BEACH!!

Jonathan had planned on taking a week of vacation off of work where we decided we would get our house in order.  The second floor is currently undergoing a four-room-swap and we have chaos everywhere.  The county fair is also in town and we were excited about taking the girls.  On his last day of work before vacation he called me and said, "Tomorrow, instead of taking the girls to the fair, do you want to take them to the beach?!"  When someone asks you if you want to go to the beach, the answer is absolutely always "LET'S GO!"  By that evening we had already reserved a room in a small family-owned hotel right on the beach, decided to take the dog with us, and were ready to pack.  Wednesday morning we left at 7 am, girls and puppy in tow, headed to Myrtle Beach.  Madelynn and Annabella are excellent travelers. I bring a bag full of car approved toys with us and keep them up front with me so I can rotate them without the girls getting bored during the 6-7 hour trip. They are also great sleepers, so that always takes up a good 1-2 hours on the road.  


Since we only had three days at the beach, we made every second count. Once we got into the hotel, we made sandwiches, changed and hit the beach. Our children are fearless.  Annabella ran into the ocean the second we hit the sand and Madelynn fought the waves with nothing but laughter and squeals. They made tons of sand castles, talked to everyone they saw, and had the time of their lives.  The weather was a comfortable 80 with no wind and not a drop of rain.  

Dexy loved the beach, which was pretty surprising because he usually hates to be anywhere but home.  Even though he didn't like the water, he was more than happy to lay on a beach towel and people watch.

  
Madelynn and Annabella shared a bed for the very first time.  Jonathan and I would turn off the lights and TV and wait for them to fall asleep.  Once they fell asleep, we would turn everything back on again until we were ready to go to bed.  On the first night while we were waiting for them to fall asleep, Madelynn yells, "Tell Annabella to get her stinky feet off of my face!!"  Well, the next night Madelynn got her back.

"This is for the feet!"

The thought of being 5 1/2 months pregnant and taking a dog, 3 year old and 18 month old to the beach is usually not everyone's idea of fun.  But we seriously have the BEST kids and couldn't have had more fun.   They travel and sleep so well that it didn't even faze them that we weren't at home following their normal daily schedule.  It was a GREAT trip full of sweet memories and tons of fun!  All thanks to my awesome husband who isn't afraid to suggest crazy 24 hour notice, 7 hour road trips!

Madelynn & Annabella's New Room

With the upcoming arrival of Baby Noah, we've had to make a few rearrangements in our home.  At first, Madelynn and Annabella had separate rooms.  Then with the influx of toys that came along with a second child, I decided to move them into one room and turn Madelynn's old room into a playroom.  That was a great situation because not only did it contain most of the toys in one room, but it kept them out of their bedroom and didn't tempt Madelynn to sneak out of bed and play.  Also, Jonathan was able to keep his man room.  Now that we have another baby on the way, it only makes sense for the girls and their toys to all be in one room to save space.  Unfortunately for Jonathan, that room has to be his man room.  Besides our master, it's the largest of the bedrooms and will house all of their toys and beds with plenty of room to play.  Then Noah will have his own room and the other bedroom will be the downsized man room/spare bedroom.  After I cleared out most of Jonathan's belongings, the room looked like this:

The walls were gray with burgundy accent walls.  To save money and time, we decided to keep the gray and paint the burgundy a nice, soft pink.  When we decide to sell the house we won't have to worry about any bright colors to tone down before we show it.  Madelynn was already sleeping in a twin bed, but Annabella was sleeping in her crib.  With the transition to a new room, I figured it was time to transition Annabella into a twin size bed as well, so we went on the hunt for two matching beds.  It turns out that beds are expensive!  Especially when you're shopping for two of them, plus the mattresses, box springs, and new bedding.  Since we're a family of four with a baby on the way and on one income, I just didn't have enough in the budget to buy them new beds.  Instead, I found two second hand bed frames online for $25.  In the future, I'm planning to hang canopies over each bed and dressing up the wall behind them, but they're still very cute for now.

I bought the duvets from Ikea for $8 a piece and found the sheets on sale for $8 a set.  Once it gets cold, we'll buy some inexpensive plain comforters to slip inside the duvets and they'll be nice and cozy.

We opted to take the closet doors off and hang a tension rod with the curtains from their playroom.  It's a huge space saver since the bed can be closer to the closet, plus it looks cute.  Their chest of drawers and some larger toys are inside the closet.  You can also see the pink and gray wall combination in this shot.  It's a very soft and girly color combination.  

Directly across from their beds is a storage cube and a lot of their toys.  Each cube is organized (and will soon be labeled) for quick clean up and toy hunting.  There are two baskets like the pink one in the corner holding the stuffed animals and I got them both from a yard sale for $5.  With a quick wipe down and a can of spray paint, they couldn't have looked better.  The doll house can easily be moved to floor when they want to play with it, but stays on top of the cube to give them more room to play.

Adjacent to that wall is their cabinet, dress up closet, and music station.  The cabinet has three large storage bins inside of it with the less organizable toys.  The music station is a basket with all of their musical instruments and microphone next to their drum set.  Their dress up closet is an old book shelf with the shelves removed and a tension rod for their clothes.  I repainted the inside and outside of the shelf and added two bins on the bottom for all of their jewelry and smaller accessories.  Here is a close up of the dress up closet:

And here is a close up of the storage cabinet.  I wound a pink rope light up the side for their bed time light.  It casts a soft glow and is dim enough to keep on all night.  

I still have art to hang on the walls, the mirror next to their dress up closet needs to be hung, and I'm keeping my eyes open for a rug that will work.  Like any other makeover, we'll be adding more and more touches as they live and grow into the room.  They've been living in it for less than a week and they're head over heals in love with it.  Miraculously, Annabella has adjusted to her bed with no issues.  

I'll be creating new posts with any additions that we make to the room. 

Thanks for reading!