Dollhouse - Wallpaper, Porch Swing, and Other Stuff

I have been working like crazy trying to get stuff done on my dollhouse before the babies born because I know after he's born I won't have much time for it for awhile.  We moved my dollhouse up to our room when we had our garage sale because we needed to use the table it was on and have left it up there since then.  We will be moving it back down to the garage again soon, but for now I have LOVED having it in our room!  I have changed my strategy slightly, I am trying to finish all the wallpaper in all the rooms first, then I will work on the flooring in all the rooms, then the trim, and then I will work on furnishing and filling it with all the things I want.   To help accomplish that purpose, I removed all the furniture and decorations from in the house so I could have a good idea of what I was working with.

I installed the wallpaper in the kitchen.  I love how the blue looks!  I cut out the tiles for the kitchen floor and started painting them.  I really like how they look.  :-)
 

I also took the table and chairs that I already had and painted them white, I love how they turned out!

I finished the firebox for the fireplace and bought the fire insert to go inside.  It has not been wired yet, Mark is doing all the wiring so I will have to wait for him to be available.  I think it turned out great!  The only part of the fireplace left to make is the hearth so it's finally close to being done!

I decided not to do full length beadboard on the one wall in the living room that hadn't been papered yet. I just could not come up with a good way to cut out slots for my working light switches. I elected to go with partial beadboard along the bottom of the wall.  This is as complete as it can be for now as Mark wants to put in actual outlets on this wall.  (Yes, we're a bit insane, working light switches and outlets in mini is a bit out of the ordinary!)  This is unfortunately the only picture I have handy of this wall, you can see the light switch on the wall on the left (the little black square).

I installed the trim around the front door and all the rest of the trim on that front wall.  I also hung up some lace curtains, not sure if I like them yet, they turned out a bit big for the window.  Hmmm, I guess I'll have to decide what to do there.

Mark had bought me a porch swing for my birthday and I finally got around to painting it and hanging it up.  I love how homey it makes the porch look, I just want to be mini size so I could sit on it!

I decided on some wallpaper for the room above the living room, not really wallpaper just scrapbook paper in white.  I think this room is going to be a library/playroom.  I have decided I really like white!  I got the paper cut but have not glued it on yet. You can see it in the picture of the whole house up above.

I also choose and bought some wallpaper for the master bedroom, the top right room with the gable.  I'm going for a blue and white look and loved this paper.  I have not cut or installed any of it yet but hope to get to it soon.

Wallpaper for the master bedroom

I finished the chimney with egg carton bricks, mortared and painted it, then glued it on the roof.  Now to complete the shingles around it!

Finally, I splurged on a few fall decorations, an entry mat I've been eyeing since last fall, and a kit to make your own fall leaves.  The leaves were just supposed to be punched out but I didn't like how they looked so I'm adding veins/curling them slightly to look more realistic.  The pumpkin in the picture is one that I made for the fall season last year.

So, there is my dollhouse progress for now!

1rst Day of School 2012

We started school this week!  I wanted to start early enough that the kids would have time to get the hang of doing school before the new little one is born.  The first thing we did was to take pictures of all the kids ready for their first day of school!


                                                              Pre-Preschool Class

                 
                                                                     Preschool Class

Kindergarten Class

                                                    1rst Grade Class                                                                  

                                                                    3rd Grade Class

                                               Gregg Homeschool, Class of 2012!

So far all my planning for the year has worked out, school has gone smoothly and everyone has been able to complete all their schoolwork everyday, Yay!  This year we are going with easy-to-teach school, mostly workbooks and textbook based, and so far it seems to be a very workable way to do it. :-) 

Camping 2012

Last year we took our first camping trip since getting married and had a wonderful time!  Our summer this year has been so busy and crazy we thought we might not be able to go camping, but we were finally able to find a time that would work.  This year we went with my in-laws and 2 of the kids cousins, which was a nice treat.  We left on Friday morning and were able to be gone for the whole weekend!  Our in-laws went up early in the morning and found campsites for us, then gave us a call and we headed on up. 

I had spent a lot of time getting everything ready during the week and it paid off on our trip, everything went smoothly and we had very few things that were a problem.  I did forget the adult baseball gloves, which was a problem when the kids wanted to play baseball, but otherwise it was relatively uneventful as far as having brought the right things. 

The kids spent a lot of time with the men over at a lake close by.  They hiked to it and spent hours hanging out there before coming home soaked from wading in a creek nearby.  While they were all gone my mother-in-law and I had a wonderful time of tea and fellowship, so special!  It rained both afternoons, which cooled things off nicely and made it so much more comfortable for me.  :-) 

On Saturday night we roasted marshmallows and made smores, Yum! 

The kids had so much fun, they didn't want to come home and are already looking forward to whenever we can go again!

Annual Garage Sale

We had our annual garage sale!  Usually we have at least 2 other people bring their stuff to sell as well, but it didn't work out for anyone to bring things this year so it was just our stuff.  It was a bit of a smaller sale therefore but we still had a pretty good turnout.  

The kids sold snacks and soda, which kept them occupied, especially Elijah.  They did a great job asking everyone that came if they wanted a soda or snack, I was so proud of them!

It was pretty hot both days of the sale, by the time we packed everything up at the end of each day I had huge swollen ankles and fingers. I was so glad to come inside each day! We had a lot leftover at the end of the sale so we took a load to goodwill, and a load to a local charity. We also kept a few things to sell on Craigslist. It was a pretty successful garage sale, we ended up making almost $300 and the kids made almost $30 from snacks!

More Hail...

Our garden is pretty much done for the year, it has been so hot and dry that the plants are very stunted.  And on top of that we had hail again, which pretty much was the death sentence for most of the plants.  The only things that have survived somewhat are the strawberries and mint.  :-(

Here are some pictures of our second hail storm.  It was not nearly as bad as the first time around, but enough to ruin the garden...

School planning 2012

I have been really busy trying to plan out our school schedule for the year.  The first thing I did was sit down and make a list of all the subjects I wanted each child to do.  Then I went through and made a list of what specific books I wanted each child to use.  I located all the books that we already had, and highlighted on my list the ones that we needed to buy.



The next step was to sort through all the schoolwork from last year, a project that should have been done at the end of the school year but wasn't.  (No excuse for that, I just didn't want to do it...)  I filed it all in manilla envelopes, labeled with the child's name, grade and year, then put the envelopes in bankers boxes, also labeled with the contents so it will be easy to find.

I had Mark install special dividers on our school shelves so that each child has their own "cubbie".  Then I put all the school books for each child on their shelf.   

I sat down with a calendar and figured out what day we needed to start school, when our breaks would be, etc. and typed it up on a sheet to put in my homeschool binder.  Then I went through the school books and typed up a schedule for each textbook of what needs to be accomplished each week.  I also figured out how many of each workbook type page will need to be done each week.
I typed up an assignment sheet for each child old enough to read for each week so they can check off each subject as it's completed.

Finally, I sat down and figured out a daily schedule for us to get everything done.  This was a bit more laborious, because it's so hard to know how things will go once the new little guy is here.  But I did the best I could based on previous baby's schedules, and we will change it as we have too.
This was all a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end.  The more planning I do now, the easier and better the school year will go!

Baby Shower for a friend!

My mother-in-law and I put together a baby shower for my sister-in-law recently.  My sister-in-law's baby is due only 3 weeks before me and I thought it would be so nice to do a shower for her.  They are having a boy and are so excited!  We went with a color theme of brown and green, the colors that are being used in the baby's nursery.  I did most of the planning of the shower, prepared and mailed the invites, and handled all the contacts with everyone that was coming.  My mother-in-law did all the shopping, including ordering and buying the cake.  It worked out really well, we were a good team. 

My sister-in-law asked us to have the shower at her house, which worked out really well.  We played 2 games, one where all the ladies that came looked at a box full of baby stuff and then once everyone had a chance to look they wrote down what they remembered from the boxes.  We had 3 people with the same number of things so we ended up having to decide who won based on who was the most specific/closet to the exact name of the item.  The ladies all seemed to enjoy the game. 

Then it was on to cake and punch!

Everything looked so lovely and festive and everyone seemed to enjoy the cake and fellowship.  We let everyone eat and talk for a long time and finally had to interupt them to move on to the last thing, which was a bingo game that was done while the gifts were being opened.  This was a very fun game, and even the kids got in on the action!  My sister-in-law got many wonderful new things for her little guy!  I thought it was a good shower and am glad I could help put it together!  :-)

Tea Again!

I was able to get together with some friends recently for a tea party at the wisdom tea house!  Mom came over first and spent some time playing with the kids before we headed up to the tea!

We had a wonderful time of felllowship with our friends!  We were able to sit outside and really enjoyed the beautiful flowers and view!

Spilled Milk

This past week Emmaline spilled her milk on the table, just a small spill really, but it looked so cool we just had to show you all!   Here is our happy ghost!  :-)

No, we didn't alter this in any way, this is just how it fell on the table!