Before and After: Fairytales on the Ceiling

Big doin's in the Mallett house today!  A certain someone is turning SIX on Saturday and months ago I decided what I wanted to be her 'big' present.  Just like every night after storytime, I was lying on the floor staring up at this...

Just a big ole, almond-colored ceiling with a boob light.  Yawn.

Her bed and bedding were so cute, and yet this room was so DRAB.  So un-Molly.  So for her big b-day, I decided to change that. 

Here is the BEFORE. 

"Naperville-Beige" walls and that blasted almond colored trim and ceiling.  Ick.  The first job was to get rid of all that.  And if you know anything about Molly, you know we were going pink!  And not just pink, but PINK!!

I actually paid a color-consultant $100 to help me pick the right colors for the kids rooms to make sure I didn't make a mistake.  I've done that before, but I was always painting things MYSELF with cheap-o Home Depot paint, and could re-paint if necessary (and did just that, many times in fact, as it seems I have a challenge picking colors.)

But this time we were paying professionals to do the job, since the ceiling was so high, and I didn't want to screw it up.  So Kristin the color-consultant came in and spent two hours hemming and hawing over paint chips.  And in the end, I hated the colors she picked.

If only that lesson could have been FREE!  And BEFORE I wasted two hours of my life (and of my sister's vacation here).  But some lessons cost moolah, and at least this one wasn't even more expensive I guess.

After all that, I went with my gut...and three trips to the paint store and three big swatches on the wall.  Here's what we got...

This is the DURING...

What?  I told you it would be PINK.  Not pink...PINK!!

But today was when the real magic happened.  Because I found *the one*.  I have searched for this person my whole life - in fact, I've tried to be this person my whole life, only to fail miserably because it is not my calling.  But now I have found HER.  Her name is Laura Campbell and she is a decorative painter. 

A DECORATIVE PAINTER!!!

She charges by the hour and paints like a speed demon.  And there is nothing in her portfolio that I haven't wanted to kiss I loved it so much!  In fact, when we were on our house hunt last year, I took pictures of a number of houses because, though the house wasn't right for us, the PAINTING was to die for and I wanted to steal the ideas for wherever we did end up.

And then someone gave me Laura's name because I needed my kitchen table painted.  And when she came that first time and showed me her portfolio, I just about CRIED.  Because it was HER!!  Every single one of the houses I had photographed, every ONE, was her work. 

So for the forseeable future, I plan on embezzling grocery funds and siphoning any other money I can scrounge up and paying this decorative-painting-angel to paint anything in my life that isn't nailed down.

But back to Molly's room!  We had to start somewhere, and that night, staring up at The Boob, I knew that was the spot.  So today as I ushered the kids out the door to school, Laura came in with brushes and a ladder.  And before the clock even struck nine, this is what we had going on...

Are you freaking?  Because I was totally FREAKING!!

Oh, but it gets BETTER.

I don't know how she can take the same Delta Ceramcoat that I pick up at Michaels and gunk up all sorts of projects with, and make this magic happen, but I am oh so glad she does!

You know there's a castle, right?

Of COURSE there's a castle!

Wanna see it?

Really?

You sure you can handle it??

Because I totally couldn't!

Are you DYING???

well, geez...I hope it lives up to your expectations now...

Kinda feeling like maybe I built it up too much.

You be the judge...

Oh my HEAD, can you stand it????

Here's a closeup

She painted six adorable butterflies for my soon to be six-year-old.

SIGH.

The purple flowers are a nod to Molly's second-favorite color.

Frankly, I'm exhausted from all the excitement.  The big reveal when Molly got home from school was a little surprising.  She was partly overwhelmed, partly surprised, partly in love, but partly concerned that,

"It might be too babyish"

I gave her a hug and told her it might take a while to grow on her and that was fine.

(even though, let's be honest, my heart was breaking a little.  Sniff!)

What I didn't tell her is

"Heck yeah it's babyish, because you're my BABY!!!  And if you think you're growing up, honey, you've got another think coming.  Because you're going to grow up with me kicking and screaming attatched to your leg holding you down like an anchor in babyland!  So get used to it!"

There are loads of people who are excited to push their kids on to the next step, and there's nothing wrong with that.  They can't wait for their little ones to get from lying to rolling.  From rolling to crawling.  From crawling to walking. From walking to running and soccer and gymnastics and twenty-eleven other activties, and into Justice clothes and then Aeropostale and Abercrombie and cell phones at ten years old and cars for their sweet sixteen and spring breaks for senior year and apartments in college...

I ain't one of them.

 So if you need me, I'll be hanging out in babyland with my castle mural, oohing and aahing over the pudgy little butterflies and imagining which room in the castle is mine.

(it's in the turret with the pink flag in case you were wondering). 

It's a Miracle...

...but I finally did get them to come in for bedtime.  It involved crying, bribing and threatening, but eventually, they came inside.  Ben's eyes were rolling back into his head he was so exhausted.  And Molly is probably going to be seasick from too much swinging. 

It was a wicked good day.

Good Lord does she look like a Mallett in this picture! 

Wicked.  Good!

It's a happy day for the Mallett kids!

The wait is finally over! Ten months without a swingset (for kids who used their old one every day) is a long time. There are going to be some very happy little peoPle in our house tonight! If the installers finish early, I'm tempted to pick them up from school early...

Mother's Day

The day started with the sound of shushing and clanging plates as three little elves snuck (loudly) downstairs.  I'd asked for two things for Mother's Day: to sleep until 8:00am and breakfast in bed (toaster waffles - no stove allowed!)  My little elves delivered!

One sausage, one Cutie, two Kashi waffles with whipped cream on top.  Color me impressed!

Oh, I meant TWO cuties.

Okay THREE!! 

Cutie number four was too busy with his job as head chef to stand still for a picture.

And Cutie number five was on the other side of the globe.

After a lovely morning cuddling and snuggling in bed with my cuties, I got to spend Mother's Day this year doing what I'm best at - mothering!  Marc was midway through a two-week business trip to Australia, so I was single parenting for the holiday.  Our good friends Emily and Dan invited us over to hang out with them for the day.

"Hanging out" with the Houlihans, means playing all day with their 3 year old Abby and all her fun toys (read: Barbie Jeep) and hiding from (Ben) or hugging to death (Molly) their 4 year old, 200lb mastiff Arthur (Molly's not partial - creatures big or small, live or dead, she loves them all!).

I was thrilled to make it to Lake Forest and back without getting lost - it's an hour drive both ways.  It was one of the only nice days we'd had in a long stretch of ugly ones, so we had a great time outside.

This is all you need to know, to know Emily.  She stands here cooking bacon on her top of the line Wolf range.  I admire the pan and she gushes - isn't it great?? It's truly the perfect pan.  I use it every day!  Calphalon?  No way!!  Costco!!

We then proceeded to praise Costco for a good ten minutes.  Folks in Massachusetts just wouldn't understand.  BJ's is great, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't survive out here without Costco!  And when has BJ's ever had Hanna Anderson or Heartstrings?  I guess I forgot how many little changes we have adjusted to this past year.  But spending time with a friend and fellow Massachusetts expat reminds me what big impacts these little changes have had on our lives.

For the record, Emily was was pan frying the bacon to compete with the bacon she was baking in the oven.  Dan didn't believe that baked bacon (which is way easier to cook and clean up) could taste as good as pan-fried.   After brunch was over, there was no bacon of either kind left, and I didn't hear one complaint!  So next time I cook bacon, you'd better believe I'm using Emily's oven-baked method!

While brunch baked, the princesses chatted while the villainous Joker was apprehended by none other than the caped crusader himself.

Abby - after Molly's own heart!

If Marc wasn't in Australia, I don't think I'd have been sitting at home enjoying this kind of brunch!  So thanks for traveling, honey!  It was delicious!  I'm going to buy a Cuisinart just so I can make Emily's delicious cinnamon chip scones (that I gorged myself on until I thought I'd burst). 
We washed them down with homemade raspberry limeade.  Oh the happiness!!

But enough about the FOOD.  Because how can you talk about food when there's a pink Barbie Jeep to drive around in?

Someone needs a safe driver course under his belt before being set loose in a battery powered vehicle.

The girls had so much fun being girly together.  I just kept oohing and aahing over the flowers - Spring had shown up in Lake Forest in a big way!

.

Clearly, the male aversion to the color pink does not apply to motorized vehicles.

The hills are alive...with dandelions!

This is Arthur.  As I mentioned, he is not small.  For some perspective, Emily is 6 feet tall flat-footed.  Hard to believe this is the puppy I rocked to sleep when Ben was in my belly.

Tulips and English Ivy.  SWOON!

It was my first Mother's Day in Illinois and I thoroughly enjoyed it thanks to three great kids and some fantastic friends.   Next year I couldn't ask for more, except maybe to have my honey home to celebrate with.  Let's hope the Australia project is finished by then!

Dead animals and the girls who love them...

I just watched the most hiloriffying video on Facebook.  Get it?  Hilarious + Horrifying = Hiloriffying! 

It was a youtube video of a little girl playing with her new pet dead squirrel.  Her parents were either ignorant hilbillies who didn't give a second thought to the dead squirrel or (and this is how I prefer to think of them) pragmatists who realized that the germ warfare that needed to occur after the dead squirrel was removed from it's live BFF could wait five minutes for the moment to be recorded for posterity...and youtube!

I can totally understand how most parents would have a visceral, nauseating, hysterical response to seeing their young child hugging and loving a rodent carcass.  Not me though.  I'm desensitized.

Why?  Two weeks ago, Molly and I had this exchange...

Molly: "Mama, have you ever felt a bird's feathers?"


Me: "Yes I have honey.  Why?"


Molly: "Aren't they soooo soft!  I never knew how soft a birdie would be!"


Me: "Oh. Did you find a feather outside?"


Molly: "No. I petted a birdie today Mama!  At recess!  And it was sooo soft!  The softest thing ever!"


Me: "Oh, did someone bring a bird to school?"


Molly: "No."


Me: "Well, then where was it?"


Molly: "Outside.  Near the playground"


Me: "How did you get it to stay still long enough to pet it?"


Molly: "Because it was dead!"


(Well DUH!!  Of COURSE!!  Shoulda seen that one coming from a mile away!)Me: "And you pet the dead bird....because..."


Molly: "Zoe did it."


Me: "You pet the dead bird because Zoe did it?"


Molly: "Yep!  Zoe pet the dead bird and she said it was so soft I wouldn't believe it!  And so I had to pet it too, you know, so I would believe it.  And whaddaya know, she was right!  It was so soft. SO soft! And legless."


Me: "It had no legs?"


Molly:  "Nope!  Gone.  No legs! Why do you think it had no legs, Mama?  Do you think a cat ate them and that's why the bird died?"


Me: "Ummmm, maybe.  You washed your hands after school right?"


Molly: "Of course!"


Me: "Um, why don't you go wash them again, reallllllly welllll just to make sure, okay?"


Molly:  "Sure Mama!"

And off she went, skipping to the bathroom, with me wretching inside, praying that the dead bird fairy would take pity on the sweet young thing and let her not come down with ebola, or west nile virus, or flesh-eating bird flu.

So far, so good.

Celebrating Poetry Month...with Masks!

I love our school. No. Really. I almost can't say it loud enough. 

I LOVE OUR SCHOOL!!!

Here is just one reason...

April was poetry month at Springbrook and all the third graders, among other things, memorized and recited poems in class. At the end of the month, to celebrate, we were all invited to a "poetry night" led by an interactive poet named Bill Buczinsky.


It was a scheduling nightmare for me to go, requiring a last minute babysitter who had never even met my kids before.  But Jack begged.  So I made it happen.  I wasn't expecting anything spectacular - maybe some performer reciting poetry, or a bunch of kids lined up at the mike to rattle off their recitations.

I couldn't have been more wrong!

In true Naperville "go big or go home" fashion, poetry night was nothing short of amazing. Imaginative! Inspiring!!

I don't know if third graders are simply more outgoing than younger kids? Or if Spring Brook truly brings out the best in them? Or if this perfomer was so inspirational that he brought out the inner performer in each of those kids. But they were off. the. HOOK!

Turns out, the PTA had paid for Mr. Buczinsky not only to perform, but to conduct workshops with the 3rd graders all day.  And by nightfall, I couldn't believe what I saw.  Every child, full of confidence, smiling onstage, BURSTING with energy and totally pumped for...poetry??  Seriously. 

Thank goodness my new camera can take video, or you wouldn't believe it either.  Here is a peek at POETRY NIGHT, Naperville-style.  Enjoy!  I know I did!

Chosen at random to be the wind - Jack took his job very seriously!

 But most of the night was full of smiles

The children made their masks in art class - my little jungle guy is in the second row, second from the right

Who knew poetry involved reciting with your tongue stuck out!?

Quite the artist he was! 

I wish I could have recorded this whole poem, "It's a Jungle Day", but you'll have to be satisfied with this little clip, because it's all I had room for on my memory card.  Who knew 3rd grade poetry night would be so awesome!

One boy and one girl from each class were chosen to recite their poems and Jack was so excited because his best friend Christian was chosen.  And for good reason - his performance was hilarous!!


It was a great night to spend being impressed by our 8 year olds.  They were all so proud of themselves, and we were all proud of them too!

Back to Easter! Part 72

So being that it was the first year  ever that we weren't traveling to visit family, we got to decide what to do all day!  Manifest Destiny!  Yahoo!!! 

And it's not that we didn't miss our families in Massachusetts.  We miss them every. single. day.   Painfully! 

But doing an annual Easter tour to visit all our favorite people in different locations with three small kids in tow, all dressed up and high on sugar, and getting piled high with more and more sugar all day, eventually leading to a crash of epic proportions, usually while sitting in traffic, or worse, while at a Nana's house trying to eat dinner, or worsest, while trying to put them to bed.  Can I get an "Amen"?

So this Easter I won't lie, we defiinitely had the urge to sit around in our pajamas and eat jelly beans all day.  But this really awesome guy named Jesus died for us?  To gain us eternal life?  Even though we're pretty much completely unworthy, even on our best day?  So we needed to get off our behinds and get ourselves to church to celebrate Him on this holiest of holy days. 

We went to mass at St. Raphael's, which is probably going to be our new church.  More on that later.

And since we were all dressed up and hungry, we decided to go hang out downtown in our Easter finery and wait for our 1:30 brunch reservation at Sullivan's Steakhouse.  It's an awesome restaurant, but more importantly, it's brunch was cooked to order, which meant we could go safely with Ben and his nut allergies and didn't have to worry about a giant brunch buffet where he could grab a pecan sticky bun and inadvertently murder himself.

Downtown Naperville is so beautiful!  It's settled on the DuPage River with quaint shops and restaurants, parks and gardens and wildlife - it's one of the most special things about this place.  That we can live in total suburban bliss in one end of Naperville, but within 15 minutes can be in a really lovely, vibrant, historic downtown.

It was overcast, but not frigid, so we decided to take a stroll along the river

 This is the Naperville Carillion Tower.  It's a big deal around here.

We got to peek at Centennial Beach getting filled with water. It's an old, double-quarry that the city turned into a legitimate beach.  I never imagined it was this deep - nearly 20 feet in some spots! 

That's a lotta wotah! (that was my best Boston accent for you there).

They made a bunch of improvements to the bath house this year and we can't wait to check it all out!

 There were so many little spots to enjoy.

Time to stop and smell the roses, er, tulips!

Sculptures and other interesting things to marvel at

And the river and all the geese and ducks to see.

 

This is a map of Naperville built into the sidewalk.  We looked for our neighborhood, but it wasn't even built when the map was installed!

Even with the crummy weather we've had lately, it's nice to see that Spring won't be deterred! 

Our Easter river-walk along the Riverwalk was a smashing success and I have a

feeling we'll be repeating the same new tradition next year.

And in case you were wondering, guests are welcome!!