Weekend Getaway

For my birthday year before last, my mom handed me a card and on the inside it stated my birthday gift was an evening out with Daniel- she and my dad would watch the kids and pay for dinner & a movie.

My birthday was only a couple months before Allie's due date and the timing didn't work out. Once she was born, I wasn't going to leave her for awhile anyway, then after my long stint in Canada last summer, my mom told Daniel they should upgrade the gift to a weekend. And since last summer, we haven't found a time that worked for both of us until now.

Valentines' Day weekend may not be the best one to travel, but it was the first chance we had. The only downside was Daniel had just been out of town for work and didn't get to see the kids until our weekend ended. We chose to go to Birmingham and had a great kid-free weekend. Went to the gardens, a movie (13 Hours), ate lots of good food, drove by our old house, met up with some friends and cared for no one but ourselves! I didn't take many pics, but here's the few I have.

I've always wanted to stay at Ross Bridge Resort in Birmingham and it took us moving back to Nashville to finally make it happen, lol. However, we couldn't swing the resort for both nights, so we stayed at Drury Inn Friday night then went to Ross Bridge Saturday night.

We had a cute little terrace off our room at Ross Bridge, but it was really too cold to utilize it for very long, so we went to the main courtyard patio area and sat by a fire pit. We were serenaded by bag pipes both from our terrace and in the courtyard. Not us personally, there was just a guy playing them. A bag piper if you will

Overall the weekend was a good one, relaxing, but I wish we had just paid the extra to stay at Ross Bridge both nights. It was so nice and the breakfast was fantastic- it was a buffet but a gourmet one. I wish I had more room to eat more food it was so good, even Daniel is still talking about it and he's not a breakfast eater. When you order orange juice and they bring it out fresh squeezed, you know they mean business. Best belated birthday gift ever, thanks mom & dad!

Playroom Updates

Last month we gave the kids' playroom a long over-do makeover. We happened upon an awesome play table for the space, did some painting, re-arranged furniture and organized the room. It's so much better! Previously we had a few fabric cubes and a couple big tubs for toys. They were colorful and cute, but not super functional. The little toys always ended up in the big tubs and we couldn't find them; on several occasions I spent hours upon hours, even whole days re-organizing the toys in there.

So when I say this table is a God-send, it really is! There's multiple cubbies under the play table, as part of the foundation that perfectly fit those fabric bins. So we bought several and I got to work organizing. Now between the table and Will's old chest, even in the entertainment center where movies used to be, we have toys. Everything has a clearly defined space and it's so much easier keeping the room clean!!

Anyway, in addition to buying the bins and using existing furniture for storage, the fun part of this post is the decor updates! As I mentioned, I wanted a fun, colorful playroom for the kids and the yellow paint was a great start.

I found some great fabric at JoAnn's and sewed some little curtains, they go well with the wall color, the couch and are still fun and playful, I love them!

Will's old chest is holding lots of toys on the shelves that weren't already housing books, plus puzzles in the drawers below. It's great!  There's still some big toys on the floor but everything has its place.
We added floating shelves for Will's completed Lego builds-- this should keep little hands from getting them-- he also can store them atop the entertainment center. And the girls have a little area for their dollies. My Aunt Rose, who's my Godmother, gave me this crib when I was around Maggie's age, so I love that I've been able to pass it to my girls. And they enjoy putting their baby dolls in here. :)

Now to the decor pieces! I wanted a clock for the playroom but couldn't find one I thought fit- not big enough or mostly just not colorful or playful enough for a kids room. They all looked like adult clocks, lol. So I decided to make my own. I've always wanted to try my hand at crayon art so I thought why not convert that to a clock? Grabbed a canvas and clock kit from Hobby Lobby and got to work!

I also wanted a personal touch so I created these little pieces with the kids' birthdays and where they lived in AL & TN, except Allie who was born in TN. Then I traced their hands, cut out and added; I also did Allie's foot to fill the space where AL was for the others. I had some wood pieces in the garage my dad gave me so I painted them and glued on their art pieces. I had all the materials on hand so this project was free!

Lastly, I added a picture frame that I bought a couple years ago on clearance at Hobby Lobby (told you I've been wanting to do this for awhile). I bought the two big canvas art pictures at Home Goods, where I had a store credit that paid for most of those and made the 'B is for Blessings' sign with on-hand materials as well. All in all this was a pretty inexpensive project. Below is Jake's frame that was in his nursery before he moved in with Will and Allie took his room. I haven't had a place to put it so decided to hang it here in the hallway. Maybe one day I'll add photos of everyone but for now this is fine.