Painted house

When we moved in, there were lots of nail holes in the wall. Some got fixed, and some didn't. Also in the past 2 years, there have been typical scrapes and scuffs. So Ben and I finally brought in all the paint to do touchups, and Ben fixed the holes. Imagine my surprise when the paint for our main entry, hallway, etc dried way lighter than the color on the wall. My best guess, is the original color was painted over, but the old can not discarded, or the can was mislabeled. Anyway, we ended up with little splotches all over.

I really went crazy covering any little mark I could find.

Since the entry is 2 stories, and a pretty large area, we hired someone to come paint it for us. It looks all better now.

We went a little more brown with the color. It is the same color we used in the kitchen when we first moved in.

The girl's hallway upstairs was messed up too, but I decided to go with a darker color there, and paint it myself since it was a small area. Hilarious as always, I had to do this to tease Kara.

Good thing she's a good sport. When I was doing the first coat, I was worried about the color. It looked more like "crap brown" than "chocolate truffle".

But I kept with it, and liked how it turned out in the end. I wish I'd gotten a different gloss though, because some of the roller strokes are still visible after 3 coats. I think it might just be the wall, but who knows.

I did make it feel smaller with such a dark color, but it's a hallway used almost exclusively by little kids, so I'm not super worried.

Yesterday Evie was dragging her blanket around all day. She kept saying, "Grandma Boot made me this blanket! Isn't that nice? Did you tell her thank you Mommy?" She even brought it to the car dealership while I was getting my car maintenanced. She made sure to tell everyone that would listen that her Grandma made the blanket.

Kiersten lost her other front tooth 2 days ago. Ben actually just pulled it out, so that was exciting. Today at the dentist, they said her 6 year molars are all the way in. Kara's just came in a few visits ago, so Kiersten seems to be ahead of the game in toothiness. We also got an orthodontist referral for Kara. Her dentist says there's no way her adult teeth are going to fit into her mouth, so we have to get a head start on that to save money and trouble down the road. Fun times!

Kara finally talked me into giving her one of my favorite work out shirts. (Oh well, it only cost me $2)  She has a strange fascination with Mick Jagger lately. I'm not really sure where that is coming from. Ben watched a bunch of you tube videos with her, and she is trying to imitate his dancing style. Her favorite is the "chicken strut".

She found the perfect bedding at the store this weekend. She is completely obsessed with animal print, peace signs and cats. I almost couldn't believe this combination existed. I guess she's actually on trend with her likes. She is becoming a lot more independent and opinionated about what she likes, and really pushes back about anything I suggest. It's harder than I would have thought, but I am trying to let her be herself and not take it personally when everything I like is "so lame". Apparently all the other 3rd grade girls wear their hair down everyday. Ponytails, braids, and especially hair bows are off limits now. 

I've been meaning to get a picture of her "art wall". She is really into art right now, and in the process of testing for the art program at CCL. I want to get or make a bunch of frames for her wall, so they aren't all just taped up there. Then she can just change them out as she likes. Her favorite thing to draw is definitely animals.

We also let her get a new chair to replace her little Cinderella one she's had since she was a baby. Her room also needed a new rug, so we let her pick out a rug as well. So she was excited to get home and get all of the old stuff out so she could bring in the new. She has kept her room clean and made her bed every morning, so it was totally worth it to get her stuff she loves if she's going to take care of it.

She is into music a lot lately, and Ben found her these cute headphones for just $2! What a steal, and I have to hear a lot less Justin Bieber now. ( though sometimes I hear her singing along, but that's totally cute, so I don't mind).