Poor Tyler, so wiped from playing hard all morning that he grabbed Katelyne's Woobie because it was within reach! No discrimination here!! If it snuggles, it sleeps!
On the left side, are her chores. As she completes a chore, we move one of the Tinkerbell magnets over the chore...
On the right it says "Happy Toot". When she was a little bit younger we called her "Toots", so when she is "caught" being nice and doing something good, she gets a smiley face (I make it a point to "catch" her doing good - it is usually easy to do). We have a set goal of 4 a day.
So, at the end of each day, if she has done all of her chores, and has been a fantastic "helper of the day" (these are her words), and gotten at least the 4 smilies, she gets a prize from the prize bag. And, I must add, my prizes are awesome. There are Hello Kitty things, fun socks, color books and stickers... she LOVES it. So far, she has only had 3 or 4 days of no prize and we have been doing this for about 3 weeks now.... I figure that we are doing great! Katelyne is a smart girl and really a natural please-er, so if we are out and I say, "Thanks Babe, that was really nice/sweet/helpful of you" she will look at me and say, "Did I earn a smiley at home?" and as soon as we are through the door, she is adjusting a magnet... Positive reinforcement is our Mojo right now. Whoo Hoo!
Katelyne requested that I set-up the sprinkler. Who knew!!! With all of the money we put into getting toys and such, she is thrilled with a regular, 9 year old, cracked plastic, spiders living on the underside sprinkler..... I did not mention the spiders to her. I am not dumb.
Tyler was interested and she taught him how to jump "super high"... Yes, I had to use the wide angle lens to catch their high-ness....
Good times. Good, simple times...
Daddy was ever so kind as to cut, curse at and hang a chair moulding...
Since we put her credenza in the closet to free up floor space, we painted and put the chair moulding in there as well to finish it off...
Literally at about 2:30 we were finished and put it all back together! She picked this lamp and shade...
I used my old Hope Chest (that holds her dress-up things) with some pillows so she has a place to sit and read...
Her bed and new bedding she picked...
The quilt is a lavender and white check, andwe paired it with this fairy duvet cover she LOVED! It is from pottery Barn Kids and was uber expensive... that is, it was! I did not want to pay 80$ for it and waited so long to do so, that by the time I went back to get it, it was only 30$... Woot!
We hung a coat rack for her bags and things...
And here is where we use her closet to the fullest. The 3 hole hanging thingie in the middle is for when she starts school. This way she can have her 3 days worth of outfits all ready to go! (She only has school 3 days a week)
As I type, Katelyne is sound asleep in her new room. She told Eric and I "thank you" several times today without prompting... I think she likes it! Tyler decided to climb the planter bed surround yesterday. When he was busted by camera clicking Mom, he turned with a very innocent look.....
And almost instantly, turned to RUN the length of it!
Katelyne thought it was funny that he was "frweek-in you out Mommy!"
*deep, cleansing breath and release*
And in less than an hour, all of my baby nursery visions were in a pile in a bag. The entire room was a cool 100 degrees thanks to the steamer thingie and I was exhausted steaming the boarder all the while holding Ty off so he would not scorch his precious face...
Surprisingly, I am not sad. Sometimes I look at my kids and I think "Gosh, where did the time go???", but I am not sad about it. I am interested in watching them grow and become their own little person. Katelyne now knows that her favorite color is purple, 6 months ago she did not know that - and 6 months from now it could change again... Yup, times, they are a changin' and my babes, they are a growin'... it's not so bad.
I now know the complete meaning of the term "appropriate description". 
