{ the dollhouse }

I never knew finding the right dollhouse would turn into such a task. It started about a month and a half ago when it popped into my head that it would be a good gift for Stella for her birthday. I asked a few other moms with girls what brand/type of dollhouse they would recommend and they all said to make sure that it was one she could "grow" with. Meaning that she could use it for Barbies down the road because inevitably, that is where the road leads.

That somewhat limited the brands I could look at because the scale of most dollhouses are standard size and not Barbie. One of the moms mentioned a bookcase dollhouse (thank you, Erika!) and then also mentioned how Young House Love had done a bookcase DIY dollhouse for their daughter. After taking one look at theirs (pictured below), I was set on doing something similar.

Having a very handy Grandpa K with woodworking skills was a bonus. I quickly turned to my favorite website for woodworking plans, Anna White, and off we went. I altered her plans slightly to make it a little narrower and shorter, as well as changing the room dividers. Within a day of having sent the plans to Grandpa K, it was finished. It was then just a matter of Chop meeting him halfway in WI to pick it up and then it was into Grandpa C's hands to paint it.

Little did I know that that was all the easy part. Next task was finding furniture to outfit the house. Decent looking, wood dollhouse furniture that is Barbie scale = impossible to find. I didn't want to purchase standard size furniture that is made by Melissa & Doug, Hape, etc. because it would have looked minature in a giant size dollhouse. But I also didn't want to buy "Barbie" furniture that was plastic and hot pink/purple.

After weeks, literally, of searching an idea popped into my head. The one manufacturer of wood Barbie dollhouses doesn't sell their wood furniture seperately, you have to buy the house to get it. So I turned to a DIY'ers best friend - Craigslist! I was lucky to come across a Barbie dollhouse with the wood furniture for $40. I quickly snagged it with the intention of not using the house and spray painting the furniture. I wish I had taken a picture of the furniture "before". Here it is during the spray paint process.

And then the real fun began. Selecting wallpaper.....

Upholstery.....

And a little more paint for accents......

I joke that I'm finally putting my interior design degree to use. Don't rain on my parade by reminding me that it is for fake people......Barbies, nonethless.

But it all came together with this as the finished product.

Room highlights include a living room.

Kitchen

Laundry Room

Office

Bathroom

Kid Bedroom

Master Bedroom (with a newborn baby, of course)

The best part of it all? Stella's pick of the family that will reside in the dollhouse. Meet Panda family.

It was a fun project that I hope will provide years of play and enjoyment (I can hope, right?)!

{ party time! }

We had a wonderful time celebrating Oliver & Stella's birthday last weekend! With the party being held at the park, I was praying to the weather gods that we would be granted a nice day. And, we were. Mild temps and some sunshine......perfect for a park/pool party!

We kept things super simple and both O & S got the one thing they wanted. Cake!

But evidently setting out the cakes too early, equates to gawkers.

And of course taste testers.

After standing around because she didn't want to get her dress dirty (really?!), Stella finally decided it was okay to go play on the playground with her party guests. But only if she held her dress up. Ha!

At least she was safe from getting it dirty when everyone decided to take a dip in the pool.

No arguments from any of the 30+ kids when it was time for cake.

Not sure of the exact amount, but both Oliver and Stella consumed their fair share of cake....and even more frosting.

Although the fact that they got a juice box might have been even more of a highlight.

A wonderful celebration with so many special friends and family present. Hooray!!

{tri-ing in the rain }

I am now 3 for 3 on race mornings that start with thunderstorms and downpours. But Lifetime Tri a few weekends ago takes the award for the best yet.

I awoke at 4:30am that morning to hear heavy, heavy rain and some serious thunder and lightning. I figured it would pass within an hour like it had for the other races and all would be good to go. Boy, was I wrong. It continued and my original plans of heading to the race site to set up in transition at 5:30 were put on hold. I watched online for updates from the race director. They weren't opening transition due to the lightning and no one was sure what kind of delay the race would have.

Though it was still pouring rain, at 6:45 they finally announced that transition was open and race was set to start at 7:30am. We quickly hopped into the car to make our way to Lake Nokomis. But driving along the parkway we encountered this.

The cones are there because it is part of the olympic course bike route. It was then that I realized the race was definitely not starting at 7:30 and the course would most definitely not be bikeable.

Chop dropped me off near the lake and as I made my way to the transition area to get set-up, I had to deal with a little water.

As I got into transition, it was only drizzling. At this point, they made the announcement that the olympic distance course was closed and all participants would be racing on the sprint course. That, along with a two hour delay, threw a lot of people off. Being the second to last wave, this meant I wouldn't be starting until at least 10:30. Less than ideal for many reasons!

I was lucky enough to have a fellow twin mom to keep me company while we waited around to start.

After waiting around for what seemed like an eternity (there were people finishing before my wave even started), my wave was off. The swim was one of the hardest open water swims I've had. Lots of wind created lots of waves. There were a lot of swimmers grabbing onto lifeguards and just trying to stay afloat. I made it out of the water in second place and onto the bike. Bike was fairly uneventful and then began the run. Oh, the run. It used to be my easy/favorite part of the race but for some reason, that has changed. I was off pace, running slow, and wanting to walk. After getting passed by another woman in my wave at mile 1, my confidence was shot. I didn't have much left in me and stopped running 4 times (yikes!!) but managed to get across the finish line.

Overall, good enough to get 3rd place in my age group. But the best part of the race, my cheerleaders on the course!!

In addition to O & S, Chop, and Grandpa and Grandma C being there, my friends Kathi and Patti made it to watch. Kathi has been my personal trainer for the last six months and played a key part in getting me ready for races this season. Blessed to have so many supportive people in my life!

Mother nature definitely provided a morning that I will never forget!

Since Lifetime, mother nature has redeemed herself with better weather for two other races. The first, a fun 5k run with 10 other twin moms (27 kids between all of us!) at the Torchlight 5k. It might have been 93 degrees and humid but at least it wasn't raining! 

Then it was a Solejourner relay team tri at Annadale Heart of the Lakes Tri. A super fun morning spent with a group of women that I thank my lucky stars for!

{ three }

Wow, we have three year olds. It feels as though I blinked my eyes and they transformed from itty bitty babies into kids. Their one year birthday was a huge milestone, two years was big but for some reason three feels as though we are turning a corner. And I think it is a good one :).

While they are completely opposite in many of their interests. Re: Spidey vs. Princess Sophia.

They still manage to get along about 60% of the time.

And truly are each other's best friend and built-in playmate.

Helping each other out.

Comforting each other in new situations.

Stella continues to be the leader of the pack. She loves all things princesses and dress-up, insisting on wearing dresses everyday. The highlight of her week last week, getting her hair cut.

But she still loves biking, ballet class, spinning crazy fast on the tire swing, climbing, fast tubing and other physical feats.

She is incredibly observant and nothing gets by this girl. She is upbeat, talkative and typically in a good mood. And always willing to go on an adventure, trip to the store or anything that gets her out of the house.

Oliver is daddy's boy. While he is sometimes a little clumsy, he still loves to jump and run.

He still loves himself milk (I think he would drink a gallon a day if we let him) and would never pass a popsicle or ice cream by.  Grandpa C has high hopes for Ollie X as a competitive eater given his penchant for stuffing whole food items into his mouth.

He is a sweet, caring boy that loves Spiderman and superheroes. Unlike Stella, he'd prefer to spend most of his days at home. He still loves vehicles, trucks, tractors, and trolly riding with mom!

On their actual birthday, they awoke to balloons and presents. Stella was surprised with a beautiful dollhouse that both Grandpas had a hand in. Grandpa K used his amazing woodworking skills and built it and Grandpa C did what he does best, painted it. More on the dollhouse in another post because it has been transformed even more since this photo. Oliver was surprised with a large castle and dragon set.

Grandma and Grandpa C then came to the cities so that we could venture out and do something different for their birthday. The weather wasn't ideal so we decided to hit MOA, where we visited Sealife Aquarium. From there, we moved on to Nickolodeon Universe to visit the rides. Much to my surprise, they both went on the water log ride......even my stomach was dropping on it! They were treated to several other rides as well as face painting.

From there, they got to have Freestyle Yogurt for lunch. The day was topped off with cupcakes and candles after dinner. I wish I could be three again if it means all of this!

Happy Birthday, Oliver and Stella - we think the world of each of you and are thankful God chose us to be your parents! 

{ red, white & blue }

It's been over two weeks since the 4th of July - time to recap before I forget what we did!

We drove up to Cumberland on the 4th and made it in time to hit up the Fireman's Pancake Breakfast. Unfortunately the line was SO long that we opted not to wait with two toddlers. Instead we let O & S climb around on the firetrucks and tractors which was just fine with them.

And Stella proved that she isn't afraid of all costumed mascots......evidently she is just fine with Sparky the fire dog! Though still standing a little further away than her mascot friendly brother.

From there we headed to the Lodge where we used a stop for donuts as a bribe to get back.

After devouring said donuts, we hit the lake for a pre-nap boat spin.

Post-naps kicked off the tubing and jumping fun. We managed to get all 5 of them piled in the big tube.

And as you can tell by this video, they had a blast!! While they would have gone faster, I don't think I could have handled watching it.

Stella was a huge fan of the "yellow tube" as she called it. When putting her down for naps or bedtime all weekend she would talk about how she "needed to rest because there was lots of tubing to do when she woke up".

Oliver was the bigger fan of jumping. He absolutely loved loved jumping off the boat and dock. His swimming progressed over the days to the point where he could jump into the water and swim back to the boat ladder or to the swim pad.

We were treated to calm nights on the lake and a fireworks show from the Lodge dock, courtesy of Grandpa C and Uncle Shawn.

Because of the weird spring we had, it was a late strawberry picking season. To our benefit, this meant we were able to go out and pick some strawberries during our visit.

12 pounds of strawberries for $18.00 was our take away. Wow!

Strawberries are good fuel for biking......introducing the latest biker gang in Cumberland.

This face and hair sum up all the boating fun that was had over the weekend.

And this exhaustion that hit him at 11:00 one morning does as well!