Girls' bedroom make over . . .

We've been slowly re-doing the rooms in our house for the last 4 1/2 years.

Because Audree and Sophee were pretty young when we started the process, they never really expressed a desire for me to re-do their room (unlike Kaylee and Josh who nagged about it constantly until I finally dropped everything and did their rooms). So for the past year or two they've been bugging me about the fact that their room 'sucks', and everybody else's room looks good.

So a few months ago I had the girls pick a color that they both could agree on. Originally it was blue. Then Audree changed her mind and said that she wanted it to be green. So, I set out to find some bedding that had both blue and green. The cheapest thing I could find was about $60 a piece, and that didn't including shipping. I really didn't want to spend over $120 on bedding. So I waited. And waited. And the girls nagged, and nagged about how I promised we could fix up their room. Luckily, with it being 'back to school' time I was able to find some cheap twin bedding that had both of the specified colors.

Here are the before pics:
(I didn't bother picking anything up before taking these pics-just keeping it real for ya'.)

Here are the 'after' pics:

(Taken before the girls got home, just to make sure that it looked good and clean.)

That cute little tree is a sticker. When I showed the room to Kory he was so impressed with it-until I admitted that I didn't actually paint it myself.

I plan to paint some flowers on the grassy hills, but my SIL is supposed to help me do that, and she had some things come up at the last minute. So once that's done, I'll post more pics.

I made the curtains from a $3 bed sheet and a couple of spools of ribbon. They are just stapled to old pieces of wood I had laying around, and mounted with brackets.

The little shelves were once used to house some of my stamps. They used to have doors on the front, but a certain child of mine colored on the front of them with a permanant marker, and I couldn't get it off. So I just took the doors off-they would've just been in the way.

Something should probably go on that bare wall over the bed. But, Sophee likes to put her feet up on the wall at night when she's tossing and turning and trying to get to sleep, so I've decided to just leave it blank for now. I'm sure when the girls get older, and accumulate more stuff, we'll have to put up a few shelves.

I made these memo boards out of some material I've had laying around, and some ceiling tiles I grabbed from the tire store:

Hopefully I will actually finish up with the flowers soon. The beds also need a face lift-but that probably won't happen until we get new carpet and have to take them apart.

The girls are beyond thrilled with it-and that's good enough for me. For now.

Back to school

Well, since it's almost time for me to go back to school, I should probably post about the kids' first day back before all my homework causes me to be MIA.

For those of you fortunate enough to live in the blistering heat of AZ., you get to send your kids back to school at the beginning of August-Wahoo!!

So here they are-all ready to go on their first day.

Sophee & Audree: Sophee is now in 1st grade. At the end of the school year last year she asked me if she could be in her same teacher's class for 1st grade. She was a little disappointed when I told her that she couldn't, and that everyone gets a new teacher every time they move up a grade. Weeeeeellll, come to find out, her teacher ended up moving up a grade, and she get's to be in her class. Sophee was super excited. Especially since this teacher is soooo awesome with the kids.

Audree is a big 2nd grader now, and as I walked the girls to their classrooms the first day, she quickly bounded off to her class without the need of me :-(. Sophee, on the other hand, asked me if I could stay in her classroom with her all day.

Next, we have the ever cool Jr. High student, Kaylee:

Kaylee is in the 7th grade this year. She is super thrilled not to have PE on her schedule (for this quarter anyway). She is in advanced band, and honors language arts, and seems to be enjoying all of the 'socializing' she gets to do.

And last, but not least, Josh:

Josh started High School this year. I can't believe my baby boy is in High School. I'm getting old.

So far things seem to be going great for him. All the Special Education kids get to 'work' in the cafeteria to earn a free breakfast. Josh is thrilled with the idea that he now has 2 jobs-one at the High School, and one at the Tire Store. He is also thrilled to be able to take PE again-as they have an adapted class for the SP.ED. kids. Through out high school he will get the opportunity to learn more life skills-like cooking, doing laundry, etc. He keeps telling me and Kory, "I'm going to learn to cook dinner for you guys". Boy, that would be heaven!!

Anyway, there you have it. I will be starting my '3rd year as a Sophomore' (as Kory puts it) next week. In march I will put in my application for the Dental Hygiene program. Wish me luck!!