In summmmeeeerrrrrr!

Despite the disgustingly hot & humid Florida weather, I am positively thrilled that summer is here!  Summer brings a lot of fun with plenty of swimming & weekend barbeques with friends.  You'd think we pretty much swim year-round in Florida, but if a pool doesn't have a heater, it's way too cold in the winter even if the weather is warm.  Last week was my first Wednesday of summer vacation since the previous week we were on vacation in Destin.  Since I work full-time (32 hours/week), summer vacation means Cameron being out of school which means a lot more flexibility in our schedules.  No homework, no rushing to get him off the bus, no making lunches every evening or organizing backpacks & paperwork, no permission slips to fill out.  Not to mention, since Cameron & Reese are back together at the same school, drop-off & pick-up is a breeze!

Last Wednesday I ended up watching our friend's four & six year old since their usual sitter/teacher was out of town.  Let's just say that I was pretty distracted & did not get much accomplished.  I love using my Wednesdays to organize & be productive so our weekends can be smoother.

While the kids have a lazy day at home, I'll be tackling Reese's closet & going through her sacks & sacks of hand-me-downs from my friend Jill.  I'm so thankful for all the clothes she has given us since I've basically not had to buy Reese much at all.  Love me some money saving!

 

Reese's room is unfortunately a modge-podge of mismatched furniture; her bed is the convertible crib that Cam used as a baby.  I'm not at all a fan of the dark wood since my tastes have changed a lot over the years, but hopefully soon we'll swap it with something more fitting.  If only money wasn't an object!!!

We painted her room when we moved in 2+ years ago & at that time she was only 10 months old & couldn't voice her tastes.  Now I know that her favorite colors are purple & pink, so I threw her a bone by painting her dilapidated bookshelf her beloved colors. 

I'm not in love with her room by any means, but basically like every room in my house, I have many visions in my head but a pocket book that doesn't support me fulfilling every wish.

 

Reese has a really big closet since it stretches back under the staircase leading up to the bonus room.

This is the perfect spot to toss the many bags of hand-me-downs that she'll one day use.  I have to be careful in keeping up with what sizes are in each bag since I'd hate her to pass a size & have clothes go unworn.  With that being said, my goal today is to weed out all of her 4T clothes & update them with 5T so I'm done with her closet & drawers for the next year.  The nice thing about kids getting older is that they stay in the same size for a long time!

While the kids stay entertained, I'll also be organizing toys today since over the weekend, I got a box of goodies from Melanie (my sis-in-law).

We have a lot of IKEA storage shelves around our house which can be a double edge sword.  They're awesome for concealing toys & make clean-up a cinch when you're doing a quick run through.

But... they're also dump traps that allow things to get mixed up & collect junk like old Happy Meal toys.

 Every few months I run through each bin to dump, donate or relocate toys that might get forgotten.

When you have 20+ bins throughout the house, toys tend to get lost in the mix.  Yay for extra time to relax during the week & organize on Wednesdays off.. yay for summer!