No Panty Waists Allowed!!!!

We were sitting at the dinner table all talking. Then Kate came out with this . . . Don't mess with her.

8 Things

Natalie turned 8 this month. She was so excited. She got to get her ears pierced. She was super excited because when our kids turn 8 they are allowed to have sleepovers. Yay for us!

1. She loves to read

2. She loves to help out around the house

3. She loves to put makeup on (obviously she has tons on in the picture)

4. She likes school and to learn

5. She has the cutest laugh.

6. She has beautiful blue eyes

7. She thinks princesses are "babyish"

8. Sometimes she thinks she's the mom. She knows better than us.

We decided to have a sleepover on Friday night that led into the birthday party on Saturday. Only a couple of friends sleptover. It was fun for all the girls. Kate would not leave them alone. This was Saturday morning. - Natalie, Juliana, Lauren, Haley, and Kate

The Birthday Party Crazies!

(If you can, zoom in on Haley and Kate's face. It is funny)

. . . . And My Shelf

And finally my shelf. I have to buy the baskets for inside the cubbies, but I LOVE it. My kids know where everything goes now and it is clutter free (for the time being).

My New Bench

For awhile I have had a basket in my entryway to put all our shoes in. It gets overloaded so fast. We empty it out, but I can't ever keep it under control. My awesome friend Natalie gave me the idea to put a bench and shelf at the bottom of my stairs. Being the "blogstalker" that she is, she found the plans for the Pottery Barn Bench and Shelf from the website Knockoff Wood. The web site is SSSOOO cool. If you ever have anything you want to build, there are TONS of plans there. I have a very big "Honey Do" list from them. These are only the pictures of my bench, my shelf needs one more coat of paint, then I can hang it. Yay! I'll post pictures of that when I am done. Oh yeah, Pottery Barn's bench costs $299 - my bench $29.00! Can I get a Woot Woot!!!

It started from a single sheet of MDF - $29.00

It took all these power tools plus a couple more

About 3 cans of soda and 6 hours (a little overboard, I know)

To get this. . .

And here it is finished! My awesome hubby did such a great job! I say my hubby did it because I got kicked off of sanding and painting. I did a little sanding and painting, but it wasn't as good as it needed to be. I am not that patient. I just wanted it DONE! He took over and made it perfect!