Clever Mrs. Cleaver?

We had to put a few rubbermaid storage bins out on our giant balcony because we had no where to store them in the apartment. In an attempt to make them a bit more attractive, I bought an old school red and white checker plastic tablecloth to cover them up, trying to make them look at bit summery and festive. Much to my dismay, when I got home I realized that I had purchased the one for a round table, not a rectangle table. I immediately turned that frown upside down with the idea to put it under my dining room table as a foldout "carpet" / protective barrier for the real carpet underneath. Every night before dinner I unfold it from it's hiding spot wrapped around the legs of the table and lay it under the chairs. It takes about 10 seconds - and I must tell you - I have saved myself a good half bottle of carpet cleaner so far. The plastic is easy to clean up, but to be honest - as you can see from the pictures, I don't even need to wipe it up! The dogs do all the work!! Can you guess which seat is Benjamin's??



Our house should be all put together, and it really is, I now just need to do a good de-cluttering, which is challenging when you have toys that the kids play with that you really just want to toss but don't have the heart to do so. We gave the kids the master bedroom so the bulk of the toys are in there, which is nice! - but as you can see from the pic in the living room, there are still a good chunk left over for the toy bin next to our luxurious couch.

Here are some pics of the kid's room. We had to give Emma our bed frame because it wouldn't fit in our tiny room. Luckily it matches the crib and the dressers so it looks as if it belongs there! The room is quite sizable, and one half of the closet holds my clothes and Emma's Sunday dresses, the other half is hiding 10 Costco diaper boxes full of crap, mostly books that Daddy will not let us donate. When we get our dream house in 5 years it is going to have a library bigger than the one Beast gave Belle. I'm serious. That is why Daddy is such a book hoarder - he wants to fill up that library!





Funny of the day:

Ben has become a TERRIBLE eater. Seriously, the kid just wants to eat eggs. Sometimes, like tonight, I can get some peanut butter and jelly toast in him. Emma, who is still an amazing eater, requested a piece of his toast after she ate all her dinner, so as a treat, I gave her a square. She licked off all the PBJ and asked for more of the topping on the same square. With my sternest of voices and faces, I asked, "Are you just going to lick off the topping again, or are you going to eat the whole piece?" To which she replied, "I am just going to lick off the topping again." I said to her trying to hide my smirk, "That wasn't the answer I was looking for, but I appreciate your honesty." and gave her a heaping topping. YUM. A girl after my own heart.