ToyRoom Makeover

Ahh, a week without kids! What am I gonna do with myself? Well, I didn't go spend quiet days alone at the beach like I wanted to! Instead I took the opportunity to clean, organize, and rearrange the kids toyroom! I started cleaning up on Sunday night. Figured I would get a jump start on it.

The kids had put their toys away before they left, so the floor does not look like it normally does! :)

This big old entertainment center is an eyesore in the room.

So I started with the couch and toy bins. I moved them and vacuumed and found many hidden treasures!

We decided to try the couch on the opposite wall (it's been there before, but I don't really like it there) and we thought we'll go to IKEA and buy another one of these shelves. We'll put them together, clear off the top and put the TV on top. This was it for Sunday, we were done. My goal was to finish in the morning and when Greg came home we would run to IKEA!

Monday after moving and vacuuming as much as I could, I decided to start sorting the books :/

By Tuesday, the books were no longer being sorted, just placed neatly on the shelves :)

We went to IKEA and decided on a longer low shelf instead. We wanted to put it under the window for all the Imaginext toys to sit on. We also decided to switch the bin shelf to the other open doorway (it's our dog gate) and move the shelf that was there. In the end I am happy with the way the room turned out. I still am not a fan of the couch by the doorway, but for now, I can live with it!

You can find the black bins here and here are the shelves

We have the low, long shelf, the square shelf with four openings, and the larger one with eight openings.

I love IKEA! These shelves are perfect! Pretty soon (when there is money in the budget again) we will be replacing the old bookshelves with some new ones. Probably from IKEA :)

The boys will be excited to see their "new" toyroom when they come home!

Hometown Heroes

For those of you who don't know, we were invited to attend an Alex's Lemonade Stand this past Saturday, so that the host, Jake, a third grader, and his family could honor Nathan as a Hometown Hero. There is a little girl, Gia, in Lincoln's class with cancer as well, and she was invited to be honored as well!  I was thrilled and so impressed by this family. I jumped right in with helping in any way I could and the boys, Greg, and I held a small lemonade stand/bake sale at church one Thursday night! We raised $165 for childhood cancer research! But anyway, Saturday's stand was huge! It was held at a local fire hall and the businesses in the community as well as surrounding towns gave donations. There were about 50 baskets for a chinese auction and tons of sports and movie memorabilia for a silent auction! There was a DJ and the kids who danced received coupons for free stuff, like ice cream, frostys, hot dogs, Ritas water ice and more! Tables were set up with coloring pages and cereal necklaces, as well as someone painting faces and someone making balloon animals! Lots of food to purchase, baked goods, lemon water ice, lemon krimpets, lemonade Mike and Ikes, Philly soft pretzels, cotton candy, popcorn, and of course, lemonade!!!! It was so wonderful to see so many friends and family come out in support of Nathan! We are so blessed! Debbie, Jake's mom, said they raised over $5,000! How awesome is that!!!! Debbie, took a huge posterboard to school for Nathan and Gia's classmates and teachers to sign for them, she also had to poster at the stand for people to sign, then she presented each of them with their poster Saturday. We were unaware that Debbie was going to be honoring Nathan at the time when she called him, and he was in a miserable mood at that moment. Because he wouldn't get up and go to her, she had Jake bring the poster to Nathan. It was the sweetest thing. And unfortunetly because I was trying to talk Nathan into going up to Debbie, I was not able to get a picture of Jake presenting the poster to Nathan :( They also gave him an Alex's Lemonade Stand CD of music and a cute outside flag for us with a pitcher of lemonade on it!
While there, we were able to meet and talk with Gia's mom. They are a part of a foundation called Make Some Noise! I had heard of this through the school because they had a week long fundraiser at school. Anyway, she told us a little about it and asked if we would like to be a part of it. So, of course I said yes! She will be giving me all the information about it. I did go online to check it out. It is a foundation started by a young boy with cancer and his family, I believe they are from Pennsylvania! I am excited to learn more about it. Gia's mom, I believe she said her name was Toni, was saying that they are planning a carnival the end of summer right in town! We will be going to that! LOL
So enough of my rambling, here are some pictures!

The kids were allowed to put out the pretend fire

They loved this and each went back in line several times

The Chinese Auction basket table

Dancing during the dance party for tickets for free stuff

Dominic, his friend, got a ticket and ran to show his mom

But he was determined to dance until he got his ticket

Look at that dance move!

Time to buy some goodies and a drink

Nathan did not want to dance but he loved playing with the hula hoops

Friends!!!!

An Elephant

Let's just call this Balloon Dancing instead of sword fighting...lol

Oma and MeMom

He was just given his poster that was signed by everyone

Hopefully I can snag a good picture from someone else of him being presented with it  

cereal necklaces and bracelets

Friends!!!!

Mom-Mom and Nathan

That is one cute Pirate!

The hula hoops were a big hit!

Nathan is signing the poster for Gia

Gia saying Thank You

Debbie and Jake presenting the poster to Gia and her mom

The signed poster

I love this Be Kind, Be Positive, Be Happy, Be You!!!!

Nathan you will always be my Hero! I am so proud of you and love you more than you can ever imagine!!!! I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, my baby you'll always be!