Finishing Touches

The Gator curtains have arrived!!!!

Thank you Miss Joan!!!!

Boys Room Updates

We promised updates of the progress in the boys' room and here's what we have so far. We're almost there, just minus some Gator valances for the windows that Miss Joan is graciously working on.

Parker found this awesome print of Tropicana Field in Target the other day which we thought went perfect with the sports theme of the boys' room - the two pennants over their closet are from the Rays. Plus this is a shot of the first home game from their World Series run a couple of years ago.

The boys' trophy shelves turned out well and we moved their names and pictures above their beds too. The Gator bulletin boards are in place, although Parker's is obscured by his Poptropica poster.

Wesley's shelf is awaiting a teeball trophy at the end of this season. He insists on having the Rays figurine on the edge of his shelf. So far he also refuses to leave anything on his bulletin board - everything there at night when he goes to sleep has usually been removed by the morning.

Project Time

Saturday afternoon the whole family along with Grandma did some shopping. Mommy wanted to make bulletin boards to go over the boys' beds, but she wanted them to be fabric and match the theme of their room. So we grabbed all the materials at Hobby Lobby and after the boys went to bed, Mommy and Grandma got to work.

The result - two cool Gator boards soon to be installed.

Slowly their room is taking shape. We will be sure to post pictures when it is all complete.

Extreme Home Makeover Continues

This was the boys' room when we first moved in. We've painted the bottom half of the room since then, but this was the best shot of their loft bed setup (desk on the near corner; bookcase behind the dresser on the far corner).

We had a little more redecorating fun this past weekend in the house. The boys have been having trouble sleeping for a while in their room. They refused to sleep apart in the separate beds; Wesley likes to be able to see his brother. So they kept crowding into one bed but inevitably would roll over on each other, wake each other up and then someone would come in with Mommy and Daddy. This was happening every night.

When we were on vacation in March, the boys slept in a bedroom with two twin beds and slept well because Parker and Wesley could see each other without crowding each other. So we decided to get twin beds, which meant one more trip to IKEA for those plus a nightstand and two bookcases. We dismantled their room and donated the loft bed to Interfaith; Daddy assembled the furniture on Saturday morning and here's the result....


We still have some work to do in their room, namely putting up a couple more shelves (they wanted trophy shelves for above their beds) and moving around some pictures. But at least we haven't had any more nighttime visitors in our room at night.

Scrapbooking Fun

While the guys were working last Friday, Mommy rearranged a couple of closets and created a scrapbooking corner for her in the hallway closet. Everything is much more accessible for her now - she's been scrapbooking like a madwoman, over 50 pages from our England trip and she's not done yet!

A "Little" Modification

We've accomplished a few little modifications around the house in the last two weeks. It required two trips to IKEA in Orlando (triplecheck the woodstain color you need before you buy!) and included a new desk and printer stand for Daddy in the family room and six new chairs, a china cabinet and a buffet table for the dining room (every piece lovingly assembled by Daddy). It also required several trips to Lowe's and a day-long visit from Granddaddy and Grandmommy last Friday to install all of the new baseboard, wainscoting and chair rail in the dining room. Then Mommy and Daddy had to paint the dining room, top and bottom again, and change out some fixtures on the walls.

Here's the family room with the desk before:

And here's the family room with the new desk now:

And some great stadium pictures we picked up on vacation for Daddy (Bucs Superbowl on top; Tebow's last home game below)....

Here's the dining room when we first moved in with our oak table, chairs and china cabinet:

Here's the dining room with the new table and white end chairs we bought last fall:

A few process pictures:

And the finished dining room ready to go! We're very, very happy with the result!

Thank You, Thank You

We are so very thankful that Granddaddy came to spend Friday with us and work all day long in the parsonage, making our dining room look so beautiful. Afterwards, we took Granddaddy and Grandmommy out to one of the boys' favorite places to eat - Steak N Shake - and just had to capture this moment!

Saturday

The day started off well. Daddy got out with the boys and started putting in the new sprinkler system into the flowerbed and also the plants. Mommy made a quick trip to the grocery store and made it back before Grandma arrived. Grandma had a whole bunch of stuff in her minivan for Mommy's church yard sale, so we headed down to unload that in the fellowship hall. We took the boys with us so Daddy could have some peace and quiet to work and by the time we got back he had all the plants done and almost all the sprinkler set up. We just need some more weed mat and another sprinkler head before Daddy can finish up, spread out the pine bark we have and see how much more we might need. Our plan is to move the red geraniums from the planter box and put them around one of the trees in the front yard.


We went to Quizno's for lunch (thanks Grandma!) and then headed to the bowling alley for Parker's first day of his new league. Parker has been asking about bowling for a while now and was so excited to put his bowling ball in Daddy's bowling bag and get going. There was supposed to be an organizational meeting at 2pm and then he could bowl his two games. Except.....none of the other 15 people who had signed up for the league showed up! The lady at the counter couldn't understand - she had one of her employees call everyone this week and ask if they were coming and they said yes. Only Mommy never got a call, so now they aren't sure if the others were called or not. But since we showed up, they set up Parker on a lane, along with Wesley, and gave us two free games of bowling. The boys had a blast - Wesley was so excited to finally be able to play with his Bubba, that he didn't care if the ball hit anything - it was just enough to be able to throw the ball down the lane. We had some interesting times to be sure. Balls that went backwards out of hands into the seating are and one ball of Wesley's that went so slow that it stopped halfway down the lane!

First Game Score!Four frames into the second game, Wesley pooped out. He had bowled a 30 and let Bubba finish his game as well -- which he did and Parker ended up tying his own game as well.

Afterwards, Grandma went with us to a couple of furniture stores (we're looking for a bigger dining room table), then to the library since the boys were begging to get some new books. When we got home, Grandma took off for Seffner, and the rest of us headed in to crash on the couch!

So Much for the Relaxing Evening

Mommy spoke too soon yesterday about enjoying a nice relaxing evening at home tonight. After Parker got out of school, we took off to Kenny's Place to buy some plants for the front flowerbed: Aztec grass, Mexican petunias, African irises, Chinese fringe flowers, and a butterfly bush.

When we got home we dropped off the plants, picked up Wesley from daycare, and headed to Toys R Us. Mommy had found a coupon for 30% off Halloween costumes good for today only. So we went and the boys picked out their costumes. The theme this year for the Allen Family is Toy Story - Parker is Sheriff Woody and Wesley is Buzz Lightyear. We are looking for some help in figuring out how to make Mommy and Daddy into Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head!!!

From there it was on to Stevie B's for dinner, another errand at the mall and then home. Turns out Wesley isn't feeling well. He ran a low fever and kept grabbing his ear saying that he had a "boo-boo." So we gave him some Motrin and let him cuddle on the couch. We'll see how he feels in the morning.

Man Vs. Stump

The only thing left in the flowerbed after Daddy cleared things out was a big stump from the tall hedge bush. He's been working on digging/pulling it out since then and today was the big face-off.

Before:



And after:

Yard Work

For the last few weeks on Saturdays, Mommy has had some diligent little helpers who have pitched in with the laundry. But she lost her laundry helpers to working/playing in the yard with Daddy yesterday. We have been planning on redoing the front flowerbed and Daddy decided to go ahead and get rid of all of the evergreen that was in there. The evergreen has been housing a bunch of wasps. So after spraying some wasp spray, Daddy dug in and pulled it all out.


The boys helped for a while but then the lure of their bicycles called to them. To prevent them from going out in the street, Daddy had Mommy move the Malibu to block off the driveway.

Even empty, the flowerbed looks so much better now. We will be working on plants sometime in the next couple of weeks.

A Little Bit of Redecorating

This weekend we did some redecorating in the master bedroom and bathroom as well as the boys' bathroom. We replaced our bedroom comforter set that the cats had torn up with one we found on clearance at Sears and changed out the ceramic nightstand lamps we've had for 11 years with some we found on sale at KMart. The colors go great with the paint that was already on the wall in the master bedroom. We also found a great deal at Sears on a new shower curtain and rug in the same color scheme for the master bathroom, which replaced the set that we'd been using for the last 9 years.

We took the old shower curtain, rug, towels and accessories from our bathroom and moved it into the boys' bathroom. They loved the new colors instead of the big burgundy and yellow flowers that they've had (again a set we'd been using for 9 years). And while we were in Hobby Lobby today we found a great wall saying for their bathroom too. They were very excited by the result!!

Toy Room Accessory

So on Monday night while Mommy and the boys were at VBS, Daddy put this new storage cube together for the boys' toy room. Previously it was hard for the boys to know what they had because the toys were housed in the large toy box or the big basket in the closet. They would often end up playing with the same few things all the time. Or it meant that tons of toys were dumped out in the search for something specific. After the boys went to bed, Mommy and Daddy pared down the toys and then shifted stuff around. So far the baskets seem to be helping the boys find things and keep their room cleaner. But shhhhh....so far they haven't noticed the stuff we got rid of!

Back Porch Take Two

Most of Tuesday evening was spent searching for just the right gazebo and patio furniture for the back porch. And while Mommy stayed home in bed all day Wednesday because she felt sick, when Daddy got home with the boys they spent the rest of Wednesday assembling the gazebo and table, and then rigging up the gazebo with rope lights and fans. Thursday evening we got to eat our dinner outside under the gazebo and it was wonderful. We were so looking forward to a wonderful summer of eating out there and sitting out at night to watch the boys play in the yard.

Cue in Friday afternoon. A big thunderstorm rolled through and when we returned home after running some errands we found the gazebo upside down on the roof of the house! Two of the poles for the roof of the gazebo were bent. So we decided to try something else. We disassembled it and returned it to Home Depot (after calling first to explain the situation). Then we drove all over town trying to find another gazebo....except they were either too big for our back porch slab or way too expensive. Finally Daddy had an idea for anchoring the poles of the old gazebo down, so we went back to Home Depot and picked up another one, along with four pots and a lot of rock. So this is our back porch gazebo, take two. We ate our "breakfast for dinner" meal out here this evening and it was great!