Clark's DIY Kitchen

Joe and Lindsey were our neighbors. They were great and we got along with them perfectly. They moved this past July and I cried a little. Lindsey knows I am a sucker for free stuff so she gave me an old bathroom storage cabinet and said "I'm sure you'll find something creative to do with this." It sat in the garage FOREVER. Then I saw Clark standing next to it and it resembled a mini refrigerator. At that moment a tiny light bulb went off in my head!

Clark loves playing in the kitchen, we spend a good portion on the day rummaging/rearranging cabinets and disassembling the contents of the fridge.

So, I came up with the idea to build a play kitchen so he could destroy that rather than my kitchen. I looked on craigslist for a night stand to make into the oven and sink portion since I was already gifted the fridge portion. I spent $30.00 for it. After that, the next two months have been spent looking for free, or nearly free, items to assemble the rest of the mini kitchen.  The final result is what I claim to be AMAZING.

The glass jars are horseradish and jelly jars from the real fridge, I got the faucet for free from Lowes--I'm not too proud to ask for free damaged goods--the sink is an 8x8 cake pan we already had, I found the shelf in a scrap wood pile from our old neighbors--Joe really liked to wood work, I think he was practicing his dove tail technique--

We already had all the hooks/screws/nails and some knobs. The lobster towel is an old friend from the real kitchen and the baskets were a clearance find at 1.00 each. If you're keeping score that's 32.00 so far.

The W knob was a $.29 find at Micheal's and most of the play food was from Matt's little sister's play kitchen growing up. Fisher Price lasts forever, or at least for 28 years--and counting.

oops, missed a few spots painting.

The reason I was OK with spending 30 bucks on a single nightstand was because it came with a built in oven! There was a door that already opened down, with a glass inlay and a chain to hold it up. That would have taken us forever--ok not ever--to construct.
 

What fridge is complete without magnets?  $.25 a piece at JoAnn's.

Clark's unhealthy obsession with cats forced me to incorporate a framed kitty wearing a sweater. The frame was one that I had in my junk drawer and the kitty came from Matt's birthday card--from Clark of course.

So you can see what I mean, this is Clark watching the Meow Mix commercial--the world stops when I show him a kitty.

The paint was 14 dollars, but in my defense, I did look on the Miss-Tint shelf for weeks for a dark blue. Total cost was $46.79, which is so much more than the ones I have seen all summer at garage sales, but this one was made with LOVE--well, love, along with my creative mind and Matt's tools and constructive labor.

The only thing I didn't take into account was how HUGE the sucker is. The kitchen, not the fat boxer--who incidentally has gained over 10 pounds since Clark has been eating all solid food (hummmm). Not sure where its permanent place is going to be yet.

Colie

Shilpa has an amazing camera so she was able to get some really great pictures. Consider this a photo montage of the week, feel free to add your own commentary. 

First kiss

Please take note of all the action shots of Clark, he is in perpetual motion.

Oh yea, one more. Williams Boys and closing their eyes, you can't even try to make this up.

We Went to Tampa

HELLO!

We have returned from our first family vacation. Actually, it is our first vacation in 3 years--unless you count a few hours in Vegas with no sleep.

 We woke up at 5am and ate our oatmeal in the car, with eyes that still wanted to be asleep.

We thought we were being smart by packing all in one bag, joke was on us because we were over the weight limit by 14 pounds and had to pay 50 bucks. After some coffee and plane watching everyone perked up.

To answer everyone's question; He packed crackers in his backpack. I called the airline the night before to confirm a peanut free flight, as we checked in there was a note saying Peanut Allergy and a special ticket printed out. We gave the special ticket to the ticket taker and boarded the plane. Clark loved takeoff and remained still until about 6,000 feet.

Once we reached our cruising altitude the flight attendants started to take beverage orders and pass out, you guess it, PEANUTS! I pretty much tackled the flight attendant. She was extremely passive aggressive in her defense and refused to collect the already passed out peanuts. She did make an overhead announcement to not eat them--- yeah, that fixes the problem. As you can see, he was fine...

Once we landed we fought with the car rental company who tried to over charge Matt by 200 dollars, tried to upsell on every single feature and wouldn't take NO for an answer. Big fight ensued, hungry baby cried, bad reviews are being written and a phone call to the manager is made. Don't rent with PAYLESS, you pay more and deal with bullies.

Conflict makes Clark hungry, he was so hungry he tried to eat his foot. We did stop to feed him something other than toes and left over cracker crumbs he found in his carseat. **Notice he now faces forward, that's a big deal.**

Once we got to the condo, we immediately ran to the beach.

Clark was near impossible to contain. He had no concept for personal safety and consistently wanted to be everywhere he wasn't currently at.

Being ushered the other direction because he wanted to go out too far

A short while later, we were joined by Clark's betrothed, Leena.

She is petite and sweet. She thinks cows say Baaa and giraffes are dogs, she is laid back and no where near as destructive as Clark. She ate all her meals in the sink, where as Clark preferred a pot.

Mornings were spent eating breakfast on the beach, which more often than not, was banana cream pie/cookies/pumpkin pie and coffee--because we are adults and adults can do what they want.

Then it was naptime for the babies and pina coladas on the patio for the adults.  Not sure if empty pina colada mix bottles make for good toys--but it does make for a good picture.

More beach in the afternoon.

Strut

 

 

We made dinners together in the condo and put the babies to bed at 6:30. The TV was seldom on, we didn't check our phones and only used the internet to find a grocery store, check a score (Matt) or answer a question like "What does VHS even stand for" or "What year was the movie Cool Runnings made"

It was so relaxing, no one was ready to return to reality. Leena convinced Clark that cows do indeed say Baa, we are going to let him hold on to that for a little while longer, no sense in all of us returning to reality.

Hope everyone else had a relaxing week,
Colie

Fall is in the Air...Sort of

Hello

Clark has learned a new word. He can say OUTSIDE (sounds more like ahhh-side). He uses this word approximately 300 times a day while simultaneously pointing at the door handle. Since it is finally tolerable outdoors-- and not a sweltering 100+ degress-- we spend about 3 hours a day roaming the yard, combing rocks, looking at plants and walking to the neighborhood park. I let him touch and climb anything that isn't deemed dangerous and he really enjoys himself.

Blue skies, mild temps and puffy clouds. It makes everyone happy. With all the extra walking and playing he has increased his caloric intake 10 fold and sleeps like a rock--I can actually do a load of laundry now because he sleeps so sound. We are going broke trying to feed the kid, but at least we have clean clothes.

That is the carnage from an adult male sized dinner portion

I have given up trying to keep up with his feeding frenzy mess. Its just easier to wait until the end to clean up.

This past Sunday was Zionsville's Fall Festival. They have fair rides, games, contests, pet adoptions and local businesses can set up booths. I love going down there. For some reason Matt always makes up something he has to be doing so he doesn't have to go, this year it was mowing the lawn. I think he used that one last year too--time to get some new material. Clark and I had a great time, we spent most of the afternoon in the pet adoption area.

They had a Frisbee dog show which Clark thought was great. You can't tell in this photo because he is busy shoving graham crackers in his mouth, but he thought the dogs we hilarious. They also had a whole area of adoptable kittens. I don't know if I have mentioned the fact that Clark is BALLISTIC over cats, he was flipping out of the stroller to get to them. If Frazier didn't have a history of being a Cat Killer then we would have come home with one.

"If that cat had nine lives, I killed them all."

He also had his first taste of elephant ear. I have to say I was expecting a bigger reaction than the one I got.

On Sunday we all dressed up in our Colts gear for the season opener.

Then I went to work. However, Monday morning when I got home I was greeted with a BOY. I swear he turned into boy over night, the way he moves, talks and acts is completely different. He went from baby to man in one night. He is so decisive, stern and deliberate with all of his actions.

Have a good rest of the week
Colie

First off...Where do toddlers get their energy? Does it come from zero responsibility, no stress and someone always wiping their faces after they eat? Clark is like a giant pinball, bouncing off the walls and furniture. Only he has the emotional stability of a 15 year old girl in love and a rabid pit bull mixed together.

 This past week, I took my little ticking time bomb of destruction on a little road trip to visit our good friends in Valpo.  2 hours there meant 41 minutes of screaming in the carseat because he didn't want to be held down. I even pulled over to make sure he wasn't dying, then a cop pulled over with me to make sure I wasn't killing him. I've never seen a baby purple with anger. I think it scared the cop, because he quickly left once he "could see I had everything under control". Run, cop, run, you chicken!

My car, Mitch, has a third row pop up seat option which I was able to utilize this week. 3 car seats and 2 adults in one small SUV, the hardest part was being able to pass out Gold Fish Crackers to everyone.

All you can see of Clark is his right foot. I still have him facing backwards because he is so short his feet don't even touch the seat yet and I am terrified of another accident (he is safer this way)--- Oh yea, PS We were in an accident in July that totalled my car.---

We hung out on Lake Michigan for the afternoon.

He screamed for 2 hours on the way home. He was over tired and refused to sleep in his backwards facing carseat, sorry buddy, life is rough sometimes.

A mere 32 hours later, we packed up again, only this time we headed to Michigan to see Namma and Papa!

It is a Williams' boy trait to always blink during pictures, Clark is not immune.

Matt and Papa went fishing, they caught a few good ones. Frazier was impressed, that is all that really matters.

My sisters stopped by for the afternoon, which was really nice since we hadn't seen them in awhile. They hadn't seen Clark since he has been walking so they were surprised by the mass destruction he is capable of. Notice his scowl, it is because we momentarily stopped him from playing. 15 seconds is an eternity to a 15 month old.

Back at home, in my spare time, I have been working on this beat up old dresser I got at a garage sale for 7 bucks.

 



 

It was half dead and had mouse poop in the drawers. I sanded it down, pulled out all the yucky contact paper in the drawers and dumped the mouse pellets. Then I used some old paint we had from other projects, painted it up and got some porcelain knobs. One more piece of furniture given a new life!

 

 

Hope you all had a happy holiday weekend!

Colie