What about the other kids???

Those of you who know me know I have 4 children, not just 1.  Seeing as my boys are older (9,12, & 14) I am going to be pulling them in on the fun with Pheebe as well.  My youngest boy has already decided that he will be in charge of any art work Pheebe (& Hally, though he doesn't know about her yet) may do.  The others are not as eager, more apprehensive that this can be pulled off.  I will enlist the boys in ideas and the actual pulling off of some of the adventures.  My 14 year old arrives home an hour before anyone else so he will be perfect for staging any adventuring that may have gone on during the day.

That being said I don't want anyone to think they are being over looked this Christmas.   I can assure you they are not. 

We are keeping the carpenter quite busy this month with projects galore.  My dad has his work cut out for him. 

My 9 year old, Noah, is easy if it's lego he will love it.  He builds huge sets in no time at all.  So he's getting a custom built lego table with lego storage. The lego tables they sell are small and over priced but with the purchase of a couple of plastic storage bins, some wood, & several large base plates he will have a biger table at a fraction of the cost.  Along with the table Noah will get about a million legos for building fun. Okay so maybe not that many, but sure feels like it with the money spent on them.  Those tiny things are expensive!

My oldest two are impossible!  They ask for nothing but expensive electronics and when pushed can think of only odd little things I know they will use once and toss aside or lose.  So what do you get for the impossible duo?  Insulation, drywall, and a heater/air conditioner. 

Why?

To build them a "man cave" of course.  We will be converting our detached one car garage into a hang out spot for them.  For their birthdays they got a decient sized pool table and an xbox along with some cool chairs they picked out themselves.   The pool table hasn't seen much use since it started getting cold and 4 kids fighting over 1 tv and 2 game consoles got old long ago. 

So I'm on the look out for a flat screen tv (apparently some games you can't play 2 player on an older tv) and anything cool for a "man cave". 

A lot of things around here can be repurposed and some things have already been given to them.

Currently they have the pool table the two chairs and a mini fridge in the garage.  There is also an old entertainment center and dresser out there.  I figure the dresser can house the video games, all there RPG books, some board games, and some of their favorite books.  We have a love seat in the living room that no one ever uses and a couple of lamps.  There is a dart board somewhere in the attic that's never been used.  And we picked up a full sized foosball table on black Friday.  There is a counter top section in the garage that we could build a cabinet for storage and set it on top of so they can have a place for snacks.

We also have a room divider that we will put out there to divide off the space until we can get a shed to store the lawn mower, bikes, weed wacker, rakes, snow shovels, and various tools in.

Then it's on to decorating the space.  I figure the walls will need to be painted a neutral color (something garage friendly in case the market ever turns around and we decide to sell) and a bunch of posters of various bands the boys like as well as some mine craft and other such games they like. 

I had bought Brian a buch of pool hall stuff, but I'm not so sure that would be good as I wouldn't want anything to be broken on him.  Besides if the boys had real glasses and plates out there I can only imagine the mess of dirty dishes.....  I think they can stick to paper for now.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.  If you can't tell by now I am using this blog post to brian storm ideas.  I do my best thinking when writing.

Noah's lego table 

Why bunk beds?

You may have noticed in the last post that Pheebe is getting bunk beds and wondered why does one little doll need 2 beds?

Well, I've been informed that Pheebe's frieind Hally will be rolling in about the same time as the man in the red suit.

Why?

What's more fun than one doll that can get into mischief while you sleep?

The answer of course is two!

Hally is packing her bags and getting ready to make her voyage.  Why so soon?  Quite frankly Lexi is at Gramma & Grampa's house and who wants to be opening all those pesky boxes on Christmas eve?  Not me!

 

Not when I have so many things to put together all in one night.

How does Santa do it all?

Next on Hally's to do list....

Pack up her camper of course.

While Pheebe rides a "motorcycle" (yes I know it's a scooter, just don't tell Lexi that.  She will fight you to the death.  Pheebe rides a motorcycle! Period. end of arguement) and camps in a tent roasting hotdogs over the fire.  

Hally prefers going mudding in her jeap and camping a bit more comfortably in her RV.

Well, I guess it's back to cleaning out the junk in Lexi's room.  Have to make room for the doll house.  Besides, Lexi's room has doubled as storage for way to long now. 

The last of the furnishings

Lexi's Daddy and I went out and braved the early morning on Black Friday to finish up with the furnishings (for now) of Pheebe's place.

With all the adventures about to unfold, Pheebe is sure to need a place to lay her head each night.  Found this awesome deal at the Mill stores in Manchester. 

And of course that kitchen will need a table and chairs.

And who could pass up this little picnic table for under $10?

So glad Megan told me about the Mill store!  Stretched my budget to include all of this instead of just one item.

Pheebe's first peek

While we were enjoying our turkey dinner Pheebe snuck off to check on the progress.   She seemed pleased so far, put in an order for some window's, so I think those will come next.

I will be off in search of a bed, some chairs, & a kitchen table in just a few hours.

And the building begins...

My father has begun the construction of the doll house.  The walls are not done yet, they were set in place to give an idea of what it will be. A long way to go still, but so far I think it looks great!

I couldn't Resist these tiles.

The bathroom "tile" is a back splash with pinks and purples.  

While the white kitchen tile 

is the 1"×1"  mini tiles so should look as if it is the typical 1'×1' tile used in most kitchens.

Remember those giant alphabet floor puzzles made of foam?  Well I found one for Pheebe!  The squares are about 2"×2" perfect!  These pill concontainers will make great flower & sugar canisters or cookie tins as well.

And then there's all these little finds...

mini boxes of tissues, a mini sewing kit (the bag will be perfect for a duffel bag) with tiny scissors and tape measure, hand sanitizers in a great little bag, girsl rock bag (great to use as a tote bag) & little note book.....

I also found a tiny pack of pens, sticky notes (to be used as art paper), a tiny box that could be a gift bag, tiny hair clips, and a small carpet sample to be used as a door mat.  

Looking forward to seeing the house in person  tomorrow & maybe putting some stuff in it just to see how it will look.  

Oh I almost forgot I picked up some paint chips as well to see if I could pick a color for the walls.....

I think this is the color scheme I am going to go with for the kitchen.  Since the Appliances are a bright bold red, I went with the white floor.  I am thinking the blue walls, natural wood tables and chairs, and some very light pink chair pillows (if I can figure out how to sew something so tiny that is).  

Plans for Pheebe's house.

I looked at doll house's for 18" dolls and the prices are crazy!  Anything affordable is really too small to do much with.  Besides they are already decorated.  Where's the fun in that?

So I asked my dad what materials would be best to build a house out of and he offered to make something.   Awesome!  That just saved me a lot of time, energy, & sneaking around trying to make it without getting caught by any of my children.  HUGE thank you to my dad!  I don't know what I would do without him.  He already has all the wood and has cut out all the big pieces as of Tuesday morning.  It's going to be big and heavy, but it will only have to be moved a couple of times.

That leaves me with the search for decorating materials & furniture.   Bring on the fun!  I picked up a kitchen set, some hair accessories, and a shopping bag for Pheebe while wondering the mall yeaterday.   I posted on a swap board that I was looking for some paint, tile, material, carpet remnants etc.  Already a couple of people have said they had paint and someone has offered some tile.  I have a piece of carpet that could be used throughout the whole thing, but it would be nice to have different flooring in the different rooms.  I saw a bed at Target, but I know Lexi kind of has her heart set on a different type of bed for Pheebe, so I will keep looking. 

I am hoping to go wonder around home Depot, walmart, & dollar tree tonight and see what I can find.

Behind the scenes

This blog is currently a work in progress, but I wanted to get this portion set up and going to start.

This blog is for my daughter.  To preserve the memories of magic and laughter.   So that one day we might be able to look back on this time and remember the fun.

I got the idea for this little endeavor when a friend posted a story about a family who had plastic dinosaurs who got into mischief while the children slept.  I thought of how much fun that must have been for both the children and the parents and thought this could be a blast.  I decided I would like to do something similar for my daughter using her favorite doll Pheebe.

Pheebe hasn't started her adventures yet, but there is alot of planning going on right now and I can hardly wait to start!  I am excited to see what my 5 year old will think about it all, and can't wait for the fun of planning it all out.

I hope you'll join us in our adventure, but even more importantly I hope this blog will inspire you to bring a little magic into someone's life.

Pheebe's journey will begin shortly after Christmas, but for now I will use this blog to record the process of the next month's planning.