What's Out Wednesday!

We're Officially Back!

We have our temporary play/school room set up in what will one day be our formal living room. We are remodeling our entire upstairs so we are all living downstairs. Eventually we will have a school room and a separate play area but for now this works:) So here is some over view pics but, they are horrible! I couldn't get a good angle! Oh well, you get the idea!

Quiet Area

I will start with my absolute favorite area!! We call it the quiet area because it's a place where we read books together or sit and do a puzzle. I also put several stuffed animals because I remember at the preschool that we had stuffed animals in the library and the kids loved it. I was right! The boys have loved them! I have seen them sit with them and read a book and I have seen Drake lay down and snuggle with them (and his blankie of coarse). On the floor I put a quilt and a cushion for me to sit on. I have read more books to the boys in the last few days then I have all month! I Love It!! I recommend making a little space for yourself next to your child's book shelf! It has been wonderful!

A close up of the shelf(can you believe the previous owners of the house left this behind?? I love it). The bottom shelf is books of all kinds and the top shelves are simple quiet toys. I put a little basket for the mini-books a very small puzzle rack is storing four puzzles down below the shelf.

Table Toys

Our table toys shelf is a little lame right now because we can't put out anything that Jack can swallow or make a huge mess with:( For now we have our work books, wooden lacing beads, puzzles, play doh and play doh tools( we take this to the kitchen table so that Jack doesn't eat it:), pound a puzzle(Caden it calls it the Letter factory), and the name tracing plates.

Pretend Area

This is our little cooking station! It's actually a little work bench that comes with tools and such but I made a laminated stove top and sink so that it can serve as a kitchen to. This is Drake's favorite area!!! On top we have some spoons and forks and little pots.

On the bottom we have a basket of fruits, veggies, and sandwich fixings! We also have some random little dishes from our kitchen and play doh set along with a little basket of silverware. And way below is some little grocery baskets. I really would love to get all of the cute dishes and things from ikea but I just can't justify it. There's just not enough interest there to spend that kind of money:) Random kitchen things work just fine:)

Art Area

I set up our Melissa and Doug easel with a spattering of art supplies and plan on changing it out often. The drawing was made by yours truly and it was done while supervising Jack! He loves playing with the art supplies and luckily he is not a very mouthy baby! In the containers we have Crayon Rocks, Markers, Glitter Pens, Crayons, Color Pencils and a Crayon Wheel.

So far the only thing that has been used is the Glitter Pens. Caden loves them and he has to really squeeze to get them out so it's working his little hand muscles! (I drew the little hearts:)Floor Toys
This shelf is now our block area and floor toys. From the top we have Furniture and Accessories for the Fire station, Lincoln Logs and some little animals, Trains, Cars, Tools, stacking tractor, pop and lock vehicle beads, toddler Tonka cars, and the bottom three are baby toys. Jack hardly plays with his baby toys but we have lots of baby friends who come over. I will most likely reduce it to one tub and put out some different things.
I got this sweet little bench at a garage sell for 15 dollars! Woo-Hoo! I am going to paint it but for now it is our bench and it stores busy toys AND if I slide it in front of the opening to the kitchen it also serves as a baby gate(to the right).
BEWARE!!! What you are about to see might disgust you! This is the room that I will be turning into a school room!!! We have torn out the disgusting carpet and washed the walls but that's it! I have a lot of work ahead of me:)