Loads Of Fun

He He, such a clever title for my laundry post :)

Ever since becoming a home owner I've had dreams of a dedicated laundry room full of cute wicker baskets, counters for folding and lots of storage.  Unfortunately the laundry set up at the old house in Florissant was less than desirable.  The washer and dryer were downstairs against the unfinished basement walls.  It was always cold and dark.  I never liked being down there because lets face it, unfinished basements are where serial killers like to hang out and I was always just waiting for someone to pop out of the corner to try and steal me. 

Lucky for me our current house has main floor laundry so I don't worry about serial killers (as much)  BUT it's not a laundry room.  More like a laundry closet.  We briefly talked about adding a room downstairs for laundry and moving the washer and dryer to the basement to free up more closet space upstairs but we decided against it. Since the laundry closet is here to stay we decided to spruce it up a bit and make it more user friendly.
I can't believe I'm going to post this horrendous before picture because it's embarrassingly ugly but I think it needs to be done so you get the full effect of the after shot.
BEFORE

I know...YIKES!  That is one scary closet.

So let's hurry up and move past that and look at the fun AFTER shot

 David asked me why I felt the need to add signs and decorate the laundry closet because 90% of the time the doors are closed and we don't see it...clearly he doesn't know who he's dealing with here :)  Of course I want to decorate it.  Next on my list...our master closet, because it deserves to be pretty too-right? :)

The total cost of this face lift was pretty minimal.  The paint was bought sometime last year in the "ooops" section for $5.  I actually like it so much that I think I want to paint the master bath with it.  It's more of a grayish blue in person, the flash is bouncing off the walls making it look brighter than it really is.
The artwork was ordered from Etsy. I'm kind of obsessed with Etsy, so many creative people selling amazing stuff.

 Just one more project we can cross of the list :)

All about Benjamin

I have SEVERAL pictures of Mr. B to share

Here's one of my recent favorites.
It's a rare moment that he's sitting still looking this innocent.  

David found the perfect Benjamin size beach chair at goodwill.  And he LOVES it!  I just hope he still loves it next month when it's really time to use it.  (look at those cute crossed feet!)  And of course anytime food is involved Maddie is right there just waiting for a stray animal cracker to hit the ground.

This is what happens when I'm gone and David leaves Benjamin alone for 60 seconds.
Yogurt...EVERYWHERE.  It some how reached it's way to the couch and to the side of Maddie's body.  

 Benjamin after his daily 2lb work out :)  He really worked up a sweat!  (Just kidding, we're working on drinking out of a big boy cup with no lid so we're having lots of spills right now)

And here are a few pictures from our lovely family dinner tonight
Yes, my child is only wearing a diaper and a bib.  But can you blame me?  At one point he tried to put the bowl on his head.  

What happens when you take the tray of food away because someone can't stop playing with their food?

Glad you asked...

This is what happens - TOTAL MELT DOWN

Are you all Benjamin'd out yet?  :)

Cupcake Class Groupon

A while back I stumbled upon a Groupon for cupcake decorating.  I thought it sounded interesting but I closed the email and just sort of forgot about it.  A couple hours later Katie was asking me if I saw the Groupon and well...we both ended up buying it :)

I didn't learn anything earth shattering, but it was still fun.  Anything dealing with cupcakes is bound to create a good time.

Here's a look at my 6 beauties

Those are supposed to be yellow roses in that chocolate cupcake.  It was the first time I worked with Fondant so I was joking around with Katie saying mine looked more like a weed than a rose. 

I ate the caramel sea salt cupcake a few minutes ago and HOLY MOLY!  That sucker was amazing!  Maybe I'll save the chocolate and peanut butter for breakfast tomorrow morning

Livin the Life

I wish I could sit in a cart and be hauled around :)

Thanks for the bike cart Mom!!! We love it :) 

Front door makeover

I love the look of an accent color on the front door.  We have a couple of houses in our neighborhood with a fun color on the front door instead of plain white.  I decided I wanted to paint our front door but really didn't know what color.  I used to absolutely hate our blue siding but it's actually grown on me over the years.  I kind of gives me a beachy cottage vibe, especially when we hang a couple of ferns on the front porch.  With that in mind, I thought a light yellow might look super cute.  Key word being "light".  Boy was I off with my paint swatch :(  I painted two coats and after it dried I took a step in the front yard to look at my wonderful painted door and had to choke back the tears.  It looked like someone threw lemonade on our front door and lite it on fire.  It was WAY brighter than I pictured.  But my free time is extremely limited and I didn't have the time to repaint it right away so it's actually been a few weeks and just like the siding, it's starting to grow on me.  Especially since the screen door is on instead of the glass door.  I think the screen helps mute the blazing "in your face" yellow.  So for now I'm going to leave it alone.

Anyway, here it is...

 David and I have also decided there's way too much green going on.  We need to add more color to our landscaping plan.  I'm bad with plants though so I'm not sure what we're going to do yet.

Now I just need to get in gear and find the time to make a fun wreath for the front door :)

Easter 2012

Easter was fun this year.  The weather was perfect and Benjamin was able to shake the nasty virus he had earlier in the week just in time to take part in all the Easter festivities on Sunday.

We dyed Easter eggs Saturday afternoon, which is something I haven't done since I was little.  It was a little messy but we had a good time :)

Sunday we headed over to Mike and Katie's for Easter Brunch and an egg hunt

Then we went back home to show Benjamin the Easter bunny came and left a basket full of goodies

Elmo was the big hit.  First, Benjamin started off with a formal hello including a hand shake

But then he decided to forget all that formal nonsense. Elmo and Benjamin go way back so he decided a hug was in order

Then we headed back out and stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Schulte's for more food and another egg hung (Benjamin is practically a professional egg hunter now)

I'm still finishing up the last of the Easter Candy, I accidentally bought more Cadbury eggs on Monday.  What was I supposed to do though?  They were 50% off! I'm just happy I didn't buy all that Target had left :)

Pantry Facelift

Our pantry was starting to look a little crazy.  I decided to spend some time on Friday organizing and holy cow...we had some seriously EXPIRED food going on in there.  I found some glass jars in various sizes at Hobby Lobby and I already had the white baskets so this really didn't cost me that much.

Every time I open the door I'm happy now instead of frustrated :)

I started on the kitchen cabinets and drawers too.  I found some organizing product that has been a life saver so I'll have to share those soon

Here's the before shot                             

A

And here's the after shot

How long do you think we can keep it looking like this? :)

My little dancer

Benjamin Loves to Dance
Benjamin has been moody lately

Put them both together and you get the following...

Fun Outside

Benjamin LOVES to be outside.  When he brings me his shoes I know he means business.  He wants to go outside and he wants to go now :)
Since we're basically experiencing summer weather right now we've been outside pretty much every day. 

Benjamin had his first car wash

A trip to the park. 
Oh, and let me say this...we went at 8:30am and pretty much had the entire playground to ourselves.  It was actually a lot of fun to roam around by ourselves and let Benjamin go wherever he wanted.  We might have to hit the park in the early A.M. more often

An Easter egg hunt
Our neighborhood has an Easter Egg hunt every year.  We've never gone before.  I'm sure it would have looked a bit odd the past few years to see a grown adult trying to hunt for eggs, so I was really happy to have a reason to participate this time around :)
Benjamin did a great job.  He started out slow but eventually got the hang of it.

And to cap the weekend off, a dip in the pool
Please excuse the wet suit and water shoes.  David dressed him.  We bought the water shoes for our trip to FL next month and I guess David decided to try out the ever so slimming wet suit and water shoe look a little early  :)

I hope everyone else is taking advantage of the warm weather!