looking in the Coy pond (the Wetzels & Vaughns came with us to the science center).
A Butterfly landed on Amanda 
then one landed on Carter (look at the back of his shirt near the white letters, it's a blue butterfly on a blue shirt, so it's a little hard to spot) 
Henri enjoyed the bees, busy as him.
After making some sqished pennies, they figured out how big they were compared to dinosaur footprints... 
Then played in the toddler area 
Then saw the Naked Mole Rats on our way out 
then we went back home. The Reffels came over for an hour or so, then we all went to Costco for dinner & shopping. 
Tuesday was Carter's FIFTH birthday!!!
Tuesday we had breakfast at Ruby's (which I sadly have no pictures of :( ) but we were joined by the Vaughns, Wetzels & Rebers and it made for a party of 4 moms and 10 kids-quite the breakfast party!
Then we were off to the Pacific Science Museum. We didn't get very far, but had a lot of fun. First stop was the butterflies. The butterflies are great for kids Henri's age because you can get close enough to see them!
Boys looking in the Coy pond (the Wetzels & Vaughns came with us to the science center).
A Butterfly landed on Amanda 
then one landed on Carter (look at the back of his shirt near the white letters, it's a blue butterfly on a blue shirt, so it's a little hard to spot) 
Henri enjoyed the bees, busy as him.
After making some sqished pennies, they figured out how big they were compared to dinosaur footprints... 
Then played in the toddler area 
Then saw the Naked Mole Rats on our way out 
then we went back home. The Reffels came over for an hour or so, then we all went to Costco for dinner & shopping. 
Monday, April 5, 2010
Spring Break-Monday
Today we left the house at 9am, went to Office Max for printer ink and address labels for printer. Then we headed to the fabric store as they opened at 9:30 for buttons for a shirt of Paul's. Then at 10am when Sears opened, we got the boys' photos for Canadian Citizenship paperwork and shopped the clearance for baby (can you say fleece Carter's pajamas for $1.99?!?) by then it was about 11am, so we headed to Arby's for sustenance.
Then we headed to nearby Sky High Trampolines. http://sea.jumpskyhigh.com/ Carter tried out the big kid room and the trampolines into the foam cube pit, but most of our hour was spent in the under 8 area, which was huge! About 16 trampolines, 4x4 square. Carter ran and chased other kids and bounced. Henri and I were able to take a square and no one bugged us while we bounced baby bounces. Henri loved it and squealed with delight. It normally is $11 per person but toddlers are $7 each 11-1 on Mondays. You jump in bare feet or tennis shoes.
then Henri took a nap while we got the car washed.
Then we went to the Scratch Patch in Seattle. (Closed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) It's two rooms of about 1 1/2 inches of polished rocks that you can lie in, play in, walk over, etc. There are pavers you can also walk on if you prefer. Admission is $2 and you stay as long as you like, or you can fill one of 3 size baggies of your favorite rocks and the $2 is included in the baggy price. Apparently these are very big in South Africa, and I can see why. http://www.scratchpatchusa.com/
Then we stopped by the scrapbook store where I found materials to finish a project, the outlet mall to return some things a bit too boyish and get some girlier things, then raced home for dinner (love that crockpot-corned beef!) and then MOPs steering team meeting tonight. Whew! Tomorrow's Carter's birthday breakfast & Science Museum! Stay tuned for pics from there tomorrow evening.
Then we headed to nearby Sky High Trampolines. http://sea.jumpskyhigh.com/ Carter tried out the big kid room and the trampolines into the foam cube pit, but most of our hour was spent in the under 8 area, which was huge! About 16 trampolines, 4x4 square. Carter ran and chased other kids and bounced. Henri and I were able to take a square and no one bugged us while we bounced baby bounces. Henri loved it and squealed with delight. It normally is $11 per person but toddlers are $7 each 11-1 on Mondays. You jump in bare feet or tennis shoes.
then Henri took a nap while we got the car washed. 
Then we went to the Scratch Patch in Seattle. (Closed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) It's two rooms of about 1 1/2 inches of polished rocks that you can lie in, play in, walk over, etc. There are pavers you can also walk on if you prefer. Admission is $2 and you stay as long as you like, or you can fill one of 3 size baggies of your favorite rocks and the $2 is included in the baggy price. Apparently these are very big in South Africa, and I can see why. http://www.scratchpatchusa.com/
Then we stopped by the scrapbook store where I found materials to finish a project, the outlet mall to return some things a bit too boyish and get some girlier things, then raced home for dinner (love that crockpot-corned beef!) and then MOPs steering team meeting tonight. Whew! Tomorrow's Carter's birthday breakfast & Science Museum! Stay tuned for pics from there tomorrow evening.
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