Keeping up with the Manssons: The great play room makeover

Well, the last couple of weeks have been super busy. I have been dancing the nights away practicing for Intel and with Andrew being super buys at his job the weeks are just flying by. My show is this weekend, so hopefully my life will be a little slower. Over labor day weekend, we did a room makeover for the playroom. Basically it was a mess, things stacked on things, cardboard boxes as organizers, toys/puzzles/games being stored in the hall closet and living room and a overflowing bookshelf. We did a family trip to IKEA and got a new organization unit, plus a new bookshelf. It took the entire weekend plus a few nights work to get everything done, but it is WONDERFUL! I am so glad we invested in re-doing it. It does not look like Toys-T-Us exploded in there any more. I think all the stuff from Henry's birthday (even though 1/2 of it is still in our closet) pushed us over the top.

My birthday was last week too. So, Andrew treated me to a 'day off'. He worked on Labor Day and took Thursday off instead. I got a Spa day and went and got a Hot Stone Massage, Facial, Seaweed Peppermint Wrap, Maincure and Shea Butter Pedicure. It was spectacular. Plus, he went to a local Vegan resturant and they made me Dairy, Corn, Nut Free cupcakes. They were delicious and the first baked good I have enjoyed that were guilt free and I didn't have to bake them. Then after a day of pampering I was able to go to Happy Hour with a couple of my girl friends. It was great. I felt recharged and ready to tackle the weekend.

Henry starts 'real' soccer on the 24th and Andrew has been volunteered to be the coach. I think it is wonderful, but he is hesitant because he has never coached a soccer team before. Since Henry has been doing soccer for a year I think Andrew probably knows more than he is giving himself credit for. I put 'real' because the classes before was just running and doing some soccer drills, but this actually is 1/2 hour drills then 1/2 hour of a game...not sure what a 3-year-old soccer game will look like but it should be fun. We also went to a 'paint your own pottery' place for a playdate yesterday. Henry did really well painting his Lightning McQueen. The funniest thing was he kept calling the place "Harry Pottery Paint Place." I had no idea he even knew about Harry Potter. I guess he could have been meaning Hairy Pottery...but that really doesn't make sense.

Jillian is everywhere and into everything. I am having problems right now with the transition to trying to keep all of Henry's choke hazards (like stickers and snacks) that I have never really paid attention too cleaned up. She is getting really fast with the crawling and she is pulling herself up to a stand on everything. Plus she is starting to let go a balance. I guess you just forget how fast they progress...once they really start. She is also making Ma, Ba, Da, and Pa sounds. I am sure there is more, but those are the major ones. Plus, she had her first McDonalds play land experience. There was a playdate there for my mommies group and Henry was at preschool.

I think that is all for now. Enjoy the pictures!