New Bedroom, fit for a Princess!

Transformation and Inspiration:

Whimsical Playspace for a three year old

As our little lady approached 2 1/2 and started asking for a big girl bed and wanted to plan playdates, we realized it was finally time to transform "Ian's Office/Erin's Dressing room" (aka: Bryon/Sarah's Room, Shawn's room and Siobhan's room) into a space fit for the imaginative whims of our burgeoning three year old.

Being an architect, I lavished over the design opportunities and ideas and finally settled on creating as much open play space, framing the windows with cubbies and shelves and transformed the north wall into a magnetic surface for alphabet magnets and art.

Five coats of Metallic primer

Painting over the primer with  Springtime Peach

I'll give a few words of advice: We used Metallic primer from Rustoleum and found that it really took five thin coats to cover the wall space and perform adequately.  Shake and stir the primer constantly - the metallic sludge quickly sinks to the bottom and needs to be suspended in the primer.  Use fans - we make a concerted effort to use eco-friendly, low-voc paints in our house and unfortunately, this primer blew that practice out of the water.  It smells completely noxcious and you have to use mineral spirits to get the splatters of metallic paint off your hands.  Sigh... but it's so cool!

Magnetic Wall!

First test of the magnetic primer - it works!  It now proudly displays the latest artwork from ECFE school and her potty chart - du jour.

The Princess Playroom/bedroom is complete!

 We Did it!!  By the middle of September, we have the completed bedroom!  I'm proud to say that we've been able to keep it clean and organized and have hosted our first playdate quite successfully!

Guess who loves her new room?!!

Friendships

Sunday Birthday Party

Friendship #1

Evelyn's attended Thalia's third birthday party - her best friend from ECFE school.  You can tell how much they enjoy each other by how comfortable they are and how intently focused they are on each other.

It's interesting to observe how Evelyn has evolved socially in the last three months.  She talks constantly about her friends and what they did that day and what they were feeling/thinking/saying.  She looks forward to seeing her friends and constantly asks for playdates!

sniff, sniff... my little girl is growing up!

Play day

Saturday Play Day:
Friendship #2

We successfully hosted our first official playdate at our house!!  I think I'm almost as excited as Evelyn - venturing into the world of friendships!

First off, we now have excellent play space in our house!  From Evelyn's "little house" outside to her "little kitchen" and table in the living room to her new "princess tower bedroom" - there are many spaces to play.

Next task - invite Evelyn's "best friend" from daycare over to play... decorate and stamp a pretty little card to send along to little friend's mommy to introduce ourselves, exchange phone numbers and suggest a meeting time. Check!

Saturday - the day of the playdate finally arrives!  Friend brings two princess dresses so they can play dress up; Evelyn is excited to show the Little House since she talks about it all the time at daycare - I bring little plates and cups and juice and fruit snacks outside for a mini tea party and it's an instant hit!  It's a good thing to start outside just to get the silliness and excitement out.

Dress-up time came next and the girls put on a "Princess Show" - this consisted of twirling and bowing, dancing and singing "I'm Sleeping Beauty and my mommy is Snow White".

Finally, in fits of either hunger or exhaustion, there is a minor melt down and we know it's time to call it a day. Successful playdate ends with the girls swapping princess dresses for the weekend with promises to return them on Monday.

Next time: I think we'll have one slightly structured activity and the rest of the time for free play!  The girls got along great and us mother's found we had so much in common!

Evelyn phrase of the day: she tells me "mommy, we swapped princess dresses.  I want to swoop again!"