Playing in the kitchen

Most days I feel like I spend all day in my kitchen. Most of the time it is a good thing. I am not the greatest cook but I do enjoy making my family mostly healthy meals that we get to enjoy together. It it is even more fun now that the little man wants to help me. He climbs up into his learning tower and helps me cut celery or kneed dough or do whatever I need help with.

I have a sign in my kitchen that reads 'A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen.' That is very true about my kitchen. Most of the time my sink is full of dishes, the floor is littered with crumbs and you can hardly see my counters. Dont get me wrong having a clean kitchen makes me happy also but when my kitchen is messy I know that I just got done creating something that I hope my family will love.
We dont always just cook food in the kitchen. Some times we make play dough or paint or just splash in the kitchen sink.

The little lady even had her first taste of play dough this week in the kitchen.

We even have toys in the kitchen. The littles favorite is the leapfrog letter magnets. We have two of the toys that make the letter sounds and one that you use to create three letter words.
*Just a side note* WOW after seeing the prices of these items new I am really glad I did not buy them new. They are great toys dont get me wrong but 65 bucks just for the lower case letters is a little crazy. I got the two readers and the upper and lower case letters at a garage sale for 4 bucks and the word speller with a few letters at the thrift store for $2. If you are interested in these letters check used like Craigslist before buying new.
The little man is enjoying learning how to create different words. He thinks that it is really neat that we can spell mom, dad and cop. We even spelled arm and pit the other day and he thought that was real funny. The little lady just likes to chew on the letters and take them off the fridge.
And no matter how messy or dirty my kitchen floor is it always looks amazing in black and white pictures. Dont ya think?

What I have been up to

I have been neglecting my blog but not my house.

Since the news that I received on Monday we have finally really started to get our house together. We are changing our back storage room into the little mans room so that when the bun gets here she can have his smaller room (not like she will use it right away anyway). So this means getting rid of a bunch of "stuff," reorganizing (well really just organizing everything in the first place)and lots and lots of shredding.

The back room is now empty. Ready to get the door put in and than painted (if we can ever decide on a paint color). We still need to pick up a mattress for the little mans new 'big bed' and than his room will be mostly complete.

Our new storage room/ office/ music room still needs some work. The drums have found a temporary home, we sold half of our desk on Craigslist (along with everything else that we can live without) and very soon this room will be in order also.

I went through all of the little mans old clothes. I have two overflowing garbage bags and three boxes to give to friends with little boys. One box to take to consignment and one more over flowing garbage bag for the Goodwill.

Today I am off to the consignment shop and Goodwill. Maybe I will find something pink that I just cant live with out.

The real Mr. Potatoes Head

The little man enjoys playing Mr. Potato Head. The first time he played them was at Church. His teacher told me he loved them so I started keeping my eyes open for them at thrift stores. I also asked his grandma to get him one for his birthday. Now we have five potatoes and many accessories. We are always building whole families of potatoes. But I forgot to mention the best potato head of all the little man.

(Yes, that is a dirty face you see in the picture. I guess I just cant help it.)
I would say most of the times we play (if not all the times) he is wearing the potatoes glasses. I cant help but laugh every time. We have a green pair and two black pairs so there is normally a pair for me and daddy also.

Just a few of his favorite things

I came across a folding tunnel a month ago at the local thrift store. The little man loves it. Every time I open up the hall closet he reaches for it, pulls it out and works with all his might to open it.

Another one of his favorite things is to read books. He does not care who read them just as long as they get read. I dont have any complaints over our hours opon hours of reading time a day but just with in the past few weeks he has found the joy of reading to himself, which is nice also.

So here he is sitting in his tunnel reading a book.

My thrift store finds

My mom and dad came back into town on Sunday just ahead of a horrible RV fire and the 20 mile back up that followed. Since she was here on a Monday we had to get together and do some much needed thrift store shopping.
So we headed to the local Value Village in search of the sale tag. Here are a few of my amazing finds.

Well this was going to be a picture of the little man wearing a dog costume but instead it is a picture of the little man taking it off. He wanted to wear the costume a few time yesterday but of course as soon as I take the camera out he wants it off. I also snatched up a black dog costume also. Both of the costumes are size small (2-3) and from Costco. I thought even if he does not wear them on Halloween he will get a kick out of wearing them around the house.

I also found this amazing hand embroidered nursery rhyme quilt. It has had much love and will get lots more. Some of the squares I am a little unsure what they are but is is much more than I know that I could ever do.

Last but not least I picked up this super cute Old Navy duck outfit for the new baby. It was so cute I could not pass it up. The hood has a duck bill and eyes on it. The bottom of the pants are little webbed feet, so I dont have to fight with keeping little socks on little feet.
So here is the best part about everything that I found on my search. Everything was the right colored tag. Nothing cost more $.99 an item.