Jackson - Happy 11th Birthday!

I always plan to have a fun little surprise as soon as my kids wake up on their birthdays. It makes a great start to their special day. Jackson's celebration started the night before his birthday. After he fell asleep, 'Operation: Fill Birthday Boy's Room with Balloons' began. Ashleigh and I blew up balloons to scatter around his room for a fun surprise when he woke up. It was late and we may have been light headed from all the 'hot air' but it was hard to sneak into his room without waking him up with all the giggling.

 Ash wrapped this about 8 times, each layer was a different type of wrapping paper!

Jackson had really gotten into Pokemon again, after finding out a lot of his friends at school play. He got lots of new cards, trading boxes, sleeves and a new binder to organize them into.

Russ' parents watching Jackson open the gifts from them (they live in Iowa)

 Jackson got to split part of his birthday with us and part with his Dad. So before heading to his Dad's we stopped for my part of his birthday gift. We went to Scheels and he got to pick out new arrows and targets for his bow. We ran into some 'wild animals' while we were there and even had time for a little fishing!

Stinky skunks

Jackson at 11:

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite animal? Wolf

What is your favorite food? Steak

What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know

What is your favorite book?

What is your favorite song? Some Nights by Fun

What is your favorite TV show? Don't have one

What was your biggest accomplishment this last year? Wining a trophy in Lego Robotics

What is your favorite season? Spring or Winter Why? Because it's cold in winter and spring because it's not super hot or super cold and it's my birthday

Where would you most like to go for vacation? A foreign country

What is your favorite thing to do? Playing video games with my friends

Where do you like to go for dinner? Somewhere with a good burger

Who is your best friend? John

___________________________

My Mom always does a special activity with my kids for their birthdays. I love that every year they have a new special memory instead of a gift they will out grow or eventually forget about.

This year, his birthday date was a surprise coupled with a sleepover. He absolutely loved spending night at grandmas. He got special treatment and got the guest bedroom to himself. They stayed up late watching a favorite tv show, then his favorite breakfast in the morning. They rode the horses, collected eggs from the chickens, and he learned how to drive their 4-Wheeler!

His surprise was trip to an indoor archery range!! He LOVED it, and was quite a hit with some of the other people there. He's getting to be quite the little expert.

Little Moments - Car selfies

Ashleigh likes to take pictures in the car. She loves photography but I think she's just finding a way to entertain herself when she is bored. It's not uncommon to randomly hear, "Mom.. smile".

      

House Edition - Bedroom

Almost a year here and the master bedroom was still completely untouched. My kids bedrooms and main living areas were our main focus when we moved in. I couldn't stand anymore white walls, temporary blinds and our new bed and box spring sitting on the floor.

This is the room where I start and end each day. I want to feel good when I walk into this space and create a relaxing haven.  Of course I don't have endless funds and the nightstands I wanted do not exists for under $300 a piece. I do enjoy taking on projects and decided to put some elbow grease into this one to make it come together.

So, this is what I started with. My nightstand was a bamboo bench with a shelf underneath that was used in the bathroom at our old house.  Russ' nightstand was a small round table\plant stand that was my grandmothers, which I had spray painted white from black years ago. No headboard. No window dressings other than some temporary paper shades we got the first day we moved in, from Home depot.

Opposite the bed is a set of double closets with some very ugly, dinged up doors. Look at the bottom right, how does that even happen? Was someone trying to kick the door open? And, yes.. there is a stack of boxes against the wall on the right. Almost a year and I still haven't unpacked EVERY box. Maybe I should just get rid of everything still in boxes since I obviously haven't needed it. (I just cringed a little as I typed that.)

I started with the wall color. I wanted to use the beautiful shade of gray I have in the rest of my house. Russ did not want our room the same color at all. His favorite color is red but that's as opposite as one can get from the relaxing sanctuary I was going for. We decided on blue.  This was the first time I  bought those small sample sizes of paint and tested it out before choosing. (In the first picture you can see a couple sample patches next to the window.) I really liked the dark one, Russ really liked the lighter color... and since life and relationships are about compromise, I went with the lighter shade. I hated it...at first, but then it grew on me and as I added other things into the room it became a nice background. The closet doors got a few coats of crisp white paint.


Next up were the bedside tables.  I bought two simple three drawer pine dressers from Ikea for $34.99 each. I assembled, sanded and painted white.


I had only been to Hobby Lobby a couple times, there isn't one close to my house, but I remembered them having a wide selection of knobs and pulls.

I was a kid in a candy store but as an indecisive perfectionist... I spent way too much time in this isle. I asked a store clerk if they ever go on sale and when she said, "yes" I knew I would have to wait. So, I took pictures of the ones I had narrowed it down to and went on my marry way. I needed 12 all together and at $7-$9 a piece it was worth the wait when I went back a couple weeks later and got them at 50% off.

I drove all over town to find dark bamboo roman shades. Wouldn't you know it, I found one on clearance at Lowes for the EXACT width I needed! Score. I finally got a new bed frame (we upgraded from queen to king) found some pillows, a throw, and plants to add to what I brought over form the old house. Russ night stand was once again a plant stand. 

My Mom has my grandparents antique bedroom set, but the headboard wasn't being used. She was happy to let me have it since it was just taking up space in her basement. Turns out it was the same shade of dark brown as the new roman shade I bought. Perfect.

I'm still on the hunt for the right wall art and area rug but I love this space now. It really is turning into the relaxing space it should be.

Little Moments - Mommy snuggles

My poor boy wasn't feeling well. I love that my kids are never too old to snuggle with their mommy.  I was sitting on my bed reading, and he fell asleep like this. It was too sweet not to capture it.

Winter Gardening

Jackson is the other green thumb in the house besides myself. While Ashleigh is only excited to eat what we grow, Jackson like to tend to the garden. In preparation for spring, we planted all the seeds for our garden inside and kept them in a greenhouse in front of the sliding glass door.

We planted baby spinach and micro greens that we would eat while it was still too cold to plant outside.  We plated edible flower and decorative flower seeds and a multitude of veggies.

Gardening is my element. I was excited to check the greenhouse everyday to see what new seedlings had sprouted.

 There was something very satisfying about watching all of these plants grow while on the other side of the door, everything was covered in snow.

The spinach and micro greens were in separate smaller containers (plastic shoes boxes actually) and it made it really easy to grab a container and bring it to the kitchen counter to prepare meals.

 We eventually had to take the cover off the greenhouse because the plants were getting too tall! This little greenhouse worked perfectly. We had well over 100 seedlings sprouted and thriving after a couple months. It comes apart easily for storage. The hard part was waiting until it was safe to plant outside since we get snow in April!

Annie Get Your Gun

Annie Get Your Gun was the musical at Ashleigh's high school this year. She actually played two separate characters, which was no easy feat since one was a male indian and the other a female townsperson.

I made her indian costume at home, and I may think twice about any project in the future that involves fringe because it takes forever! Thank goodness the dress was provided for her by the school. Her costume changes weren't just clothing but hair and a lot of make up. She pulled it off seamlessly.

The talent that comes together for these plays always amazes me. I hear all about it after practice everyday, but I'm always impressed to see it come together and it far exceeds my expectations.

The auditorium in her new school is beautiful. The stage, lighting and sound system is top notch and they put on a very high quality show! It was fantastic to watch. Even Jackson attended EVERY performance. With him being in band this year at school, I thought he would be interested to see the orchestra pit during intermission. I think he was impressed that all the music was live.

Jackson giving Ash a bouquet of sunflowers

Fellow actresses and best friends

Making a "guy" face

Congratulations on another great performance!!

Thankful Thursday