austin & foster's Profile

We've loved our sand (and water) table, which works only once they can pull themselves up. We're starting our 4th year with it and they (now 3 and 5) still love it. It also helps avoid the whole leaky diaper in the sand problem.

Any home surrounded by 2,000 acres of prairie is going to be amazing! Enjoy!

I have two boys 3 and 4 years old. We try to get out as much as we can and where we live north of Chicago we have a fantastic forest preserve in addition to the magnificent Lake Michigan. With kids if everyone has the right kind of gear everyone is happy outside for a long time.
As for indoor space -- thanks to the January Cure -- we moved some furniture around and replaced the clutter holding toy shelves with a clutter hiding desk that we transformed into our "nature desk." We only put things that are alive or are from the outside on it. It's currently the home of a white pine tree sapling, a rubber plant, a couple rocks, a terrarium, a birch stump and two cut orchids. We love bringing in new things and talking about what's ok for the nature desk.

We bought two strings of the globe paper pattern solar lights from IKEA mentioned above last summer. They are great and give nice light. So happy we're not plugging in lights any more.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00223963/

We bought two of the FÄRGGLAD chairs in 2010 and love them. They've held up really well and are always the sought after, fought over chairs by the kids. Well worth the hefty $15 a piece price tag as we will keep them around even as our littles get bigger for future little visitors.

I can testify for Rakk shelving, too. Just bought my second after living with the first for 20+ years. Awesome.

So happy! big project done (for now) and after pictures to take tomorrow. I am happy to share that tonight marks night #3 when I there is NOTHING on my kitchen counters including my gigantic clutter magnet, i.e., kitchen island. I feel like a new person.

I did it! Floors-check! Flowers-check! Green cleaner - had it, check! All my floors have not been clean within the span of 24 hours in years. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old and a spouse out of town so this was sort of a miracle. I would've never done this without the January Cure. Barely a week and I already feel great.

When my Method granite cleaner was empty and Target was out of stock I found this recipe and filled up the old bottle! I use sage essential oil. A great, inexpensive DIY granite cleaner, link below:
http://www.delightedmomma.com/2012/02/pin-tester-homemade-granite-cleaner.html

dividing your room is a great idea. We did this on a temporary basis until the younger was old enough to move into the elder's room. It was great to have him close, but also out of the way. As for functionality, my only concern is the changing table. Bum facing you is a little difficult when they get big enough to kick you. And station over the crib isn't going to work when they're big enough to sit up. But, you'll figure it out, that's what parenting is :)