My new happy place

When we bought this house, we temporarily moved into the bonus room and did major construction on the upstairs bedrooms. We demolished the master retreat, ripped out the master bedroom fireplace, tore down the walls and closet in the small kid’s bedroom, and built what we somewhat jokingly call “the twin palace.” It’s an extra-big kids’ room that easily fits both girls and a walk-in closet that runs the entire length of the room. We had the closet tricked out by our new fave contractors: Closets by Design. They designed, delivered, and installed the whole closet for a bit more than it would have cost us at Home Depot (plus TubaDad would have had to do all the labor if we had gone the Home Depot route). And let me tell you, it was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.

First, it’s just beautiful. Seriously, that closet is my new happy place. There is a place for everything and it’s all in plain sight. And second (this one makes me weep and squeal), the girls can fold, hang, and put away their OWN LAUNDRY now because that closet is just so awesome. Oh man, I can hear angels singing as I type that. Ahhhhhhh. I just pull their clothes out of the dryer (or off the drying rack), hand them a basket, and they do the rest.

We’re only using the bottom half of the closet right now, so there’s plenty of room to grow with the girls later. There are hanging baskets for swimsuits, pajamas, and tights. There are drawers for socks, underwear, shorts, and leotards:

There are two jewelry drawers (which right now are filled with precious plastics, heh):

There’s a tilt-out hamper with removable bag, and there are curved corner shelves for shoes:

And there are hanging racks (adjusted down really low right now) for everything else:

Everything is sturdy, solidly attached to the walls (when you have fearless climbers like Ro and Ree, you worry about this stuff), and easily adjustable for the future. Oh, and I bought a couple of rolling library stools (here are the White ones, and here are the Stainless Steel ones), which are just the ticket.

I might just go sneak into the closet right now and meditate a little. I can feel the smile starting already...

It rained on our parade!

Friends and family flew and drove to San Fran to see the Chinese New Year parade with us, and the weather was downright embarrassing. Oh well, we still had a good time hanging out with folks we love, despite days of pouring rain and icy temperatures, mind-numbing SF/holiday gridlock traffic, cancelled flights, and sicknesses. Actually, now that I look at that list they all seem to be adult irritations, I wonder if the kids even knew any of that was going on? (hang on, checking...) Nope, just asked them and Ree said “I liked it!” and Ro said “I liked the aquarium the best and the rain didn’t bother me at all.” Well there you have it.

Here are the snapshots (some with the Nikon, some with the purse cam, some with the cell phone, and some of Linda’s pics).

The drive to San Fran took many, many, many hours. It was brutal out there, and California drivers are anything but stellar when wetness is falling out of the sky:

Once there, the kids were excited to see each other and played lots of games (electronic and imaginative):

We had special seats on a bridge overlooking the parade route (brrrrrr!):

The kids bailed one by one. First Tate was freezing, then Tess needed to go get warmer clothes, then Ro and Ree fell asleep on our laps (in the middle of that din!):

After we had all moved indoors, we figured out that we had great views (with room service!) of the parade from our warm, toasty rooms. The final lighted lion dance stretched over a few blocks:

After seeing that, the kids somehow grabbed an old blanket and made their own lion. They ran up and down the hallway chanting “Dra-gon, dra-gon, dra-gon!” which was just hilarious:

The next day dawned bright and sunny (of course, now that no one had to sit outside we saw plenty of Mr Sun), so we went to Fisherman’s Wharf:

Julie and Tess had cancelled flights, so we were lucky to get an extra day to hang out with them.

We had a great Chinese food dinner, then finished up the weekend with some icecream (hence Ree’s blue mouth) and bid everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!:

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè, happy year of the rabbit!

Fashion friday (in the cold and rain)

Our lovely spring weather has been rudely interrupted by a cold front. The icy temps and rain haven’t stopped for days.

Oh well, it’s warm and toasty inside. We watched Beauty and the Beast this morn (just delivered from Amazon) so both girls went with a Belle theme as they got dressed. Ree was thinking “early Belle” and chose all blue with a faux pearl shirt and her hair back (she also carefully pulled her socks up reallyreally high so they showed above her boots, but I’m noticing one slipped down for this pic, which is going to irk her). Ro went for a yellow theme with a nod to Belle’s famous yellow dress. She’s wearing a summer WelaWear dress, but put a yellow cardigan under it for warmth (I guess) and her beloved silver pants (which always look vaguely astronautish if you ask me).

Sweet girlies. I have a migraine so I’m missing out on classroom volunteering today for the first time ever (bleh). Hopefully the Imitrex will knock it out soon, because we’ve got big plans in the city with family and friends for Chinese New Year tonight and tomorrow.

Happy Friday!

They sing better than I do (although that’s not saying much)

Well, TubaDad and I are now clinging to our “early forties.” Apparently next year we’re officially in our “mid forties.” Is that even true, or can you claim early forties until 48 or so? Anyhow, the back-to-back birthdays were good. We had a fun dinner at the folks’ house on TubaDad’s bday, then had dinner at a fancy restaurant the next night for my bday. Oddly enough, none of us were happy with the fancy restaurant, so we declared a redo and went out to the Fish Market the next night. Ahhh, much better. Yeah, it is all about the eating (well that and not having to cook for three days in a row – yessssss!).

Normally, this would be where I’d plop in a few pics of the birthday boy and birthday girl. But you know what? We didn’t take a single one of us. Gah! Must remedy soon. In the meantime, I’ll just toss in a few cute shots of the girls that don’t have any dang thing to do with either of our birthdays:

TubaDad and the girls got me a Silhouette cutting machine for my bday and it’s pretty cool looking. I say “looking” because, well, frankly I’m a little intimidated and don’t know where to start. Any suggestions for starter Silhouette projects?

PS: If you need one of these candles, we get the three-packs from here. Also, Ro is in the dress and Ree is in the purple pants.

Happy Valentine’s Day! (dieting did not happen in this house today and tomorrow’s not looking good either...)

Hope you all had a fantabulous Valentine’s Day. The girls and I woke to heart-shaped donuts, balloons, and flowers, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. Go TubaDad!

Big hugs, xoxoxo.

Ok, THESE are my fave Ro and Ree outfits ever

Yeah, yeah, I say that all the time, but the outfits Ro and Ree put together today just made me grin. The colors, the spunk, the outrageousness. Kiddo perfection.

First, they wanted curly hair again. So I took the fabulous Ninotchka’s suggestion and spritzed their hair and then wrapped it around strips of paper towel tied in knots.

Oh my gosh, I am a paper-towel-curler convert. After about a half an hour of playtime in the warm sun, the girls had bouncy, movie-star hair that thrilled them to pieces:

Anyhow, the outfits... The outfits were hilarious. As were their poses. I took a plain, boring standing-up pic against the wall, and they scoffed and directed me to the low wall in the front yard. I told them the sun was directly behind them and the pictures wouldn’t turn out and blah, blah, blah. “Just take the picture, mama,” I was instructed, “and then you can put it on the blog.” Heh. Dang littles were 100% right again. I put the camera on manual and tried to adjust it so their faces wouldn’t be blacked out. And, wow. See?

Ree is wearing a WelaWear dress from last year. It’s too short now, so she wears it as a long shirt. She paired it with a ruffly red tulle skirt, and bright blue socks and sneakers (new from Payless, they’re having their BYGO sale thru Feb 15). Ro chose a fun red tie-dyed tee from Children’s Place, put a long-sleeved yellow tee under it for some pop, and grabbed a tiered skirt I found at GoodWill last week. Oh and she has the new soft flats she got at Payless. Notice that Ro’s shirt is tucked in and she is sockless – if you see either of these two clues in a picture, you’re usually looking at Ro.

Little cuties. You see why I don’t even bother to try dressing them anymore? Everything I pick is just... flat somehow. Anyhow, these images are going into the new blog header for sure. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.