My Superheroes

This year the kids all wanted to be superheroes. Mia spearheaded it; she wanted to be pink supergirl. She's planning her birthday party to be pink supergirl already. So Cailey then became the traditional supergirl. Luke is going as Batman and David going as the Joker. Today Lukey whispered menacingly, "My daddy is....the JOKER!"

Today I took some pictures in the yard and tonight we went to Living History Farms family Halloween event. Wow, it was busy. It is well-organized though, so all the people aren't a problem. The kids trick or treat in town, then we rode a horse-drawn wagon, then roasted marshmallows, and listened to a storyteller in the barn. Luke had a blast making mean faces and acting like a superhero; he really gets into the role! The girls enjoyed spending time with Keegan. It was a nice night.

Fall news

Well, every September my photo album, journal entries, and now, blog, get kind of skimpy. It is just so busy.

I've been having a great year at school. I have some of the best kids in years. We are able to do some neat things like blogging and participating in a national penpal cultural awareness project. My students are really enjoying it and so am I. We even had a front page story (that continued to an inside page!) about our blog project. That was really exciting.

The kids are good. Lukey is starting to talk about preschool more, mostly about "Miss Jessica" and "Miss Bessany." Luke hasn't mastered "th" yet, so it is really cute to hear him talk about Miss Bethany. Apparently their first project of the year was "chairs" and Luke should be bringing home a chair project. I'm not sure what to expect. I didn't know they taught shop in preschool! But their project this week was robots and next week it is pumpkins. Luke tends to spend his time in the kitchen center or playing with the toy garage, trucks, and trains.

He's pretty funny. The other day I came home and the first thing he said was, "Mom I want to talk to you a minute." I was hoping to be told he pooped in the potty, but no, he just told me he wanted more Skittles.

This morning David put him in bed with me when he went to go take a shower. I woke up with Luke bear-hugging my back and drawing on it with his finger. He was grinning when I looked at him. It's nice when they are so happy.

Cailey and Mia haven't been so busy with homework this year! Yeah! That means more time to learn the way we want to, reading what we want to. We are reading the Little House books. We've read Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prarie, and are almost done with By the Banks of Plum Creek. It has been really enjoyable reading these to them. I'm picturing a nice little "Little House" road trip visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder sites sometime.

Mia even wrote about it today. In social studies they read a book about passing down culture, traditions, etc. So Mia wrote that I passed down my Cabbage Patch doll to her and passed down reading the Little House books. That was pretty cool.

Cailey has had a fun fall finding caterpillars, leaves, etc. Everyday she tells me what she found at recess. She and Mia also like showing me the new tricks they figured out on the bars at recess. Now that brings back memories!

The tooth fairy has now visited our house a total of 10 times, 5 for each girl. Mia is working on her 6th. The girls have quite a stash of tooth fairy money. Mia has a penchant for Bratz dolls these days. I'm not thrilled, but some of them are ok, so I steer her toward the cuter ones and away from the trashier ones. Also, Mia tends to gravitate toward pricier items. I have to laugh because Mia always wants the $30 playset and Cailey wants a $4 plastic animal. Cailey never minds though.

Tonight the topic of money came up. We were singing some Annie songs and Mia wanted to know why they were trying to kidnap Annie. Cailey explained they wanted money. Mia pipes up, "Why do they wanna be rich? Money doesn't matter... unless you're poor." It was interesting to hear her perspective. Basically we ended up talking about how we have food and a house, so we aren't poor. So there's hope for my little material girl.

I've enjoyed watching the gas prices go down. Unfortunately it appears house values have gone down too. Houses like mine are listed for what we purchased it for 6 years ago, about $30,000 less than what they were going for not to0 long ago. The economy is scary. I have hope though. I really feel that if Obama wins that hope will begin to restore the economy. Much of the economy is just based on faith anyway. I always think of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."

David and I have cringed while watching Palin give answers to interviews that wouldn't win her Miss America, let alone VP. I had seen the actual interview but David had only seen the SNL version. When I pulled the original up on YouTube, David was shocked it really was that bad. It might be funny if it wasn't so scary.

We went to the Howell Tree Farm last weekend. Totally beautiful weather. We spent the whole day there and we all had a nice time. Jaren got to go for the first time and seemed to enjoy being outside and taking it all in. Above is a scrapbook page my mom did.

We are now gearing up for Halloween. The kids got their pumpkins and then helped David get decorations out. They've got their costumes and are all superheroes this year. Cailey is Supergirl, Mia is Pink Supergirl, Luke is Batman, and David is the Joker. He'd like to see me in a Batgirl costume, but we'll see.

Back to School

Well, it's back to school. Cailey really loved her teacher from the beginning. She's very soft-spoken and gentle. She likes birds and rock climbing, so she's a nature lover like Cailey.

Mia's teacher is really good, though Mia's not quite as attached to her yet. I've been in her class before doing a reading practicum and was impressed by how well her classroom was organized and how the children were busy working. Mia will learn a lot.

Sadly, the girls aren't with their friends from last year. Their best friend moved over the summer. Cailey has a lot of boys in her class that she knows, and that's not a problem for her. Poor Mia has only 5 or so girls and 15+ boys, but one of the girls lives on the street behind us so hopefully she's nice and they can be friends.

This summer the kids in the neighborhood started playing. The other night the kids on the cul de sac called the girls down. They played there for an hour and a half and when I went to get the girls, they came up with us and played for an hour. It was just the perfect night, as Luke was at my mom's and I had the house to my self for an hour. Also the weather was perfect and having the kids run around the neighborhood brought back great childhood memories of doing just that. I worked with David on the rest of the treehouse while the kids played and life was just perfect that night. I'm glad the kids in the neighborhood are becoming friends.

Lukey is at school now. Last week his teacher visited our house. He was super excited and wanted to know where his other "friends" were. He thought they were coming to our house. He brought out several toys to show his teacher and asked her to come back again!

Then we had an hour-long orientation type session. Lukey didn't cling to us or anything, he just went off across the room and played. He was such a good boy; he would touch something and look around like, "Is it ok to play with this?" and when no one said anything he'd start to play. One little boy is kind of all over and grabby and Luke didn't quite know what to make of him. The boy started gnawing on some plastic food Luke was setting on the table. When the boy left Luke picked it up and wiped it off. You could just tell in his head he was trying to figure out why in the world that boy would do something so gross!

Then on his first official day, Grandma had to take a detour due to some road work, and Luke got kind of upset thinking Grandma wasn't taking him to school. They got to school early and he didn't want to sit in the car and wait, he just had to get to school.

I also am having a nice start to the school year. I have very nice kids for the first time in several years. Just as an example of how great these kids are, today we used some books and without me telling them they ALL were put back on the shelf, neatly too. That sounds minor, but the last several years I've had classes that wouldn't do that even IF I told them. It is just fabulous. We also have new administrators who are working to get discipline back in our school. YAY!!!

Also, Happy Birthday, Luke!

Nim's Island

We rented Nim's Island for our family to watch tonight. It was a good movie, though sometimes required a little explanation as several scenes are part of the characters' imaginations. It is a little Swiss Family Robinson, Indiana Jones, Dr. Doolittle, wrapped up in a kid-flick. We all enjoyed it.

Mia though, is bewildered. "WHY would anybody GO there?!? That's like a place where you could DIE!"

All throughout the movie she kept commenting, "She shouldn't have done that! She should tell her dad!"

Guess she's not my adventurer. Cailey, of course, had no problem with it.

Hannah Montana Camp

Well, like I mentioned, July flew by. We finished out the month going to Hannah Montana camp at a local dance studio. The girls made microphones, a frame, and did a photoshoot wearing the Hannah wig. The letter that went home said they'd be wearing a "little" makeup. Well, if that was little, I'd hate to see a "lot." As I told them, it was definitely stage make up! But as you can see from their smiles, they felt beautiful!

Their performance at the Fair today included singing to one song and then dancing to another. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Mia did. She looked pretty confident. Cailey also loosened up more as well, though she'll tell you soccer is more her thing.

Here is a video of their "sneak peek" at the studio I took with my Flip camera. Mia's in yellow and Cailey is in the front in pink. I'll have to finish my disc on the Canon before I can post the one from the Fair today.

Two little girls from the neighborhood were also in the class. The girls played outside for several hours with one of them other night. It was nice to see and reminded me of playing with my neighborhood friends growing up.

Lukey's Summer Activities

Lukey's summer was somewhat less eventful. Used the potty. Played trains. Played cars. Bothered his sisters. Read books. Rode in the van. Watched his sister's perform.



Each day as we drove by his preschool he'd beg me to take him to school. It was hard explaining the concept of summer vacation and that school wouldn't start for several weeks to a child who has no concept of the calender year.



Day after day he'd beg and cry to go. (Didn't help of course that we were driving by it around naptime each day.) Finally I told him his teacher wasn't there and that she was at home with her kids like I was home with him. That seemed to work; though he now keeps asking me if his teacher is still home with her kids. He's excited and ready.



Luke wakes me up each day about 7:30. Usually he wakes my by telling me he's hungry, though he actually doesn't have an appetite until 9:00. But he insists on being fed though it is always thrown away. Then I feed him at 9:00 and he eats. I learned to put a tiny amount of food in the first bowl.



Anyway, some days though, he wakes me up without asking for food. Sometimes he would just "pet" my arm for awhile. One day though, I will always remember, he was just giggling up a storm and "tickling" me, rolling all over me and laughing his head off. It was the most memorable wake-up ever. I told him I liked that and that he'd have to wake me up that way again, but he hasn't.



Luke's favorite things to day these days are, "Okay, okay, okay" when he's giving in to a demand (or giving up on one of his!). Another favorite phrase is, "You can.... if you want to." He uses that to convince you to do something he wants. Quite the tactic, making you think it's your decision. He uses this a lot at night when he wants me to lay down with him. "Mom, you can lay here. I've got a pillow for you. You can lay down if you want to. Here, go ahead." That's another one of his sayings, "Here, go ahead." And when you pause to contemplate it he'll add, "C'mon, just do it" like he knows you really want to. Uncle Mike said he should have Luke answer his calls because he might make more sales. Quite the little negotiator. True, it can be cute, but also having your two year old try and negotiate with you constantly is quite tiring, another real reason I didn't post much in July. It's one of those personality traits that will benefit him in the long run, but has it's drawbacks as a two-year-old. Grandma says he's just like his daddy like that; she said he always had to have the last word too.

Girls' Summer Activities

Wow. I didn't post at all last month. Let me try to catch up.

Cailey participated in the Circus Extravaganza camp at the Playhouse. Her age group was learning about being clowns. To make it extra fun, the teachers dressed as clowns each day. They learned about stage fighting, pretending to stomp on each other's feet, throw punches, and duel with balloon swords. They designed their own clown face on a sheet of paper and the teachers painted it on for them. They made cute little hats and a variety of other props. They sang a clown song and played with a parachute. They told jokes. They had to look through their closets and find articles to make a clown costume out of. Cailey picked a lime and hot pink paisley and polka dot set with heart applique jeans I had made for last Valentine's day because those were the same colors and similar style to her teacher's outfit. The camp was a great chance for Cailey to get to use her creativity. At the end of the week the groups all got together to put on a circus for family and friends. This clip below is just a portion of the circus, with Cailey's group doing the parachute.

A couple weeks later Mia did Broadway Babies camp. They learned 3 songs and choreography. Wow, the sound these kids produced was great! At the end of the week they also got to perform for a packed audience of family and friends.

Click on the video and you will hear "Oh the Thinks You Can Think" from Seussical, followed by "Different" from Honk!, and then, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" from Annie.

Then they went on vacation with Grandma and Grandpa to South Dakota. As Cailey put it, "We learned a LOT on our trip!" During the week they visited a live archaeological dig where they learned about mammoths. They learned the presidents that are on Mt. Rushmore. They climbed rocks in the Badlands and artistically drew pictures in their sketch journals of the rock formations they saw. They became Junior Park Rangers, which involved taking a test and an oath, so it was very official! They "froze" in Jewel Cave and were active participants in the tour, asking questions. The got to drive through the wildlife loop at Custer and through Bear Country and saw lots of cool animals. Basically it was a more educational than a year's worth of science and geography class!

Of course, any trip with would be incomplete without souvenirs. The girls added to their plastic animal / toy stash. When they came home Cailey spent a lot of time setting up a "museum" with them and then ceremoniously admitting us to it.

The following night they used their new knowledge and skills as Junior Park Rangers to take us on a tour of the "cave" they made in their room. With all the skills of a tour guide, flashlights in hand, we were led around their room as they pointed out the variety of wildlife inhabiting their "cave." Cute little touches included tiny lizards peeking out here and there, and a story accompanied each bat.

The highlight of the trip was surely the hotel swimming pool though! They did a lot of swimming! According to them, this trip was better than New York City, and even Iowa City.

Meeting Jaren

We took the kids up today. They had excited grins on their faces going in and seeing grandma holding him. Then Aunt Sarah changed his diaper and their expressions changed to total awe and adoration. Later Mia held Jaren and was staring intently at him for the longest time. Later she asked if she could hold him again. She just kept saying, "He's so cute." Cailey sat by me and watched him for awhile, but was hesitant to hold him. I don't blame her; he seems so small. Since Jaren was sleeping Lukey wasn't too interested after the diaper change. I was glad he didn't seem to be jealous at all. I know mom got some great pictures of them looking at Jaren, so I'll have to put on on later.

New Cousin!

I got to meet my new nephew today. Jaren was born this morning. When I showed the kids a picture I took, the girls said, "Awwww," and Lukey said, "Awww. That's my baby Jaren. He's sleeping. He's sleeping in his room." Jaren was wide awake at first taking it all in looking intently at his mom and dad. The kids will go up tomorrow to see him. They can't wait! Grandma took these pictures and created the scrapbook layouts.

Third in Command

This summer has been a new experience in that the the girls and Luke now fight. I'm constantly refereeing. Mia tattles on Luke all the time and I usually say something like, "Luke stop hitting your sister."

The other morning David and I were listening to the kids play in the girls' room. Cailey cried out, "Mia, Luke is hitting me!" So Mia, without missing a beat, says, "Luke stop hitting your sister." It was funny hearing her so in charge. I've heard Luke asking Mia for things or going to her when I say no. I guess she's third in command.

On a totally unrelated note, I just spent a nice quiet afternoon while Luke napped watching "The Devil Wears Prada." I haven't sat and watched a movie in a while. It was nice. However, when the movie was over I tried to rewind the DVD. Stop and think about what I just said; I tried to rewind the DVD. Took me a minute to figure out why it wasn't doing anything.

Lukey just woke up from his nap. Sat bolt upright. Ran to the playroom to see what the girls are doing, running right by me as I asked how he was. Ran right back to the couch. Pulled his blanket back up, found his "taggies", and momentarily went back to sleep. Now he's sitting there quietly talking to himself and looking at a book. My sweet, funny boy.

Potty Training Trials and Tribulations

Despite some potty training triumphs recently, we still have a way to go. Today Lukey was hiding, playing quietly, and passing gas. I thought it was a perfect chance to get him on the potty. Well he fought me on it. We sat there for a long time and the whole time he argued with me. He didn't have to. He wanted a clean diaper. He was just farting. It's too hard.

The funniest arguement just made me laugh. Luke has this tendency to make up phrases for things he doesn't know a word for. For awhile he was totally making up words for things. Then he just borrowed other words to use instead. So today he told me, "The poop door is closed you silly girl!"

Uncle Jeremy's Birthday

Tonight for Jeremy's birthday we went to the Cheesecake Factory and then went bowling. This was the second time for the girls. Hopefully I can get some of the pictures mom took to post here since they were having so much fun. Well, at first.

Cailey got my competitive and perfectionist tendencies when it comes to sports. I stopped playing tennis when I learned there was no way I'd ever beat David years ago. Well, Cailey was not happy since she was the only one who hadn't knocked all the pins down. Nevermind that she had a higher score than me and her sister, she wanted to knock all the pins down and nothing I could say about just having fun mattered.

Well she cried and pouted and cried some more. Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Jeremy all tried to help. Each frame was just more disappointing. It was sad watching her head drop after each ball. Poor kiddo. Finally at the 10th frame of the 3rd game, last ball of the night, she got a spare. You would have though she just bowled a 300 perfect game the way we whooped it up. I was glad she was able to end the night on a positive note.

Mia's Teeth

Well, Mia has caught up to Cailey in the teeth department. In one day she lost two teeth and the new one is already coming in, taking their spots. Like Cailey, there is room for ony one of the adult teeth where the two baby teeth fell out. David is going to have to enroll in the dental plan offered by his company so these girls get double covered.

Mia's first tooth came out while supposedly Cailey was poking at Mia's mouth or something, though Cailey claims she was no where near Mia's mouth. The next tooth came out while they were cleaning and Mia bumped her mouth on a toy. That didn't quite get it out all the way, but left it hanging at a really disgusting angle. About 10 minutes later Mia was looking in the mirror at it and it came out.

Cailey was so excited for Mia. Mia was not quite as excited about it. Turns out she's a little squeamish about blood. She spend the night rinsing her mouth with ice water and biting on gauze to try and stop the bleeding. Yuck. She also was a little grossed out by the feel of the empty space left behind too, though I think she's used to it today. Another milestone for grandma to capture and scrapbook!

Ready for Preschool!

So we tried going cold turkey out of diapers. Luke did fabulously. He went 4 times in the potty Monday morning and was rewarded with a Hershey Kiss each time. He apparently has heard us say he needs to be potty trained before he can go to preschool, because after the 4th time he decided it was time to go to preschool then. He was ready. He put on his underwear and sweatpants and was ready to go. He was concerned about being late. He was going to school. I tried to tell him that we don't go during the summer, but no, he was going!

Last Soccer Game of the Season

Cailey and Mia had their last game. It is great to see how far they've come since they began. Cailey has a great defensive instinct. When the other team has the ball she'll swing out and head up the field. She was super cute as goalie and blocked probably about 10 shots. She was very alert and moved around, got down low, and used her hands and feet to stop the ball. I was impressed! She and Mia both managed to kick the ball into the goal, though it looked like it was was stopped I couldn't tell if it was stopped before or after it was in the goal. They were very proud of themselves!

Luke's Week

Lukey has gotten into books all of the sudden. Not really so much reading them, but holding them and going around saying, "This is a REALLY good book." I thought it was just kind of like the candle he goes around making people smell saying, "It's good." Turns out it is from Blues Clues which he has been watching old VHS tapes of lately.Luke had a couple meltdowns last week. They were so out there they were more comical than frustrating. One night we were at the park playing frisbee. David picked one up off the ground that Luke had wanted to pick up. Well, that unleashed all the fury a two year old can have. He stormed up the big hill away from all of us yelling the whole way. "Leave me alone!" We'd try to cheer him up but he was having none of it. I decided to drive around the lake around to get him to go to bed while David took the girls in his car. He lashed out at me, "Where are we going? Where are my sisters? I never get to ride with my daddy! I'm MAD at you! I don't want to play with you! Why are we going into that darkness (some trees)?" Whew, he was one mad little boy.Then the next night David was out at a bachelor party when Luke woke up from a late nap. He stormed around crying that he "lost" his daddy and he wanted his daddy. He yelled and cried at the girls and I so I took him upstairs and put him to bed with his Blues Clues video. It got quiet and I read to the girls awhile, when he came back down. I looked at him like, "Why are you down here?" And he looks at me and says, "I'm fine now. I'm better. I wiped my tears." And he really was fine after that. Tonight he was playing Guitar Hero with David when he gets up and says, "I'm going to bed. I'm tired. I don't want to play drums no more." Daddy told him to give me a kiss, and he pointed to his lips and said, "Right here." So I kissed him and he said, "Eww, gross!" and laughed. Just like that and he put himself to bed.

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day the kids and David woke me up and gave me a digital picture frame. While the gift itself is cool, the real Mother's Day gift came when I began searching for pictures to put on it. I spent a couple hours looking over all the pictures I have stored on my computers picking the "best" ones. What a trip down memory lane! That was even better than the gift itself. Here are a few I put on my frame.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Really nothing new going on. Just enjoying the green grass and leaves on the trees. Playing in the backyard.

Luke is big enough to get on a swing on his own now and swing. Such a big boy. I was looking at his hands tonight and realized his thumb is almost as big as mine. So strange to think he'll be bigger than me someday.

The girls have a blast in their playhouse. It is the subject of many stories they write for Writer's Workshop at school. One day their teacher said, "Go home and play in your playhouse in the beautiful weather!" and the girls said, "How does she know we have a playhouse!"

Cailey still loves dogs. She writes about her "CeCeWaWa" (chihuahua) which is a stuffed toy, but you wouldn't know that by the way she writes about it. You'd think it was real. She also wrote a cool story about buying a cactus with daddy at Lowe's, "yestrday wich was Sunday." It is really neat to see how much they've grown this year.

David has been working in our flower beds. Our house would have no curb appeal if it weren't for him. No green thumb here. I think it is totally cool that the kids follow David around in the yard helping him with landscaping projects. It is one time he is totally patient with them I think. Even if he encourages gross hobbies like bug collecting, giving them grubs and pill bugs to stick in the bug catcher. That one had to stay outside!

Mia got right into the thick of things at her last soccer scrimmage. Grandpa said he even saw her throw an elbow to get at the ball! A far cry from the little girl who stood on the sidelines two years ago crying because the other kids kept stealing the ball and weren't sharing.

I love Spring!

What's in Cailey's Pocket?

Watch the video below to find out what Cailey had in her pocket.

Cailey's Loose Tooth

Enjoy this video of Cailey telling you about how she lost her first tooth. She is VERY excited about it.

Luke's First "Job" Interview

A recent article in the Des Moines Register was about incentives Iowa offers to filmakers and how it is drawing them here to make movies. Recently there was a movie called South Dakota that was casting a two year old boy. Mom encouraged me to submit Luke's picture, but we didn't hear anything.

So today I was rounding up my students at the end of our field trip and saw I had a missed call. I called back and it was the casting agency! They were auditioning for a two year old boy with brown eyes, which just happens to be the color of Luke's that people always comment on!

So I took Luke to talent agency director's house for Lukey's very first job "interview." Luke walked right in like he was going to grandma's or something. She gave him some directions to follow like "Can you stand on the x?", and "Can you walk over here?", and "Can you sit down on the x?" He followed directions great; now if he would always be that super-obedient at home!

Next she asked him to repeat things she said, like "ice cream" and "Can I have some ice cream?" Those turned out to be his lines and I have to say he aced them! She commented on how well he talked.

He didn't do so hot on the "copycat game." He didn't want to look sad for her, he told her he wanted to be happy. But later he got all quiet looking at her antique carousel that he couldn't play with and she asked him if he was sad so maybe that will work.

Then he just kind of played and chatted it up with her about Spiderman and sorts of stuff like that. He asked if he could rock on her rocking horse and he did that for a moment and was done. He heard traffic nearby and was asking about that. He just kind of was himself; typical two year old boy.

So it was pretty cool to see what that is all about. I was kind of blown away when I had a chance to read the info she sent me at home tonight. This is a real movie. It is starring Ellen Page from Juno, which I have been wanting to see and got great reviews and Cillian Murphy who was in The Girl With The Pearl Earring, which I havent seen, but recently put down as one of my favorite books on my profile.

So here is Ellen Page and my mom's recent scrapbook page about Luke's encounter with a real peacock at the zoo, which did I mention the name of the movie is "Peacock?" Do you think he could pass for her child?

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The girls were excited about reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff at school this week. So here they are performing it.

Potty Mouths

The girls are doing great sounding out words these days. They were so excited to get books they could actually read from their last book order. They are reading everything. Cailey looked at my college sweatshirt the other day and said, "That says BULLDOGS!" Pretty cool.

Well today at lunch they were deciphering the word on the top of their cup. Now, it wasn't a word, but perhaps a item code or something. It said FK. So the girls' logic went like this.

"Well, it is a cup, so it's got to be like cup."

"Ffffff. Kkkkk."

"But it is like cup!"

"Fffff. Uh. Kkkk."

"FfffuhK."

"F**K!"

Now, haven't ever hearing that word and having no idea it was a bad word, they repeated it a couple times nice and loud, proud of themselves for sounding it out until Daddy told them it wasn't a nice word. Gotta love phonics!

Paper House

Ok, this blog needs some pictures. I'm going to post some pictures of how I'd like to decorate.

First is the girls's room. I've got the bedding already and this weekend I started to pick out the paint. I think I'll go lighter than this.


Possibly more like this, though I suppose they might be the same color, depending on the light.

For the living room, I'm thinking something like this-

Though, while looking for new furniture this weekend and watching David gravitate toward black and red leather, I think I'm in for a fight. I'd rather just keep my worn, comfy blue couch, but the kids have worn holes in it and it's faded.

For Lukey's room-




I'd like to have maybe khaki walls with navy or dark brown furniture.


The kids bathroom is tricky. It serves as a bathroom for guests, along with two girls and a boy. I'm thinking chocolate brown, and maybe white, and/or light blue. These are by Margot Curran. I'm not sure I like them as much as I did before though.


Or these by someone named Unel-


Or by Joelle Wolff-
Not this particular one, but to give you an idea of her style. But now I'm not sure if it would be too babyish. If I could open up a niche market, it would be fun shower curtains for kids. I get kind of tired of the frogs and ducks that you find everywhere. It is also hard to find something gender neutral.

Ok, enough of the game I call "paper house."