Home Updates: Family & Dining Room

Remember in the last post I mentioned how the original playroom wall color made my skin crawl?  Welp, the family and living room weren't much better.  I mean, come on.  Purple walls?? Had to go stat.  As did the general dark vibe this room gave off.  Even with three sliding glass doors letting in loads of natural light, the overwhelmingly heavy colors made the room feel sad.  But as I typically do, I was able to see the potential in this space.  Large and open and exiting right to our deck, I knew we would spend a lot of time in this area and wanted to get it right.



Tada!

The very night we moved in I made it my mission to paint the floor trim and built ins white which immediately cleaned up the space.  Up next was three coats of a light blue paint and a nice mix of bright and rustic elements.  I recently white-washed the fireplace to rid it of it's 70s vibe and my handy husband tore down the oh so hideous mantle and replaced it with something more our style.



I'm not sold on the yellow curtains I bought the month we moved in but they still remain since I'm having a hard time finding the perfect fit.  I'm thinking maybe a tan of some sorts might work well.  Something that's not so bright and cheery since we have a lot of that going on already (helloooo red couch and blue rug).







The connected dining room also got a much needed facelift. New light fixture, wainscoating and once again, pops of color.  Not much eating goes on here though typically as 9 times out of 10 it functions as an arts and crafts area for the girls.

Still up on the to-do list: replacing the sliding glass doors with french doors (much too chilly to tackle right now) and maybe some crown molding if Kris wants to tackle that project.  But for the most part this room is complete and cozy and a great space for relaxation and play :)

Home Updates: Playroom Tour

The playroom.  Ahhhh the playroom.  Our little girly haven full of all things princess like.  But this wasn't always the case.

Upon move in we were met with the most disgusting of paint colors your eyes have ever seen.  Dark brown and burnt orange, I wanted nothing to do with this mopey space.  So I painted over the drab with light and bright green, added loads of girly touches and tada!

When the house was built this room was originally designed as the master.  The two nooks were to be the closets and directly across on the other side of the room was a door (since drywalled over) that connected to a full bathroom (which is now the girls bath) to complete the master suite.

The builders also designed another super large area on the right side of the house.  It came unfinished by default though if you wanted to pay extra it could be finished complete with a bathroom and would function as the master.  So somewhere along the lines that happened and this room ended up being an extra bedroom.  The only problem is this room is huge.  Waaaaay too big for one kid. So for now it's our playroom, P & T share a room and E has a room all to herself.  Whenever P & T want their own space we will most likely redo the playroom.  Drywall it up and make this one large space into two more reasonably sized bedrooms.

But I hope that Parker and Teagan will forever want to share rooms.  They will, right?!?



The nook on the left is our cozy reading area.  Typically there's a fun bright bean bag in the corner but, like most of our toys, it must has grown feet and moved on to another spot in the house.  The Big Bird chair is a throwback from when I was little.  And behind those sparkly curtains is my hands down all time favorite part of this room:

DRESS UP ROOM!

Filled with dresses, crowns, skirts, shoes, all the girly things.  I love seeing the girls go behind their princess curtains in normal clothes and emerge princessed out to the max.



Another update in the playroom, as well as the rest of the house, was a new door.  The doors we moved in with were plain Jane flat pieces with no detail.  All were swapped out and really make our house look that much better. Same with the carpet.  The day after we closed we had all existing carpet pulled out and replaced.  Nice, clean and fresh,  Yes please!




Next to the reading nook is Barbie paradise.  Even I love playing with this dream house.  On the other side of the room is our cozy futon space which doubles as a fun place to nap on occasion.

And last but not least, the art wall which showcases our mini Picasos.  Never are we short of artwork in this house!

I had to snap some pics when this room was organized because let me tell you, it's not always this tidy!

And to wrap up, some random pics from our long weekend, made even longer the week before by a sick Teagan.  Made even longer the week prior to that by a sick Parker.  Made even longer by an ear infected Emerson...One day we will all be germ free!

Patiently waiting for our healthy cookies made of nothing but oats, bananas, and choc chips.  Parker ate them up, Teagan tried to avoid all the oats and pick out the chocolate (smart woman) and I avoided them like the plague. 

Sisterly love :) 

What happens when Parker steals my iPhone for selfies

Not only is this daddy-daughter love cute, but also adorable is that Parker woke up from nap, found Teagan's kitties and brought them down for her to cuddle when she woke from her nap.  

Teagan's art skills have exploded.  Doing awesome!

I never ever want the rocking the baby to sleep stage to end <3     

Doing Disney: Day Five

On the fifth day of Disney my true love gave to me...sleeping in with no alarm clock.  Sounds good to me.  The girls were happy to chill for a bit on our patio and take in the sights.  If you know me you know that I have an issue with sitting still.  Enough of this lazing around.  Time to go DO something! So off to the hospitality house we went.

Curls for days.

The morning started off a tad chilly so after a long time playing on the playground and working up a sweat the girls requested to cool off in the pool.  Ummmm it was like 64 degrees.  Thanks but no thanks.  Time for a different distractions: crafts and movies.  Great idea Old Key West!

Parker, Teagan, and lets not lie here, even me, totally enjoyed making bracelets and necklaces.  That was until I realized how flimsy the clasps were and yep, beads all over the floor.  Way to go, mom.  Nothing I can't fix!

After getting in tough with our artsy side it was only right to hit up the check in area and request some more balloons and catch part of a Jake episode.  These kids, living the good life.  

Finally the temperature was approaching 68 degrees so hey, warmer than up North right? No better time to switch to suits and take a dive in.  I opted for the hot tub with my little ladies by my side.  Both are huge fans of hot tubs.  Here they are sitting so sweet and innocently.  But don't let that fool you.  One of these kids decided it was a good idea to LICK the hand rail going into the hot tub. My look of horror resulted in fits of giggles. Blleeeeeechhhhh.  I'll let you guess who that could be. I'll give you a hint.  It was the same kid who randomly started to bust a move on a beach chair.  

Little kiddie pool.  Perfect amount of fun. 

Might just be the winner for best picture of the entire vacation. 

It's not a true poolside vacation without a fun drink amiright? No T, you cannot have a drink of my "juice." 

The only time it's okay to have arm rolls while poolside :)  :)

Around 4pm we packed up our belongings, headed back to the room, got ready, and caught a boat over to Disney Springs.  Being able to take a boat to a place filled with live entertainment, drinks, restaurants, and kiddie rides was the coolest.  The girls picked out souvenirs, Kris and I had the tastiest margaritas, and we took in the sights.  Not for too long though because we had to get back and get in bed.  Back to the Disney grind the next day!

Disney Day Four: Animal Kingdom

Oh Animal Kingdom, how I love thee.  During our first Disney trip in 2014 we debated whether or not to even visit AK.  I mean, it's just a zoo I thought, right? I could see that anywhere.  Anywhere.  After a lot of consideration we decided to check it out.  We had the Park Hopper so it didn't hurt.  If it was a total bust we could leave whenever and head back to old faithful (Magic Kingdom of course).

Just monkeying around.

In true Disney fashion they brought it.  Loved all of it.  So of course we booked a whole day to explore AK once again. 

Yay for AK! I had the same look of my face when we found the sole Starbucks. 

This is just Emerson being cute because why not :) 

Hands down my fave part of AK is the safari.  You take this rugged truck thing (I am sure there is a very simple term to describe this vehicle but after dealing with six days of a sick Parker, the third ear infection in a row for Emerson plus a dose of pink eye, and four doctor visits in a week, my brain is mushy) all through Africa and the sights you see are out of this world.  You really do feel like you're in a different country.  

Even though the safari is out of this world incredible when you do Disney like we do Disney, sometimes you need a little relaxation whenever you can get it.  Which isn't often. Quickly the girls went from this:

to this:



We planned the safari trip so we could get to Pocahontas in just enough time.  Perfect planning right here. Up next was a dose of Mickey (again).  Typically they wear safari gear but not when we're in the middle of the holiday season! What a fun surprise.

After our character visits we grabbed a little lunch, took the train over to the petting zoo area, explored DinoLand, experienced the most terrifying 4D movie otherwise known as It's a Bugs Life where it feels like bugs are crawling on your and the largest freaking fake spiders in the world fly down from the ceiling.  Talk about getting a move on.  We RAN out at that point.  And we were not the only ones.  Tons of families with young kids were doing the same.  OMG never again.










AK typically closes on the early side, around 5 or 6pm, so no better time then to take advantage of our Park Hopper and move on over to Hollywood Studios.






While at HS we caught The Litter Mermaid show, ate some great pizza, and got amazing seats for
Fantasmic, complete with spinning Minnie light up toys.  This show is one of the best.  Water, fire, wind, fireworks...it's all captivating and exciting.  Cannot be missed.



After the show it was time to roll out (literally, we rolled the stroller out) with three fast asleep little ones.  Back to the hotel to prep for the next day--lazy hotel day.

Tell me you don't love seeing this massive Christmas tree with the palm tree right there in the background.  We need more palm trees in my neck of the woods ;)