Ready For Our Girls

I was at Surplus Herbies one day where I was buying skipping ropes and frisbies to take to Ethiopia for 88 cents each! While there I found the perfect little suitcases for the girls. I do NOT like Barbie. Sorry people. Barbie is out in my house. *smile* These little bags were Hello Kitty and they were in the colours that we have chosen for the girls: purple and pink.

For those that don't know me, we have a colour for each child. Thankfully IKEA makes dishes in 6 colours. This worked until we decided to adopt. We have towels in each colour as well. It makes it very easy to find the culprit when you find a towel lying around or a dish outside. You know exactly who was responsible!

I have packed the girls' clothes and also their backpacks. I bought a bunch of fun stuff for their packs. Then I bought a few new things for the hotel room: playdough, and fun flashlights, and then a few more things for the trip home. More than they need I am sure. But it was fun buying it and I have been quite modest when it came to stocking up their room with toys.

Packing

Packed

I have also finished the girls' room. There are a few little leftovers to complete, but nothing worth mentioning.

Gadisae is the blue bed and Mesai the pink. The bedding I chose has other pastel colours so I bought a bunch of pillow cases and some alternate colour sheets, so we can have fun changing the scheme when we want to.

I looked everywhere for the perfect rug and couldn't find anything that I liked. Finally, in my own tiny town, as I was leaving the carpet store I saw this rug hanging on a hook. I said to the lady, "That is perfect!" And then I saw the price tag. I inhaled sharply and said, "Oooh! Wow!" It was $249!! The lady immediately said I could have it for $99! Whoa! I took it home to see if it actually went with my room. When my sister came to visit she told me she felt that it made the room. Another meant to be thing. A little blessing from God to perfect our girls' room!




The beds turned out beautiful even with the repainting job I had to do. I was so fortunate because I was trying very hard to find a bookcase that I could use for toys, display, and of course, books. The only one I could find online (living out of range of stores like I do) was at IKEA. Days before my sister was to make a trip into the store for me to pick it up I fell across a little out of the way store in a town near me.

It was a mattress store, and lo and behold, it had unfinished pine furniture!! I snapped up the beautiful bookcase immediately. Well, actually, I had to take another trip back cause I had to leave the kids at home as there was no way I could get it in there with five kids on board!! If you look carefully you will see that the back of the bookcase is all slats, just like the pattern on the head and footboards of the bed. A meant to be find, no doubt!! And of course, I *joyfully* (dripping with sarcasm) jumped right back into painting furniture again!!!




I found an old wooden fruit box in a junk store and took it home and painted it up. It is now a pretty pink laundry box. The boxes on the shelves were all from JYSK. They were unfinished pine and my hubby found them for me when he was on a trip out of town. I painted them the same colour as I painted the little table and chairs. That table and chairs was bought at a garage sale when our oldest was 4 years old - when I had a preschool.





I went through all our pictures of our girls and found some really good ones of them with friends at the Transition House. I then put them in a collage frame. I am sure I will have more to display in frames before they come home!

Above each of the girl's beds I hung a framed picture of them. I then painted a white shape on the wall and had my hubby frame in the white shape. Voila! They will know which is their bed.

Cooper had lots of fun helping me set up the doll house. It is funny. As soon as I started putting that thing together old memories started cropping up. Not really memories - more of the warm fuzzies from playing with my little sister's dollhouse. It was a tiny one - four rooms. But she was 7 years younger than me and so I, at age 12, would tell her all kinds of interesting stories about the adventures that the characters had. You know, there is something to having a daughter. I am sure I am going to experience little warm fuzzies in ways that a father experiences with a son.

I have not ever bought my sons a dollhouse. Not because I don't think it's right. Because the manufacturers insist on selling 'girly' dollhouses. I object to that! Boys love to play house too. Well, this dollhouse is Calico Critters and it is wonderful. Since I have put it up I have had everyone want a turn from the 3 year old to the 11 year old. There are so many little bits and pieces, furniture, and all the little critters. Lots of fun imaginations coming out!

Little Touches in the Room

A Beautiful African Family

I was picking up a prescription the other day and while I was waiting, I browsed through the magazine and book section. I was thrilled to find some remarkable finds!! A complete volume of Hans Christian Anderson stories that I loved as a girl. I remember just drinking in the words from those old fairy tales. Then I found a beautiful large illustrated book of The Secret Garden, and a really nice picture book about spring time animals. Plus, I had already collected a complete set of The Bobbsey Twins, Anne of Green Gables, and Little House on the Praire! I hope I have little girls who like to read!