It's Clean Up Time

We celebrated our Memorial Day over the weekend, so while Jake headed into the office on Monday the kids and I tackled cleaning the playroom. My plan: good old fashion bribery. I had the kids take all the toys off the shelves and out of the toy box and put them all in the middle of the room. Then I told them we were going to go through every last toy, toss the broken ones, make a donation pile and put the ones to keep back on the shelves. The bribe....all the toys set aside for donation I would buy from them. Two hours later the playroom was spotless and they had a good chunk of change in their pockets for a trip to the toy store...which they insisted we go right away....so we did. Who knew getting kids to part with toys and clean up was so easy!

Reese is done with school so we celebrated with a breakfast date while Daddy went to work and Nate went to school. Yum!

Disgusting or Resourceful and More Organizing

Reese and I headed out to Target and Office Depot this morning. Like most 3 year olds, he is not a big fan of shopping so I packed my bag with snacks and entertainment, hoping for a stress free outing. Thankfully it was an uneventful morning and I was able to pick up a few more organizing tools like a really cool label maker. I'm not even sure what I'm going to label, but I couldn't resist it. I'm not sure what has come over me.

Jake came home last night to find I had made labels for the canvas bins I put in the toy room. I printed off "Lego's, Power Rangers, Cars" etc., laminated them and used Velcro pieces to stick them to the canvas. I was pleased with myself. Jake thinks I've lost my mind. Nathan is already learning how to read the label's and now we don't have to pull them off of the shelf to see what is in them. I think it's genius....and maybe a little anal.

Reese was so good while shopping we stopped by Snip-It's instead of our normal hair cut spot and he got the royal kid treatment while getting his hair cut. They even spiked his hair up and put some wash out green streaks in it. He loved it.

On the way home this morning I had one last stop, the bank. Right in the middle of my deposit in the drive through Reese insists he has to go pee-pee and NOW. I think over my options, risk waiting until the teller sends my stuff back through the tube or grab the empty sippy cup in the cup holder and let him make a little deposit of his own. I play it safe, tell him to unbuckle and come up front. He stands in the passenger side floor space and I hold out the cup. He says, "Is this a potty?" I said yes and the little guy did his business and hopped back into his seat, all before the teller sent us our receipt. If you are wondering, the sippy cup was one of those keep or toss kind so yes, it got tossed when we got home. Disgusting or resourceful...I vote resourceful.

Nate brought home his second report card of Kindergarten....all S's (A's) again. Yippee! He was so proud of himself....and I was too.

Nesting, Adoption, Baby and Pics

It must be premature spring fever because I've been organizing for days. I don't think I've done this since my pregnancy nesting days. It all started when I found these cute Boat and Tote Storage Bins and thought they would be perfect for the playroom.

I took the old baskets I had in the playroom and used them to organize my closet.

And somehow when I was unloading the dishwasher yesterday I found myself cleaning out the kitchen cabinets. When Jake and I saw the episode of Friends when Chandler discovers Monica's closet crammed full of stuff, Jake said, "That's totally you." I look clean and organized on the surface, but behind the scene is a different story. The good news is that I'll get a wild hair and start organizing my untidy places just to let it go to pot again. We'll see how long it will last this time.

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Congratulations go out to my Aunt Myra who got word yesterday that child services will be taking steps to make her two foster girls, 7 and 3, adoptable. She is so excited. A number of things have to happen to make it all come together, but she just may become a mom before her 50th birthday! Congrats!

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Another congratulations go out to my brother, Will and his wife who are expecting their 2nd child this summer. The unofficial word is that it is a boy!

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Here are two recent pictures of Reese I just had to share...

He came down stairs the other day with a bunch of bathing suits saying he wanted to swim. He took off his pajamas and put ALL of them on. I think it was about 60 degrees out....so we let him swim in the tub.

Nathan had a birthday party to go to the other night so Jake and Reese hung out and watched football. Jake showed me this picture when I got home....Cheerios and beer for dinner.....