thrown for a loop.

while we were at the beach the boys shared a room. see where this is going? yep, several times last week the boys asked if they could share again. five short months after santa broke his back to give them two rooms of their own. sigh.

we spent saturday afternoon playing the furniture shuffle. the new twin beds are much larger than the toddler ones were and simply don’t fit on the wall that used to be so perfect for two little beds.

so we slid furniture round and round the room trying to land on something that worked. and in the end, everything works—except for one big thing. the windows behind the beds. they are not centered and it’s making me crazy!

any idea how to make balance out of this situation?

i love how the beds are side by side, but i HATE how the window is not centered behind them. and before you tell me to move the beds, let me assure you that we did try every possible configuration. there are odd nooks (like the closet), odd bump outs, two doors that open in and one door that opens out to contend with. we tried it all. this works best except for that wonky window. soooo, any ideas how to add balance?

the other plans for this room are to hang white picture ledges on the empty wall (you can see them leaning in the pictures). on the ledges will be lots and lots of books, face out. they will add height, color and visual interest—and be functional. woo-hoo! we also plan to add a navy rug trimmed with a white stripe to ground the beds. And we are trying to decide if the two red dressers are too much. maybe just go with one?

on the opposite wall that you cannot see we are planning to hang three identical frames with fun posters (like the bunny puppet print you can kind of see) in them. the bunny puppet actually will migrate to that spot, leaving the wall next to the window blank and free for ideas.

so, who’s got one? an idea. to balance out that back wall? i’m all ears!!!

oh, and ps—the other room? the one we just gave away all our furniture for? that’s going to turn into an upstairs playroom. i’m sure at some point the boys will want their own rooms again, so i’m opting for something easy to change. i’m smart that way! 🙂

 

beach walk 2012.

remember this board i made before our trip?

well, we filled ‘er up! i must say this was one of my more clever ideas (adapted from this—credit where credit is due, right?). having this board along with us gave us little mini adventures all week long. we hunted shells …

found driftwood and seagull feathers …

a bottle cap (alex insists it fell off a pirate’s ship) and a jelly bean …

and two of the greatest beach finds ever! sand dollars (we actually did find one exactly like this, but it got crushed in tripper’s pocket, so these were purchased by mamalin and papa ger’ and carefully placed on the sand for two eager sand dollar hunters to find them …

and sharks teeth! also purchased ahead of a hunt by mamalin and papa ger’—shhhhh, don’t tell the boys!! they were so very, VERY excited to find them.

i put them in little bags and glued the bags instead of the actual teeth in case the boys wanted to be able to hold them later.

want to see the end result? you know i’m going to show you anyway. 😉

ta-da! our beach walk 2012 board. the boys love it. i probably love it more. not sure what we’re going to do with it now, but it sure was fun to make. and it provided lots of focused entertainment and a cute photo op—here is alex coming to surprise me with one of the biggest shells we found on the beach. how cute is he, hands behind back and all?

anyway, if you are heading to the beach with the preschool set, i highly recommend doing something like this. lots of fun for everyone! and just to recap, here was our original list of things to find with the things we did crossed off (who likes crossing things off a list as much as me? raise your hand!) …

a shark’s tooth
a white shell
jellybeans
an eagle feather
a star fish
a seagull feather
some seaglass
driftwood
and a family picture from the trip (i added that one). ** will be adding this later!

so, three things missing. maybe next time we’ll get lucky!!

the sand bar.

each afternoon the tides fell back to reveal an awesome sand bar. the boys loved it. they stood out there and let the waves splash up over them.

and then they wanted to play “jump!” what’s jump? i’ll show you …

one …

two, three—JUMP!

HIGHER!!

holy cow, that’s high! way to go, papa ger’! i have to take a moment here to point out the obvious—papa ger’ is just brilliant with the boys. he and mamalin made this trip wonderful for us, and papa ger’ made it magical for the kiddos.

aaaaand poor maxie. he had only me to lift him. i did my best. (and he seemed happy enough.)

and then the big people had to rest.

and the littles rested, too.

and then they didn’t!

busy, busy, busy little boys!

 

 

 

fountain of youth.

each morning we made a quick trip to starbucks. and each morning the boys wanted to tag along. why? two words. the. fountain.

who thinks to put a dancing fountain directly across from a starbucks? the beach people. that’s who. thank you beach people!

the boys had a great time running around, sitting down and getting the water to flip their crocs.

and they made cup rockets! wait for it …

success!

i was kind of surprised none of the other kids were making cup rockets. i mean, starbucks venti cups are just perfect and they are right there. but by the time we left, a few other kids had seen what we were doing and ran to get cups of their own. maybe we started a trend!

ahhh, coffee and happy kiddos. bliss.

day trippers.

one of the days we were at the beach, the tripper allens took a little jaunt down the coast to rosemary beach and seaside so the boys could get their ride on. doesn’t rosemary beach look like a little european village? so cute!

rosemary and seaside are fabulous for so many reasons, but the one i like most is that they are so kid-friendly. they have squares and arcs and non-busy streets that bring you back to a simpler time where kids can roam, ride their bikes and just be carefree. two thumbs up for sure!

after riding around rosemary, we hopped back in the car and drove over to seaside for lunch (pizza) and ice cream. one of us had a small meltdown outside the ice cream shoppe.

look at that pouty face. nothing a little ice cream didn’t cure!

the boys rode their bikes for a long time—enjoying the bumpy cobblestones and even going down a few steps!! thrillseekers, i tell ya! (see bottom of this post.)

speed. i. am. speed.

can’t you just hear him ringing his little bike bell?

so happy.

mr. cool. (he looks like a motorcycle cop, doesn’t he? the toddler remake of c.h.i.p.s!)

fun fact: both alex and max called their sunglasses “shades” the entire time. mom, have you seen my shades? … wait, i need to put my shades on. nerds.

i loved our little day trip. we packed in so much—riding bikes through two different towns, eating pizzas on a breezy deck overlooking the emerald coast, slurping down gelatto from the ice cream shoppe, doing a little shopping. aside from that pout seen above, it was pretty much a perfect day. and the boys fell fast asleep on the way home (before we’d even backed out of our parking spot, actually), so tripper and i had time to talk and laugh without having to shout over the dvd player. yay! it’s the little things, right??

 

 

 

 

 

sea biscuit.

early one morning papa ger’ announced that he and mamalin would be making biscuits from scratch with the kiddos. and boy did they make biscuits!

the kids (with a little help) did everything! they cracked eggs.

they stirred.

they made eyes at each other.

and then two of them lost interest. but not alex. he stayed on for the long haul. he kneaded the dough.

rolled it into balls and then punched them flat.

and in the end he proudly presented his biscuit. his sea biscuit. ps—the biscuits actually tasted as good as they look!

well done, kiddos. well done.

the beach boys.

to say that the boys loved the beach is the understatement of the year. they LOVED it. alex charged right in, picking up right where he left off last year. max took a little time. he wouldn’t go anywhere near the water the first day, but the second he became brave and then we could not keep him out. not until his lips turned purple and he was chilled to the bone did he even consider stepping out of the surf.

running to the ocean.

making plans.

splash!

squeeeeee!

with papa ger’ …

and with daddy …

bracing for a wave with uncle scott and little miss katelyn. just look at the joy on their faces. priceless.

alex loved his “beachy hair.” he talked about it constantly. even worried it would be gone when we returned home.

as i said, the boys just loved the beach. max so much so that one night as everyone was getting ready for dinner and a family picture he convinced tripper to take him out for “just 20 more minutes.”

hooked i tell you! hooked.

up, up in the air.

what are these boys looking at??

a bird?
a plane?
superman?

nope. it’s a kite. an awesome kite. papa ger’ brought his amazing technicolor flying machine (which we did not take a picture of—go figure) and the boys were smiles from ear to ear. papa ger’ even let them help fly it.

i present to you—the flyer helpers!

i love the look of bliss on the boys’ faces side-by-side with the look of concentration and care on papa ger’s face. flying that monster kite on the beach could easily have lifted the boys into the air—it’s had papa ger’ off his feet a few times before—but he handled it and them beautifully. the boys loved, loved, loved it.

oh! oh! oh! oh!
let’s go fly a kite
up to the highest height
let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring
up through the atmosphere
up where the air is clear
oh, let’s go fly a kite!

thanks, pg, for a most wonderful adventure! i can’t believe we are home and back to business as usual. we should so move to the beach.

 

we’re back!

lots of photos to sift through. here’s one to tide you over.

so not ready to be home. sigh.

 

beach bound!

we are packing up and hitting the beach this week for a much-needed vacation. since the boys aren’t likely to just sit around and soak up the sun, i made a few activities for us to do while we are there. the first is a “beach walk” board.

it’s a piece of black mounting board wrapped in craft paper. on it i wrote beach walk 2012 and at the bottom is a list of the things the boys hope to find while we are there. when we find each thing, we will glue it to the board. fun! so what’s on their list?

a shark’s tooth
a white shell
jellybeans
an eagle feather
a star fish
a seagull feather
some seaglass
driftwood
and a family picture from the trip (i added that one).

so is there anything else we should look for? did we forget something cool?

while we were making our list, the boys said they wanted to find a shell for everyone in their class. great! more to do! so i took the little bag that a set of twin bed sheets came in and wrote on it. now it’s somehow special for collecting shells.

fun, right? and with 26 to find, that should keep us busy a while!!

we hope you have a great week while we’re gone!! we’ll be back next week hopefully with a full board to share, nice tan skin, and a refreshed outlook. until then!