Stir crazy/Spring Cleaning/Keeping Depression at Bay???

I don't mind where we live when it's cold outside.  I don't mind were we live when it's warm outside either.  But I definitely like it less in the spring because there's not enough windows, and it also reminds me of how hard it is to get outside, when I really want to be outside more.  I'm guessing what you're thinking is, "open your door and go outside!"  We have a cute kids picnic basket, tons of sidewalk chalk, remote control cars, a bike, squirt guns, bubbles, swim suits, a mini pool... everything you can think of for warm weather, we have.  And we're ready to use it.  But our 'yard' is a mortuary parking lot.  Not appropriate for two wild toddlers running around with bubbles, cars, snacks, etc.  We go on walks, we go to the park.  But it's still a bit of a production.  Especially since I can't quite get the kids to nap at the same time yet, so there's about 4 hours of our day that consists of overlapped sleeping.  I just want a yard to play in, where the kids are safe if I leave them alone for a few minutes, or where I can be with one and a monitor while the other one naps.  Ya know?  Anyway, this is the mood April has put me in for the past 3 springs.  All of this is an explanation of the title (or three titles) of this post.  I can't tell if it's the spring-time cooped up blues, or if spring really does make me want to clean and dejunk, or if I feel a crash coming on so I'm cleaning/creating/rearranging, to stay busy so I don't crash.  Maybe a combo of all three.  Whatever it is, I'm doing good, but also doing a lot of extra stuff these days to keep things looking fresh and clean.

Here's a couple of them:

We bought the kids a water table for the porch.  We re-potted some old plants, did a little cleaning and rearranging, and made enough room for it.

I cleaned the playroom and got rid of some stuff.  I found a lot of stuff, mostly from Christmas, that we've never played with.  These puzzle cards were among the new/old stuff I found and Garrett loves them and is really good at finding the other half matches.  I've decided to implement a new rule with toys: a new one comes in, an old one (or two or three) goes to Goodwill.  It's amazing how stuff accumulates!

Garrett's wanted to help with the organizing.  He called me to his room to "show you".  I'd put a pack of new diapers on his floor and I was going to stack them in his dresser when I got around to it.  When I got to his room he said, "Me stack dipes me self."  He'd opened the pack and 'stacked' them all on his own.  Sure, I should be potty training him, but I'm just going to be proud that he knows how to restock diapers for now.

 Addie 'helped' too.  I had little piles of stuff around during my cleaning process.  Addie had: 2 phones, a camera case, a bag of photo hangers, a receipt, and sunscreen.  She was determined to climb the step stool and dive onto the couch without dropping anything.

Speaking of Addie, she's getting stronger.  Here she is with Garrett pinned to the couch.  Him yelling, "Be NICEEEE!!"  and her squealing, "Tick! Tick! Tick!" as she tickled his neck.  Never a dull moment at our house!

The kids' little table has been in the playroom but it's never had enough room for both of them to sit at.  We have this unused wall between our bar stools and front door and it was a great fit.  So I moved it and it's been used more this week, than it has the months it's been in the playroom.  And  I couldn't resist decorating the wall.  The instagram collage with washi tape is my favorite part.  (Someday I'll get around to telling you how I printed them for cheap!)

 The kids were trying out the chairs at IKEA.  Garrett said with each one, "aww, me relax the beach!"

I made this puppet show curtain for the kids.  I was going to do a tutorial, but I'm really not good at step by step instructions, especially taking pictures.  So if you want to make one, here's the measurements.  It's 5' tall and 3' wide.  It's on an adjustable tension rod so I can move it to different doorways.  The opening is about 18" X 18".  I used quilt binding to finish off the opening.  (It would have been easier to just use one piece of fabric, but I didn't have one piece big enough and I didn't want to spend any money. So I just kept piecing it until it was long enough.)  There's 3 pockets on the front to store puppets.  And the banner was no-sew.  I just cut the triangles and glued them onto bakers twine.  I made a drawstring bag to tote the puppets around in.  And I found the puppets on clearance at IKEA for 99 cents.  Oh, and the bottom of the window was a little droopy, so I glued a dowel along it on the back and it fixed it right up.  

 (The picture below is the dowel, it's covered in washi tape.  I was gonna paint it, but I'm a little obsessed with washi tape right now so I went with it.)

 Super easy to make draw string bags, I did it from start to finish while Paul bathed the kids.  I think I'll make a few more just to store more crap.

The kids got half of the puppets for Christmas, but when we were at IKEA a few nights ago and I saw them in the 99 cents clearance bin, I decided to complete the set.

 

So that's a little look into our lives this spring.  I'm sure there's more DIY and cleaning projects to come before I'm over this phase, but we'll see what I come up with.