Daddy's away, the girls will play!

This past Saturday Paul went to a concert all afternoon and evening.  We had went to a birthday party in the morning as a family, came home, got the girls down for naps, and Paul left.  Well, the girls had other plans.  No one slept all but 45 minutes.  Not really what I was expecting.  I had planned on working all afternoon.  So, I got them up and we had a good ol' time around the house!

Eating lunch at the picnic table :)

Ella

Hannah and Hailee love going inside and outside, inside and outside.  Kind of looks like they are looking in a mirror, huh?

After dinner treat, Oreos!  Shh, don't tell daddy!

Oreos and bunny crackers with a fork.  Hey, whatever works!

Then they all took a bath to get nice and clean!

Love these towels!

Our little duck!

Then we had a jumping in the crib party!!!!  Definitely don't tell daddy about this one!

Kisses for Hannah

Tickles for Hailee

Hailee

Ella wasn't so sure..

FUN! :)

You may have noticed the cute pear t-shirts that the twins had on in the previous photos.  I bought these for the Fall season for them and they say Perfect Pear on the bottom.  Super cute, what perfect twin shirts!  Well, the morning of the party we dressed the girls and made a big deal of their new shirts, saying how cute they are, etc.  Ella then wanted a pear shirt too.  I felt so bad.  I got out all these other new school shirts for her and she wanted nothing to do with any of them.  "Me pear shirt too mommy!", she kept crying :(  This seriously broke my heart.  I knew the day would come when she got jealous of something twin related.  I couldn't help but shed some tears myself.  Paul thought I was crazy for getting so upset about it.  I even went as far as calling the store I got them at to see if they had any shirt with a pear on it that we could go buy really quick.  No such luck.  She wanted a shirt with pears on it so bad.  She finally settled for a new school outfit and probably forgot about the whole thing within minutes.  I am still dwelling on it.  Ha!  Isn't that just how mom's are?  Note:  The outfit in the photos is not the new school outfit that Ella wore to the party.  This girl now changes her clothes about 4 times per day.  No joke.  Every time she goes upstairs and comes back down she is in a different outfit, different bow or headband, different shoes or some princess dress.  Then I go up and there is 3-4 dresses all over her room that she must have gotten out and decided not to wear.  I remember doing this type of thing in middle school.  Hmmm....

Remember the ugly blue carpet we had in out family room for a long time?  It has been in many photos before, like this one:

Well, we finally got rid of it!  I am loving how our new toy organization looks!  The girls seem to love it too!!!!

Kid organization

I have recently done some organizing and decorating of some of my girl's stuff.  As any mom knows, toys and clutter all add up.  It is so hard to keep things organized and clean!  Hopefully someone can get an idea or two from my photos below!

I LOVE this book case from the Land of Nod.  It shows the fronts of the books which makes it easier for the kids to pick out the book they want to read.  I hung this cork rail above the book case and I hang Ella's art work from it.  She loves finishing a project and being able to go and hang it up.

I got these bins from Meijer.  They came with chalk boards on the front of them.  You can then label them with what you fill in them.  They were pretty cheap, maybe $9 or so per bin. 

I put our bins on top of the kid's toy box.  This toy box is also from the Land of Nod.  We've had this for a while now.  I love that you can see the toys that are in each bin and there is no lid to close (or smash on tiny fingers)!  The Land of Nod is more expensive than I generally spend on things, but I love the quality and look of their furniture!  Luckily my mom likes this stuff too, as this was a gift for the girls.

I (well, Paul) FINALLY hung these numbers that I got from a Uppercase Living party over two years ago.  Literally, I think Ella was just born when I went to this party.  We do have numbers 6-10 too.  They are super cute and playful for the kid's toy room.

I got this idea from Pinterest: hang bibs on the inside of a cupboard.  I used a simple 3M hook that I bought for about $1.  It sticks right to the cupboard and now I hang the girl's bibs on there once they are dry so they are easily accessible and not laying all over the counters like they used to be.

This is Ella's craft basket. I put everything together and it goes in the top of the hall closet.  This way she doesn't want to do crafts ALL the time like she would if the stuff was sitting around everywhere.  When I go and get the basket out, she gets SO excited!  It makes it more special for her.  Also, a lot of the things in her craft basket are not Hannah and Hailee age friendly.  So, this keeps the stuff out of their reach too!

I think I saw this idea on Pinterest too.  Put only the snacks you want your child to snack on in a separate basket.  That way when they ask for a snack, you bring out that basket and they can choose something from there only.  A lot of times when Ella wants a snack, she wants a yogurt or cheese but when she is pointing to the "snack" cupboard I can just take out this basket.  This would work well for kids after school snack.

I recently got these gallery wraps of Hannah and Hailee to put over each of their cribs in their room.  Gallery wraps are: a method of stretching a canvas so that the canvas wraps around the sides and is secured to the back of a wooden frame.  It doesn't have a regular frame and part of the photo is actually on the side of the wrap.  These are the first gallery wraps I have gotten in my home.  These are 16x20 and you can see they don't even look very big.  Gallery wraps have recently gotten very popular. They are a bit pricey, but look great!

I found these toothbrush holders at Babies R Us.  Aren't they cute?  They stick right to the mirror in the bathroom.  Ella likes that she can get her own toothbrush down from the elephant!

This is our ottoman that sits in front of our couch in the living room.  We've had this for a while now, but it is my very favorite piece of furniture.  It's soft and cushy, unlike a regular coffee table would be and it holds a TON of stuff!  As you can see, ours holds movies, coloring books, kid's books, diapers, wipes, and blankets. 
We got this at Value City Furniture for about $200 or so.

The ottoman opens on both sides.  This is just to show it with one side down.