Kid Kitchen

I saw on Diane (Grimshaw) Olsen's blog one day that she had made her kids a play kitchen out of big cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and other such stuff. It got me thinking of how I could make a kitchen for our playroom without spending a lot because those little kitchens--at least the really cute Pottery Barn ones--can be pretty pricy. This is the final result. Best part--it is made from 100% recycled materials.

The frame is made from collapsable shelving that you can make into just about any configuration. I think I've had it since college if not longer. The sink is an old wok lid, the faucet is part of a hose with a chopstick shoved down it to make it stand up like that, the bread box is from our last house (this house doesn't have the counter space for it), and the blue and green squares are all painted cardboard from bike boxes (I happen to have about a thousand Boot Scoot boxes in my garage so I didn't have go very far). And some of you might recognize the Oh! Sweet Sadie grocery list stationery I attached to the fridge. 

Hopefully the boys will play with it. Now I just need to find some play food. I'm still thinking recycled--wrapping food boxes in contact paper as we use them. Only problem, I'll have to go to the store to buy contact paper 'cause it's not so recyclable. 

Halloween and More

Well, at least I'm posting about Halloween before Thanksgiving, right? This is kind of similar to my goal with W's First Year photo album--I've just got to get it done before the next baby, right?

J had a preschool party where they all got to dress up, play pin the nose on Frankenstein, and eat treats. J is wearing a clown costume I wore as a child, although I didn't have the cool wig or the big red nose that usually wound up on Jonah's forehead or in my hands.

Here we carving pumpkins. We found the warty pumpkin at Bloomsbury Farm when Max's parents came to visit. It was called a "super-freak" pumpkin. Pretty cool looking if you ask me. I love Jonah's face in this photo. He does this in a lot of photos, but at least here it makes sense.

If you notice in the next photo, I'm trying to keep W's legs warm since he's not wearing any pants. This is because when I change his diaper any time in the evening, I go to put on his pants back on but he declares, "No Pants!" and wiggles away as fast as he can.

Halloween night. Scary creatures coming out to play. Oh, except for W who refused to to dress up.

This is our family's new favorite game--UNO. J loves to make any of us draw 2 or draw 4. W gets a big kick out of it too. The first person to win is declared "First Winner" and runs to the couch to jump up and down. The second winner also gets to jump up and down, but then has to lay down on the ground. 

I'm not exactly sure where these rules came from, but I usually get to beg out of the jumping on the couch by blaming it on the baby in my tummy. Max has his own excuse with a broken wrist. His tires slid out on a rainy day riding home from school a little over a week ago. It's the third time he's broken his right hand/wrist so as he says, "It's not my first rodeo." However, this is the first time he's broken it while having to take copious notes and type papers for school. I think he'll be glad when it heals.

Blogging Catch Up

So it turns out I'm about as consistent with blogging as I have been with journaling in the past. Although a month lapse is actually pretty good for me when it comes to journaling so I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. So now I want to do a recap of the past two months now that I am finally coming out of the first trimester pregnancy fog.

Back in September our good friends the Livingstones came to visit. They have two boys too, and their older son Ian is WAY into John Deere tractors. So we drove to Moline, Illinois, the home of John Deere, to visit the museum and other John Deere attractions. The boys loved it and occasionally ask to go back. If it wasn't an hour's drive away I'm sure we'd be there weekly.

Jonah turned 4 in September. For his birthday we all went and rode the Hawkeye Express--a train that only runs on Saturdays to take spectators to Hawkeye football games (at $10 a person--at least kids ride free) from more distant parking lots. The boys loved the train ride and didn't mind waiting for it in the rain. On the day of Jonah's birthday he had a Joyschool field trip planned to go to a local apple orchard so we had a little birthday party with his JoySchool friends as well. This apple orchard is a great place. You can eat what you want while you are there, pick your own apples for purchase, and they also have fabulous apple tarts made hot and fresh. We will definitely be going back next year.

In mid-October, Max's parents came for a weekend visit. While Max was busy with school we took the boys to some fun places including Bloomsbury Farm in Atkins. They have a bunch of fun stuff for kids including water pump duck races, live pig races, tractor rides through corn fields, and a corn (as opposed to sand) box. The corn box actually felt great on the feet and was much better than sand when it came time to brush off and clean up.

We also went to the Amana colonies with Max's parent's. The Amana colonies used to be home to a religious group that succeeded at communal living for over 100 years! It is now more of a tourist site with lots of fun little shops, a delicious bakery, and family style restaurants. Ramona bought the boys this great musical marble toy the that boys have been playing with daily ever since. I put the best photo of it up above. The marble falls down and around the toy making different toned dripping sounds as it goes around. Maybe I'll have to take a video of it sometime for the full effect.

 

Ramona loves to go for early morning walks. This morning the boys went--Jonah with his Superman cape and Lightning McQueen slippers and Wyatt in his Thomas slippers.

We all had lots of fall family fun in October as well.


The boys are also getting to a great age where they actually play together. It is wonderful for me to see them playing games or pretending together. It doesn't always go smoothly, such as today when I was having a pregnant exhaustion moment (i.e. it was virtually impossible to keep my eyes open) while lying on the couch and I woke up to find Jonah hitting Wyatt on the arm with a "cutlass" hard enough to raise the skin and leave bruises. They haven't drawn serious blood as of yet, but I'm sure that is coming some day. For now, I'll enjoy the pleasant playing.

Oh yeah, and I LOVE our trampoline. I grew up with a trampoline and just always assumed my kids would have one. I can send the boys out to play and they jump together and even take turns showing each other new tricks. As you can see in the background, Jonah is becoming much more daring with his tricks.

So I made it just about to Halloween. I'll have to do that post another day because it is time to get the boys in bed.