Bulletin Board

April was Mara’s month on the two-year-old bulletin board at church. This board is posted in one of the main corridors of our church building, and it is used to highlight pictures of the precious two-year-old children in our congregation. A coordinator organizes the rotation of the board, and notifies the parents of when it’s their child’s turn. Then, the parents have the responsibility of decorating the board, and removing the pictures at the end of the month. It was a lot of fun searching through our files of pictures, and selecting the ones for her board. This process brought back so many wonderful memories! The tough part was narrowing the pictures down to the few that would be posted. As you can see…I squeezed as many pictures on the board as possible.

Soccer

Rex's spring soccer season ended last weekend. Rex went out with a bang by scoring a goal during this final game. We were very excited and proud of him. After the game, the team had a party at the park where the boys all received trophies. Thanks to coaches Leo and Greg for all their time and effort with the Wildcats!

Mother's Day

I had such a nice Mother's Day weekend. The weather was beautiful, and I had a lot of leisure time...which for me is the best Mother's Day gift of all. Sunday was a great day. After church, we went to Joe's Crabshack, and ate lunch outside on the deck. It was an ideal choice because we got to enjoy the nice weather, and the kids loved playing on the playground. That afternoon, we went for a walk in our neighborhood park. It was a banner day for the kids...two playgounds in one day! Then, we ate a picnic supper beside the pond. I love alfresco dining! I feel very blessed to have two beautiful children and such a sweet husband who made my Mother's Day so enjoyable.

Field Day

Rex had field day at his school this past Friday. He had a blast playing the games. I really liked the way the games were organized. Children in grades K-2 played in the morning from 9:30-11:00. The children were divided into groups of two and then paired up with a fifth grade helper. The helper chaperoned and assisted the participants as they moved from station to station. There was no required rotation. The children could freely choose which games and stations they wanted to visit. Each station was set up with two lanes so that the pairs could line up opposite each other and compete against their partner…so it was still competitive, but low pressure. Rex’s favorite game was some race involving water (he did this before I got there to take pictures), but I know he really had fun with the potato sack race because he went to that station twice!

Bye! Bye! Nursery

Well, the time has finally come to make over the nursery. Tim and I (with the help of our mothers and my grandmother) lovingly decorated this room before bringing baby Rex home from the hospital over six years ago.

We invested a lot of time and money creating our babyland. I bought the bedding from Rockinghorse Designs in Canton. Then, I searched all over the Dallas area to find complimentary fabric so that I could make the covers for the chair and the curtains. Grana, Nanny, and I all sewed the cushions for the glider and ottoman one weekend at my grandmother's house in Burnet. I made a pattern for the curtains and sewed them myself. Tim built the armoire and also a bookshelf (not pictured) with moon and star cut-outs that matches the stenciling on the walls. We painted the walls by making stencils out of transparency film in the desired star, and moon shapes. (We added the pink spirals later when we knew that a little girl was on the way.)

We decided to allow the children to sleep together in the same bedroom so that the extra bedroom could be used as a toy room/guest room. This really worked out great, but I had the extra challenge of making the room look both masculine/feminine and baby/toddler friendly. Luckily, the crib bedding had some pink accents, so we added the pink spirals to the wall as well as a pink cover to the changing table. I got Rex's twin bed from my grandparents. It had been stored away in an old shed for many years. I stripped the varnish off and painted it white. Then, I was fortunate enough to find yellow and blue moon and stars sheets which coordinated well with the room's theme, and a yellow/blue comforter to match. It all worked well together. Best of all, the children worked well together. They have a very close friendship, and I think sharing the room has been a big contributing factor...sniff...sniff. This is a bit of an emotional transition for me.

It's time for a change though. Rex now has a new loft bed in the once playroom. I am in the slow process of trying to convert the Americana decorated guestroom into a Star Wars themed room for him. I have removed the crib from the nursery, and Mara is now sleeping in Rex's old twin bed. I found some adorable bedding for it at Target, and plan to decorate her room in a shabby chic motif. It's fun to finally be creating a girly room for her. I'm so glad that the kids shared the nursery, but I did miss out on making her baby room adorably feminine. Stay tuned for pictures of the transformed rooms, but don't hold your breath...it might be a while.