Home decor rule I'm breaking: unstyled bookshelves

I feel like this is the year that our attitude toward our home is really shifting. When we moved in 6 years ago, it was a starter home and we thought we would be moving on to something bigger. But we are coming to realize more and more that this is the home and neighborhood we want to raise our family in, even though the house isn't as big as we thought we would need with 4 kids (more on this later). With this new view of our home, we've (I've) really started making strides to turn it into everything we want. It's freeing, because instead of worrying about how things will affect resale value (ok, let's be honest, I've never been too concerned about that), we are just doing things we love, even though that means sometimes breaking all the home decor rules. Most rooms in my home do not look like a Pinterest board... but that's ok, because they make me smile every time I see them.
First up, my unstyled gigantic bookshelves.
I have posted about these several times.
That's because they're awesome and they deserve lots of recognition!
There are tons of tutorials on Pinterest about how to "style" bookshelves. That ain't never going to happen in our house because we have too darn many books.

And that's not all... there are more on the floor to ceiling bookshelves in our room. I know I could do a better job about arranging these books by color, or size, or splitting them into different sections, etc.... but we have a system. Jason agonizes over how these books are arranged, each section blending perfectly into the next, authors staying together, short stories with short stories and novels with novels. They are crazy and each shelf is stuffed with books, but we like it that way!

Last summer Helena asked Jason if he could measure her against the bookshelves. I said it would be ok, thinking he would discreetly mark with a ballpoint pen against the edge. Instead he scrawled "Helena, 6/19/14" in green sharpie across the whole thing. After that I decided our kids' height should be a work of art, so I used a gold paint pen to mark their height and doodled their names big and proud. 

I just put little bookshelf markers along every shelf a few months ago. It was hard to know how to label them, because like I said, our sections kind of flow into each other... we ended up with labels like "War, what is it good for?", "US Americans", "Americanarama", "Cowboys, past and present", "Paranormal teen romance", "INFINITE JEST", "Something clever", "Nerd", "Graphic Novels", "Ladies' book club", and "I love lamp". You'll have to come to the house to see what kinds of books fit in those sections.

Another thing... you will always find stacks of books on every shelf that haven't been reshelved yet. It sometimes drives me crazy because I like things neat and tidy and not cluttered, but we are a family of readers and we really read those books. Like, all the time. There are always several that are in rotation and so are just stuck on the edge of the shelves instead of "put away". 
So there you have it, the first of one of the many rules I am breaking as I decorate my house. Take away message: do what makes YOU happy in your house, and who cares what your neighbors, friends, relatives, strangers on the internet, or future realtor think!

Five year house anniversary!!

We are celebrating our five year anniversary of living in our little home this month!!

I can't believe it's been five years.

When we bought this house, we had a five year plan. It's not a huge house and we thought we would be moving "up" after five years. I had no idea how attached we would get to our house, neighborhood, friends, ward, and school. I can't even imagine leaving! We really lucked out with everything. I put 0 thought into schools when we were house hunting (Tempe was only 2) but our neighborhood school has been great and is in a great location that allows my kids to walk to school (Juno's preschool is in an elementary school on a really busy street next to the freeway off ramp and none of the kids walk--it's made me really appreciate having a safe walking school!)

I have really come to terms with us staying in a "small" house long term, even with a fourth child. People raise bigger families in smaller houses all over the world--even in the US--and it's a really silly attitude to think we are outgrowing our home. I've learned to cut back on our stuff and really organize and use our space better and I feel like we fit just fine (for now!)

So, to celebrate our fifth anniversary I'm sharing some pictures of our living room. I have struggled with our living room, home to the giant mirror wall, but for the first time in five years, I really like it!

So since we've lived here, we've painted the room (Stone Fence by Behr) and built giant bookshelves (actually my dad did both of those things for us) and I have had a hard time committing to fabrics for the window seat cushions and pillows. I think I've finally found something I will be able to stick with!

Gold letter A hanging over the fireplace... 

New chairs, new pillows on the couch, and a view of the bookshelves. Also found wood window shade and birch tree curtains.

Gigantic bookshelves with my globe collection lining the top! I love my globes. I know that you can find tons of posts on Pinterest about how to "stage" bookshelves, but to be honest, we just have too darn many books and we need the space for them and not cute knickknacks. That's the mirror behind the shelves, by the way--people often think it's just a room divider and the wall is open.

These are the chairs that my mom got me last month!! We had mismatched, old, falling apart chairs that I hated so much and I think she finally got sick of hearing me complain, so she offered to buy me some new ones. I found these at Target for $70 each. 

I added the gold tips on the legs with metallic spray paint and I kind of love it!

View from the top of the stairs, just so you can get a better idea of the room. We love how much light this room gets and it's fun to sit on the window seats and read.
Overall, I love how this room has turned out--cozy, a great gathering spot for us to plop down and read our many books, but still presentable to guests when they walk through the front door!

Checking in with Tempe and Helena during reading time

Jason and I have both always been big readers. Big, big readers with big, big bookshelves. We are doing our darndest to raise a family of readers as well, and so far I think we're doing a good job.
As part of our summer routine, we do reading time twice a day--in the morning and in the afternoon. Sometimes I read to the girls--library books or pictures books or Harry Potter or Ramona or stories from The Friend or whatever--and sometimes I have them do silent reading time. Even though Helena can't read yet, she loves to look at books--some of her favorites are Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Time's 100 Best Photographs. 
Today I took pictures of Tempe and Helena doing their silent reading 

Tempe discovered that our cardboard playhouse is the perfect place to plop down with a book.

"Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray"

Helena prefers the couch and lots of pillows.

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid"

Through the Magic Door

Last night our local library system had a big children's event called "Through the Magic Door".

It was a fun fantasy-themed party after the library closed for the night. They do a big event like this every six months or so. The last one we went to was a Space activity.

The library was divided up into different sections: The Shire, Fairyland, Down the Rabbit Hole, and a princesses and knights section (I didn't see the official name for that one).

Here's Helena kicking over the dwarves in Dwarf Bowling in the Shire (she isn't a good bowler)

Tempe and Helena playing "minute to win it" games in the Shire (cup stacking, cereal box puzzles, and bean sorting)

"Crazy Croquet" in the Alice in Wonderland section. They also had some really good storytellers!

 The croquet balls were really hedgehogs!!

Tempe and Helena both made shields and crowns. We made one for Juno, too!

learning to read

My darling Tempe Joann has been in kindergarten for two months now. She loves going to school. In fact, I don't think she's made a single negative comment about school yet!

She also actually loves doing her homework. I know, I know, it won't last so I'm enjoying it now. We try to make it fun by having "Homework Club" every night: one parent takes Juno upstairs to play and get ready for bed, and the other parent supervises Homework Club. The big girls do their homework (Helena colors or something) while listening to their favorite songs (Gangnum Style, anyone??) and eating snacks. It's fun.

Tempe is especially thrilled to be learning to read. Her teacher sends a beginning reader book home every day and Tempe is always so excited to sit down and read them!

I can't wait until she can really read on her own. Tempe is really going to love being able to flop down with a good book whenever she wants--just like her mom and dad do!

Bookworms: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" party!

The summer is coming to a close. We've been reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and today we had our last Bookworms meeting to discuss it!

"I've got a golden ticket..." That song has been stuck in my head for weeks, ever since I made these little invitations to hand out to the neighborhood moms.

Since we had such a big age range (from toddlers Juno's age to almost 11-year-olds), I decided to do something a little different. Instead of sitting in a circle and discussing the book like a traditional book club, I set up a couple different stations where the kids could do activities inspired by the book. I included a few discussion questions at each station to guide the conversations.

The Inventing Room

Our "Inventing Room" was a play-dough station. I was inspired by this awesome blog post about Willy Wonka play dough. I made a few different kinds of play dough and provided beads, buttons, jingle bells, pompoms, and star confetti to help the kids create their own kind of candy. I also set out little plastic bags and tags so the kids could write a description of their candy and take it home with them :)

 
Hard at work!

This is our cute neighbor, Dylan. He made bacon flavored candy--he rolled a pink ball and then added beads for eyes and a button for a snout! So creative!

Juno loved this station. She stayed here pretty much the whole party--at least until she realized there was unattended candy on the deck!

The Juicing Room

I put discussion questions in blue balloons and invited the kids to pop them and answer the questions. Most of the questions were simple things like "Who was your favorite character?" or "Which child do you think you are most like?"

The Fizzy Lifting Room

I didn't get a picture of this station, but I set up our bubble machine, inspired by the fizzy lifting drinks that Charlie and Grandpa Joe drank. This station had questions about rule-breaking. Have you ever broken a rule and later wish you hadn't?

The kids had fun rotating through the stations and then digging in to the candy and running around the yard. Here's Tempe and Helena with their twins, Blake and Luke, who are the cutest identical twins ever. Tempe can already tell them apart!
Bookworms was a great experience this year--I can't wait to do it again next summer!

Bookworms: Teddy Bear Picnic

We had our very first Bookworms club meeting of the summer recently!
If you don't remember, Bookworms is the neighborhood mom-and-me book club a friend and I put together for the summer.
We're reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to discuss in August, but getting together in June and July to discuss picture books.
Our June activity was a teddy bear picnic!
All the neighborhood kids and their moms were invited to bring their special childhood bear (or moose, in Tempe's case) and favorite teddy bear story. I set up a little snack station in the backyard, spread some colorful blankets on the lawn, and provided a stack of teddy bear books, a plush picnic basket with plush food, and a teddy bear puzzle for entertainment.

My friend Lauren made scrumptious lemon-blueberry scones and I made sparkling blackberry lemonade (strawberry lemonade + blackberry Izzie + frozen mixed berries). I scoured the DI until I found three little chairs like the ones Goldilocks might have found in the home of the Three Bears.

I filled our picnic basket with a stack of teddy bear books from our own collection and from the library. We listened to a Teddy Bear Picnic song and I read my family's favorite teddy bear book--"Where's My Teddy?" by Jez Alborough. After I read my book, all the kids got a chance to stand up and tell us about their bear and the book they brought. After that, the kids had a great time looking at each other's books, playing with some of the toys I put out, and snacking while the moms visited.

The lemonade was an especially big hit!

Tempe, Helena, and I have been having a great time reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and choosing what books to take to our next Bookworms meeting in July.

Are you doing anything special to encourage summer reading? I'd love to hear about it!

Bookworms

We are big readers at our house.
We've been going to the library for storytime every week since Helena was just a few months old. My girls have their own library cards and bags, which they faithfully fill every week--all the librarians know them by name and are so patient with them when they check out.
I'm so happy that my girls love reading and I'm excited to encourage that love this summer with our first ever mom-and-me summer book club!!

My friend Kellie and I are putting it together for our kids and the neighborhood kids.
I'm so excited!
I've wanted to do this for several years so I'm glad my kids are finally old enough.
Do you want to do one, too??
I think it would be totally awesome if some of my blog buddies were to host their very own mom-and-me book club and post about it throughout the summer! If you're interested, leave a comment telling me what you are going to read with your kids and spread the word!

Homemade gift giving: Library bags

I try to make at least a few of my kids' presents for Christmas every year (in 2009 I made almost everything).

Tempe and Helena love checking out books by themself. Love, love, love. Every week when we go to the library, they beg me to let them use my card by themselves while I stay in the children's section with Juno. They are very polite, and since we go to the library almost every single Wednesday, the librarians all know them and think they are the cutest girls ever.

So this year one of their Christmas presents is personalized library bags and their very own library cards.

{Tempe's is the purple moose and Helena's is the blue Disneyland castle.}

I bought the canvas bags at Walmart (3 for $6) and did freezer paper stencils on them. I used the new Martha Stewart line of paint at Michaels in the glittery finish. The paint is so awesome. It is pure glitter and sparkle and you can use it on any surface!

Now, some of you might be thinking I am crazy for giving my 3 year old and 5 year old their own library cards. We have some strict library card usage rules in this house.

1) The card is tied to the library bag. It remains tied to the bag at all times so that it doesn't get lost.

2) The cards each have a limit of only 10 books, and only books from the children's section. I can adjust the settings as they grow.

3) Even though there is a 10 book limit, my personal rule is we only check out books that can fit in the library bag. If the bag is full, then that's it: no more books this week.

4) At home, we keep library books in the library bag and the library bag on the bottom shelf of our gigantic bookshelves. That we way always know where books are. I estimate this has saved me approximately $10000000000 in library fines over the years.
What are you making for Christmas gifts this year?

4th of July book reviews

I've been taking my kids to the library for storytime since Tempe was about 10 months old. We haven't missed very many weeks in 4 years! The librarians at our little branch have watched my kids--and my family!--grow over the last few years and by now they all know us by name. Can I just say how much I love that??

So since we go to the library every week, we check out a lot of kids' books every year. I've been meaning to do this for a while--start sharing some of our favorites with all of yours. Here are a few patriotic books that were fun to read during this time of year!

"This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie and Kathy Jakobsen

This book's gorgeous panel illustrations are illustrations of places and experiences from Woody's life that go hand-in-hand with his song lyrics. I felt like we were traveling the country, by foot and by rail, along with Woody as we read this book. This book is a wonderful tribute to American culture (folk music) and the diversity of our landscapes and cities. Helena has been singing "This land is your land.... this land is my land... from California... to the New York Island...." ever since we checked it out! It would be perfect for a unit on travel.

"The Scrambled States of America" by Laurie Keller

Kansas is bored (probably because he is so boring). He finally convinces Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and the rest of the states to mix things up and switch places. Hilarity ensues. This was a funny way to learn the locations and little tidbits about each state. Some of the illustrations even alluded to time zones! It was interesting to read about each state as an individual, especially the states that I don't know much about. Like the Woody Guthrie book, it emphasized our diversity as a country and how each state has so much to offer.

"How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A." by Marjorie Priceman
If you want to make a cherry pie, you'll need a pie tin, a rolling pin, measuring cups, and other supplies. If you don't have them, you could run out to a "bake shop"--or you could travel the country, gathering the raw materials and processing them yourself (coal from West Virginia to make iron for the pie tin, etc) This book takes you around the country by different modes of transportation showing you which resources can be found in different states. Great for geography!