Oh FriYAY

Y'all, I'm not quite sure how a whole week has already gone by since my last post but things around here have just been busy and I've been putting my focus elsewhere - obvi.

ONE

We are in full fledged 2 year old territory with our Sweet Finn.  I love her dearly and she's got herself some serious tantrums.  Her vocabulary is growing which makes my Mama heart so happy and she is quite the helper.  She has some strong opinions on what she wears and I don't always get to pick out what she wears - which is uncharted territory for me because Ellie (almost 5) is still so compliant with my choices.  I can tell that Finn is going to continue to give us a run for our money and put into practice some new parenting/child rearing skills.  Her love of Mickey Mouse is strong...but not strong enough to want to get a picture with a bigger than life size mouse at Disneyland, no matter she absolutely loves everything else about Disneyland so we just skip the characters since Ellie isn't too interested anymore.  All that to say that Finn is absolutely perfect and her unwavering attachment to me is special.

TWO

We decided to combine the girls family birthday party this year, and then Ellie is having a separate friend party next month.  Both girls are obsessed with Ariel (Finnley adamantly calls every princess Ariel 😂) so we are going "Under the Sea" for their party.  I'm thinking that combining their family party is a GREAT idea and we can hopefully continue it for years to come.  So far I've filled up my Pinterest Board with ideas but the only thing I've decided on so far is the invitations which were mailed out weeks ago.  I'm planning to go a bit more relaxed on the decor this year because I just don't have the energy to do a whole production.  That doesn't matter though because the purpose of a party is to celebrate the girls and they'll have fun no matter how extravagant the decorations are.

THREE

The sun is finally shining.  We've had rain everyday for practically 3 weeks straight (we skipped out on 5 days of it to go to Disneyland in the 90's and 80's!) but now we have a sunny forecast so all of the PNW is out and about 😉.  I mean 60 and sunny is practically summer weather around here, lol.  We finally got a new mower (ours stopped working in the fall) and our grass no longer looks like a jungle.  So our plans are to continue working outside as much as we can to get our yard prepped for the girls party and life in general.  I made it out to our vegetable garden and spent 2 hours weeding...every year I tell myself I need to be better and winter prepping and then every year I drop the ball.  Except I was given a great idea yesterday that I'm hoping I'll remember and put into action this go around.  I am going to get some burlap to cover the garden beds for the winter to prevent the weeds from germinating and growing.  Anyways, each year I kind of switch up how the garden is laid out and this year is no different.  Several years ago we were given some "planting boxes" that have just been piled up and I decided to put them to use this year.  Between the boxes I'm going to lay down some cardboard, Thank You Amazon, to help suppress the weeds during the growing months as well.  It's going to be a much smaller garden this year but I think that will be just fine.

FOUR

Ellie is becoming quite the best little person.  She is a great helper, loves her sister and is just all around perfection.  It's been so fun watching her grow and learn this year and I am amazed at all she can retain.  My favorites have been watching her people drawing skills improve.  She is very much into school and loves to do her self imposed "homework".  She is constantly writing her name on everything and likes to make "mail" to send to all of her favorite people.  Ellie is becoming much more independent and adventurous with activities and I love that she is able to do them on her own without much parental involvement.  Her obsession with Baby Brother is so adorable and the tenderness that is in her heart melts me to the core.  As I mentioned above she is compliant and very helpful when it comes to picking up the house so I can perform my obsession of vacuuming.  She also is the funniest girl and her sense of humor is just the best.  I knew that as these girls got older they would become more fun...I just had no idea how much fun she was going to be.

FIVE

As we are nearing Baby Boy's arrival I have been thinking hard about sleeping arrangements and room decorating.  Baby will be rooming in with us for a little while since I plan on breastfeeding but I still want him to have his own dedicated space, and with a 3 bedroom house that means the girls are going to be moving in together.  Ellie has the larger of the two rooms so that means that we have to figure out how to get both of them to fit in there.  To maximize the floor space, bunk beds seem to be the most obvious of choices so we will probably go that route.  I am thinking that the room isn't going to get too much of an overhaul just basically a clean up of sorts.  Then it needs a new coat of paint, I'll go with the same color and get that done when we switch out the beds.  I also want to remove all the wall decals (I'll probably move them into the Playhouse) and just have a clean slate in there.  Additionally we never replaced the baseboards in Ellie's room when we had the flooring installed so I need to measure out the room and purchase some baseboards and get those installed before we bring all the furniture back in. Phew we've got a lot to do!!

So that means that Little Man's Nursery is going to be in Finnley's current nursery. And I am so in love with Finnley's nursery that I don't think I want to change too much of it.  One thing that has become apparent though is that my childhood dresser just isn't going to cut it anymore.  So I am going to try and sell it and then I have my eye on one from IKEA, it has a bit more drawer space and bigger on top to house the changing pad.  One thing I have to switch out for Little Man is all the floral decor because that's probably not going to cut it.  I still want to keep it fairly neutral but want to incorporate some plaid, specifically the MacPherson Clan tartan, into the space somehow.  Thankfully we have some time before he is going to officially move in but I can't wait to see how it all comes together.

SIX

Speaking of the Playhouse, progress is moving right along.  I plan to finish trimming out the windows and doors this weekend, have Thomas caulk the remaining seams, and then give one last coat of paint all over.  Then we'll stain and install the center ceiling beam and finally we can clear out the entire space, give it a good vacuum, and install the linoleum flooring!!  Once that's finished I'll add in the baseboard and then it can be MOVE IN time for the girls!!  HOORAY!! It still won't be completely done because I have other plans for it still but to make it functional and usable for them is going to be the best!!

I hope y'all have the BEST weekend and if you get to have sunshine...Enjoy!!

♥ Ashley