American Girl in DC

Stephanie invited us up to the new American Girl store in Tyson's Corner for Alexandria's fifth birthday. Caroline and I accepted, but Brooklyn's first birthday party happened to be the same weekend, so we sent Timmy, Garrett, and Emily to the other party (I was taking a leap of faith that the "men" would want to avoid a place painted "blush and bashful"....and I was correct). Cammy decided to grab a ride with us since Stephanie, Jill, Kristen, and the birthday girl stayed in a hotel before the big event.
We met up by 11 AM and hit the store. It's not nearly as big as the one in Dallas (yes, Caroline's doll CJ is quite the traveler) but it was PACKED! The bistro is the size of my living room, so it wasn't surprising that Steph couldn't get lunch reservations. We wandered among the tiny doll clothes, accessories, beds, toys, you-name-it and picked out a couple of items to take home. Then it was off to the dolls' hair appointments (I can't make this up, and the people who work there seem to take it very seriously--wearing all black, the whole nine yards--so I didn't even try to joke with them) which Alexandria and Caroline loved. Then Caroline helped Alexandria pick out something for us to buy for her birthday (she got a travel luggage set) and we headed out for lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Our waiter was forever forgetting our drinks, food, requests for singing for the birthday girl, but it was fun to hang out with the fam and eat some good food and awesome cupcakes.

Heading down the escalator....to more shopping!

The doll hair appointment. I wasn't treated this good on prom night!

CJ with her double braids and new ribbons!

The "moms" got stuck holding cups of coffee and masses of dolls!

The dolls enjoyed the "view" at the Cheesecake Factory.

We were facing a giant window and a lot of mid day sun. Alexandria needed a pair of sunglasses STAT and her auntie Jessie delivered!

Stephanie bought these doll crown activity packs for the girls to do at lunch. CJ looked very festive!

Alexandria and her cupcakes

Extreme Makeover

I will readily admit it: I am addicted to home make overs. Whether on HGTV or DIY or in my own house, I love flipping through paint samples, fabric swatches, and Target sales ads. Unfortunately, on a teacher's budget, you can only do so much! And with major remodeling and additions that this house has needed in the past three years to be a good fit for my family, our bedrooms have pretty much stayed ho-hum. Basic bedding, unmatched furniture, cheap area rugs, you get the picture. So I started to think ahead to when Emily would be getting out of a crib and needing a big bed like her sister. And Caroline is currently in a full sized bed (passed down to her from me when I upgraded to a queen). These girls were going to look like a dorm room! Or sardines! So I started to think about bunk beds. I kept my eye on Craigslist and lo and behold, there was an ad last week for white ones! I called the lady and we met up today in MD. The beds were perfect and in excellent condition and about 1/3 the price of buying new. If you know me, you know I need immediate gratification, so the beds got set up the minute we got home and the full sized bed in sitting in the garage, waiting for my sales flyer at school to bring in a buyer! But bunk beds were just the tip of the iceberg... Caroline's old bed. Only problem with it? She curls up in the fetal position every night, using about 10% of the bed's space. And more floor space with a smaller bed would mean easier play dates!
New bunk bed set! What a huge difference it makes in the room. The room could almost be described as "spacious" now....almost.

View from the door. In the next few months, a dresser will replace the changing table and my very handy husband will be doing a built in bookcase and desk set on the crib wall when Emily gets in the big bed (we plan on two 30-in wide bookcases with lower cabinets with a built in desk between).

Caroline's American Girl doll CJ gets her bed right next to the girls! And her bathtub fits perfectly under the end of the bed. I got two big rolling bins for toys under the bed too.

Up close of bed sets: Flutterby. Very vibrant colors. Our original plan was to wait til Spring Break and paint all of the bedroom's wooden trim white (takes two coats of primer and two of paint, so it's time intensive). We would upgrading to white wooden blinds too, to match the addition and bathroom. I wanted to keep the blue walls, Caroline wanted to go back to pink. I love how the blue looks with the bedding once it was on the beds. But pink would be nice too...

Caroline wants a striped wall for the wall with the changing table. I mapped it out for her and she went through her marker collection, pulling out colors that matched the bedding. This was the plan we came up with. As Timmy pointed out, "You're going to be taping lines for days" but I think the end result will be spectacular. And it's only one wall, so it shouldn't be overwhelming.

Picture me hovering over the beds with paint samples! I think I matched up Crisp Green and Glorious Gold perfectly for stripe options.

Caroline LOVES paint samples--she squirrels away several sheets every time we go to Lowes or Home Depot. She picked out all of these pinks as options. She ended up deciding on the top one on the right--Foxy pink. I can't decide if it will be too dark for three of her walls. Maybe just leave the blue walls and use the pink for the stripes? Or repaint the walls pink, using the blue for stripes? Feel free to leave your opinion in the Comments section!

Wishing for Fishing

Fishing for compliments on this new fantastic aquarium, that is! Garrett has been not-so-subtly hinting that he would like to have an aquarium at our house. He had one at his dad's house, but all the fish died in a matter of weeks and his dad replaced it with....a crayfish. What every boy wants...one stinking arthropod sitting in the corner of a tank. And I've always liked fish tanks (well, decorating them, any way) but didn't want the mess and bother of a big one. So Timmy and I (ahhhemmm, "Santa") picked up a 29-gallon set up before the holidays, and Timmy helped out Santa by building an awesome stand for it. Garrett was over the moon when he saw it! I had picked out the gravel, plants, some decorations, and the background at the store, based on what Garrett had said he liked on the fish websites we looked at. I stuck to the realistic, tropical green and red plants, brown gravel, and realistic rock formations (Garrett is practically allergic to the fake neon "coral" and decorations they make these days. And a ceramic little octopus for the bottom of the tank with a jaunty "No fishing!" sign---puuuuuullease! Garrett would sooner get a tank of sea monkeys!).
Our two trips to Pet Smart for fish were night and day. During the first trip we were accosted by a "fish expert" teenager who seemed to think that her three day training course at Pet Smart Academy made her the "go to" for all things fishy. We were instructed to not buy more than 5 fish that day because, in her words, it would "overwhelm the tank and the fish would suffer". Hmmmmm.... seriously??? The neon tetra that we were buying were the size of lima beans and we were buying....five of them. A whole FIVE! For 29 gallons! Believe me, no "overwhelming" occurred in the tank when we dropped in the five teeny tiny fish and they took off for the cave and plants.
Our second trip, we had to track down a lady from the "small mammals" section, who looked like she would rather be cleaning out the hamster cages than digging for fish with a tiny net. We could have bought 382 fish, she wouldn't have cared. Garrett was a little fixated on trying to buy "aggressive" fish, which we pointed out would eat everything he already had living in his tank. So he agreed to buy "tropical community" fish (things that like to live "in harmony") and we got three other types and a mystery blue snail that Garrett named Gary (from Spongebob).

A "tween" boy's dream: fish tank on top, lots of display for LEGO castles below.

The volcano bubbler is so cool! It's very realistic and fun!

The neon tetra seem oblivious to the fact that they could be using the ancient bridge to travel!

The rock cave--a favorite for Gary the Snail. Somehow I also got all five tetra to swim in formation in this shot--totally on accident!