Big 5!

Good Morning, everyone!

We had a busy weekend...2 hockey games, 2 train rides, children's science museum and a visit with my Mo at her new home.  I feel like I could sleep for about 20 hours straight...I'm glad the rain held off until this morning!  

So my littlest one (Nugget) will be turning the Big 5 next month and has been bugging and bugging us to paint his room blue (his room has been green since I originally decorated before he was born).  Funny enough, my oldest (Diddle), has a blue room and has been begging us to paint it green. When I suggested that maybe they just switch rooms, I was met with complete indignation..."but that's MY room!!"  Soooo, since both rooms actually really do need a new coat of paint anyway, the Teacher and I decided that for their birthdays (both of which are in February), we would update their rooms.  Here are some shots of the progress in the Nugget's room...we haven't started Diddle's yet.  One step and a time right?  

Here is before (well, sort of before...we'd already moved some stuff around and piled a bunch of crap, stuff on the bed when I remembered that I should take a before shot!)

 Busy right?  He has a love affair with Mario.  The border is left over from when he was an infant and the oh-so-classy bedsheet as a curtain is what we ended up doing as a temporary fix for a broken blind situation.  The bed is our original bed..used to be wood colored and black, but we painted it white when we moved it into Nugget's room a couple of years ago.  So, here's the next shot...

A basic white primer.  Next up, a little help:

Next, we taped off some stripes:

You didn't really think that we'd get off without ANY Mario posters did you?  Some cheap-o poster frames from Wal-Mart refreshed them considerably!

TaaDaaa!!  Here's where we are now.  Still need some finishing touches (roman shade is the plan for the window and I want to paint the dresser...I'm actually thinking of using a butter yellow as an accent in here..what do you think??

 (I switched out the blue baskets from Diddle's room...the red one will go too eventually since it sticks out like a sore thumb!)  All in all so far, this room make over has cost $100 and that went toward paint, tape, poster frames and the new bed spread/shams set.  Here's the before/after:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

..And one happy (almost) 5 year old (and his Daddy):

Oh!!  Before I forget...I never posted the remainder of my recipes from last week so I'll go ahead and put one up now.

Red Neck Salad

(I came up with this one for Diddle's 4th Birthday because it was Naascar themed...and we've made it a million times since)

Poach 2 chicken breasts.  Shred chicken and toss with buffalo sauce/marinade.  Serve over salad of greens ( I usually use Romaine for this but you can make it truly redneck by using iceburg!), chopped or shredded carrots, and diced/chopped celery.  Sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles and serve with light ranch dressing.  If you EVER have a craving for wings...this is definitely a healthier alternative and is JUST as delicious (plus, you can eat a boat load of it and not feel guilty!)

Happy Monday, everyone!!

~Bean