Because we don't know the specific ages of the kids who will be living with us, we've tried to buy things that would work well for all ages. One thing I've been searching for is a little table and chairs for kids to eat at or do crafts/color at. I figured this table could work well for lots of ages. I searched Craigs List and other sites for the past few months and couldn't find anything I liked, so we finally decided to buy something new.
I bought this table and these chairs from IKEA. We rearranged our dining room a little to put the kids' table closer to our living room which also helped open up the space between the dining room and living room.
We have steered away from buying many toys right now since we don't know what will work for the kids we have. I've bought a few puzzles and blocks at garage sales, and we've stocked up on books, but we planned to wait and buy other things once we had a better idea of what would work for our kids.
A few weeks ago an old co-worker of mine posted a picture of this play table and toys asking if anyone wanted it. So I jumped at the chance and Erin went to help me pick it all up and get it settled at our house. I love all of the Little People toys and she gave us a house and a city with roads from that. We also got Rapunzel's tower from my friend Amy!
And my co-worker Jill had asked if we wanted this play kitchen (with lots of play food) that her kids have outgrown. She bought it for her youngest son a few years ago, but he doesn't play with it much now, so she asked him if he minded giving it to some kids who don't have any toys of their own. And he happily obliged :) We've got it set up in the kids' room right now, but might move it around depending on how much use it gets!
In addition to the books we've been stocking up on, we also have been stocking up on kids movies and music. We already had several Disney movies, so we moved them to one of the bottom shelves of our entertainment center so the kids have easy access to the movies they are allowed to watch. And we've added some Veggie Tales movies (I found a great deal on a box set on Groupon) as well as some Christmas movies from Half Price Books since we'll likely get our first placement in the middle of holiday season.
And I've been having lots of fun trying out different crafty things as we get ready for kids. I loved making the signs for their bedroom and I've been keeping my eye out for other projects. Through Pinterest, I found this blog that has a ton of patterns for hooded towels. The blogger made a basic hooded towels but has also made several characters and animals (owls, puppy dogs, super heros, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, sharks, monsters, etc.) and shares the patterns and directions for all of them. I decided to try my hand at a Minion Towel for a friend, but David liked it so much he wanted to keep it for our kids, so I made 2--1 to keep and 1 to share. I was so happy with how it turned out and it was pretty easy to put together. I'm looking forward to some more sewing projects very soon!
Our sweet friend Laura bought this sign for us as part of our shower gift and I love it so much. It's a good reminder for us as we enter into the craziness of the coming months (and years). I decided to hang it in our living room, next to our entertainment center, so then I needed something for the other side to make it all symmetrical.
I searched online and found several quotes and David picked this one for me to make into a sign:
I love the way it turned out and love having it up in our living room!
So those are the last of the changes we've made to our house so far. It's fun having a few things set up and we know we will probably end up with some of this stuff in storage for different times, but it's nice to have some things to get started with in the next few months!
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