Post Christmas

We got Aaron for an entire week between Christmas and New Years. That's my favorite. We did our best to take full advantage of having him all our ourselves. We went to see Coco the movie. SO CUTE. See it when you get a chance. We also went to the Aquarium with out MyTech High pass. Also very cool. My favorite thing was the shark tunnel. I could have sat in there all day long. The penguins were also really fun. And we saw a 3D movie about big cats, which was so-so, but the kids were super excited about the 3D part.

Other things we did over the break: PROJECTS!*!*! Specifically, we worked on Ollie's room. I refinished his dresser. Don't have a before, (you're surprised, I know) but it was off-white and had a lot of dinged spots. SO I painted it blue on the outside and bright white in the middle. I really like how it turned out. While I was doing that, Aaron rebuilt Ollie's window. I DO have a before of that. :D

Ollie's window before. See how it doesn't even have a sill? The sill had be ripped off or something, and the edge was rough, and it just didn't feel very cozy or welcoming. 

Anyways, Aaron fixed the sill. Then we (he) put a trim around the window. I chose a "modern craftsman" style trim, because that is that type of trim I eventually want throughout the house. (Convincing Aaron of this is going to be quite the feat. But if I just do here a little there a little, first with the windows that don't already have trim, then we can slowly and carefully work our way through replacing all the flowery, colonial style trim.) But the window turned out great, right?! I love it.  

Ollie's whole room is starting to turn over a new leaf, hopefully into a place where he actually wants to sleep at night. The green walls with the eggshell sheen transform the atmosphere into calm. It's so crazy to see the difference that the sheen makes. I'd never experienced it before. The original paint had a semi-gloss sheen and it reflected the light weird and made things seem more harsh than I realized they were until I painted over with the eggshell sheen. So that was fun to learn, and experience first hand. Also when I put the polyurethane coat on the dresser I picked a matte finish this time, instead of a gloss. And all these combinations of things are making Ollie's room feel so soft. It's really great. It's starting to feel quiet in there, like a wood. Which is great, because it just so happens that we are painting trees in there again, just like in his last room. And we got four of them finished over break. Two more to go. Then leaves. Then curtain rods. Then spice rack book shelves. Then we'll put the top bunk bed back on top, and bring the yellow rocking chair in, hang the curtains, and viola! Ollie's new room will be just like his old room, which is exactly what he's been asking for since we moved.

Aaron said he's never paint trees on walls ever again after this. But look how good he's doing!

 So yes, Christmas Break was a smashing success......until we caught the plague. 5/8 of us went down. High fevers, coughing, puking, ACHING. Blah. We had to cancel our New Years Eve plans of going up to Hooper, and just hang out at home.

On New Years Eve the older 4 felt well enough to play their own, homemade, version of Monopoly called Swanopoly. I love that they used Mancala pieces for houses and hotels. :) And while they played that Aaron read Watership Down aloud to us all. Not a bad night, but not really one for the books either. We didn't even stay up 'til midnight. Oh well, there's always next year!

Me snuggling two sick, puking girls.