New Furniture in the Girls' Room, Less Crap in the Boys' Room

This morning I made Pumpkin Waffles with Maple-Apple Syrup (well, just regular maple syrup...we were out of apple juice!). Adrian and the boys were crazy about them.

Maple-Apple Syrup
1/2 cup maple-flavored syrup
1/4 cup frozen (thawed) apple juice concentrate
Waffles
2 1/3 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Powdered sugar, if desired
1. In 1-quart saucepan, heat syrup ingredients, stirring occasionally, until juice concentrate is melted and mixture is warm.
2. Heat waffle iron; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening. In large bowl, beat all waffle ingredients except pecans and powdered sugar with wire whisk or hand beater until blended. Pour batter onto center of hot waffle iron. Close lid of waffle iron.
3. Bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops and waffle is golden brown. Carefully remove waffle. Sprinkle with pecans and powdered sugar. Serve with syrup.

(From the Betty Crocker website)

Yummy!

I spent pretty much the ENTIRE day working in the kids' rooms. We bought a super cute girls' dresser set on Craigslist and Adrian picked up most of it last night and then went back this morning to pick up what wouldn't fit.

I'm super impressed with him! This stuff is pretty heavy and he got it all up the stairs and the pieces all put together all by himself.

While he was gone Orian and I moved Isabella's old dresser into the boys' closet. It's a baby dresser, but hey, it's in the closet. No one's going to see it. And it's not too obviously baby-ish. Well, yeah, it kind of is.

The boys had some of their things in plastic storage drawers in the closet, so now those will go in our master closet. It's a scary mess in there so I'm going to be organizing it tomorrow.

Last week when the boys brought their laundry down I thought it seemed like a pretty small amount.

It was.

The boys' closet was 1 foot deep in dirty clothes. Nice. I have been too sick to really go up there and check on things and I guess THAT'S what happens when I don't go and check on things.

When Adrian got the girls' dressers assembled I wiped them down with a magic eraser and they look great. There was some crayon on one of them and it came right off. The dressers are wood but have some sort of laminate finish, which I like because it makes them super easy to clean.

I re-organized the girls' room and sorted out the toys and clothes. Dahlia will have plenty to play with when she's ready! Isabella loves her dressers. She calls one of them her "house" because she can open up the cabinet and get inside.

Here are some pictures of the new dressers. Isabella has torn the ribbons off her wall and I haven't fixed it yet. I don't know when I will because I need a new, more stable, less caustic method of attaching the ribbons. Ideas, anyone?

The dressers don't look as clashy with the paint as they do in the pic. In the room lighting they actually look very nice with it.











The dressers don't match the bed, but no one uses the bed anyways! Well, the Carebears sleep there, but Carebears aren't picky.

The boys' room was a major project. What a mess. They just never put anything away properly. I can organize and organize and re-organize and within days it's back to looking like crap. Ugh! I guess that's what boys do. Keeping things straightened and neat is not really a boy priority.

The closet dresser is now a school clothes dresser and then the main dresser in the room is for play clothes. I sorted through several big boxes of toys they had crammed in there and found some interested items.

I found some missing clothes of mine and Isabella's, too. And one of Adrian's socks.

I condensed all the Lego pieces into one HUGE box, much to Orian's delight. The boys were really excited by all the toys we found. I keep telling them that if they would keep things put away in the right places they would have more fun because they would know where things are.

I got their bookcase straightened up and re-boxed all the stuff in their room. Really, the only toys in there are the Legos, the UB Funkeys, and the Gameboy stuff. I like it better that way. Toys in the loft. Clothes, books, and beds in the bedroom.

I didn't take any pictures because I was waaaay too tired when I got finished several hours later. I should have taken before and after pictures!

I ended up with 2 trash bags filled with loose papers, broken toys, and crappy fast food toys. I hate those stupid fast food toys.

I had a My Pet Monster (the kind you draw on) that I could have given away but someone had written something about farts on it, and it dried that way. I don't think anyone would want that. LOL.

Tomorrow is our closet, laundry, laundry, laundry, and then hopefully some projects. I have some Thanksgiving outfits to do for Isabella and then the kids' "Thankful" shirts they wear every Thanksgiving. And two different votive projects.

I should be doing Thanksgiving crafts with the kids. I am really slipping. But I'm finally feeling better, so maybe this week. We're running out of time!