Play Kitchen = Labor of Love

I have yet to decide if this fits into the genius or idiot category, but we decided to build the kids a play kitchen 5 days before their birthday. We'd hemmed an hawed on this for months...should we spend money to buy really cute one? Should we make one? Could we re-purpose something that we already have? Should we get a cheap one? I think that I've seen most every play kitchen out there from the most basic kitchen manufactured ones, to the most intricate DIY ones, to the completely elaborate ones that I want for my own kitchen.

We wanted something that, you know, did things. As in knobs to turn and buttons to push. In the process of deciding what to do, I also realized that this would be a fixture in our house for a long time and for that reason, I wanted it to be something that would grow with the kids as well as something that fit into the rest of the house (as in, this thing might be sitting in our living room for large spans of time someday).

So, here is what we came up with. It was a labor of love and some late nights, but completely worth it. I'll put the details here as some of you have asked how we did it.

We started with two Ikea wall cabinets. The fridge unit is about 43 inches tall, in case you are wondering how tall this baby stands. And yes, they are strikingly similar to the kitchen that Matt built for us.


From here, you can see the legs on the unit. Right now, they are about 4 inches from the ground, but they can be raised as the kids get taller. And you can also see the little estate sale table along with chairs that a friend gave us that we refinished over the summer.

Matt built a box that would hold the stove as well as an oven door, complete with Plexiglas window. These were both attached to the cabinet frame. The pink was my addition as we all know that E loves her some pink.

We attached little puck lights in the oven and fridge as this is a continual point of fascination in our real fridge. They can click them on and off by pushing the light. Also, you can see in this picture that the oven opens down like a real one. Hinges on the bottom was something that we really wanted (did I mention that we thought a lot about this??)

Moving on, the stove was a bit more complicated as Matt wanted to make something that they could turn on and off. I was all for big black circles to be burners, but when he found a red rope light for a few bucks at the hardware store, I knew that we were going beyond spray painted coaster burners. First he built the box with a ledge in it to hold the rope light and cook top. I cut the Plexiglas to size and then spray painted painted everything except the concentric circles to get the look of a glass cook top. We were left with the question on how the kids would turn the rope light on, but for another few bucks Matt found a remote control adapter so that the unit turns on and off. They love it, though I do have to say that I keep the 'mote' up high as I don't want the light to be on for long periods of time. I'm not sure if a fire ever started from a rope light but I don't want to be the first one.

For the sink, Matt found some old outdoor water tap handles in his dad's workshop and brought them home, wondering if they could be used as burner knobs or water faucet handles. As we were piddling around in the workshop, I noticed some old copper piping. With the handles and the piping, we came up with this little faucet. Oh, and the sink is a brownie pan.

Lastly, the counter around the sink is a remnant from our butcher block counter in our kitchen. It was a beast to cut the hole out of the middle but in the end it worked wonderfully!

So there you have it. Even though we were both completely spent by the end of the week, we had so much fun figuring it out together.
Now, all this is just nice information unless the kids like it. Thankfully, they we hit the jackpot. We frequently have two very busy chefs that whip up delicious muffins and pots of steamy green tea for their momma and daddy. Well, that and some carrot, apple, fish, syrup concoctions that I find a little suspect.

Three

Have I mentioned that (as of a month ago)we now have two 3 year old kids in our house?

I know. It's crazy.

The festivities started a few days before their birthday we were having a rough afternoon. I decided that we should look at photos of birthday cakes online. I'm not sure what I was thinking...I had planned on making some simple cupcakes for the occasion but once they saw the pictures, I knew that I'd be making something else. As we perused the cakes, still delusional, I tried to get them to settle on one cake. 'Look at that cool monkey. Would that not be fun?' No takers on the monkey.

Not surprisingly Noah told me that he wanted a train cake before he even saw one. I tried to sell him on the dump truck which looked a bit easier, but no luck. He also rejected my robot cake idea saying that robots are scary. Ella, who is a fan of all things pink, saw the pink castle and was completely convinced that it was the cake for her. She has not been all that interested in princesses and castles so I was a bit surprised by her choice, but it was settled. A pink castle and a train cake. Thank goodness my mom was in town. She was my midnight helper in Mission Train & Castle.

The kids spotted their cakes first thing in the morning and spent lots of time just looking at them. Noah kept telling me that the cake goes around and around.

Ella was delighted to tell me that her cake had two doors and lollypops on it.

We invited family over for a breakfast birthday party (which I will do for every birthday from here on out. Morning birthday party means that the sugar rush happens at noon and then we have ample time to play). Once omelets and donuts were consumed the kids opened a few gifts.

Cousin Micah made a pop up card for the kids.

Liz and Stephan had this great idea to get Noah a Joakim Noah Bull's jersey for Christmas. Noah won't have anything to do with it but Ella thought it was most appropriate to wear while playing with the new b-ball hoop. Noah remains unconvinced...to this day, when we play basketball he tells me that he does not want 'that red thing.'

Ella has been really into bells lately and I have no idea what brought this on. Much to her delight, my parents found this little bell for her and she was completely smitten. She rings it all the time.

Life with these two is never slow...I'll share a few of the thing that fill our days as well as some of the things that I love.

*So much pretending. The other day Ella was telling me that Sweetie Pie tucked Lollypop (those are her pretend pink kitties that fit in the palm of her hand) in bed after reading more cat books to her.

*Alphabet love. Noah's constantly asking me how to spell things.

*Hearing Ella break out in singing the alleluias of the Doxology at random times because she sings her way through life. I also adore hearing her loudly read to herself in bed before falling asleep for naps.

*Noah's faborites, as he calls them. He is really into some of our CDs. When one that he likes comes on he'll shout from the backseat 'oh, it's Sun Comes Up. It's my faborite!' He just informed me this afternoon that his faborites are 'Tractor, Tractor', 'Sun Comes Up', 'Noah James', and 'Chicken Wiggle'.

*Joy in finding similar things. Often when we are reading, they will realize that they are looking at the picture that is on the front of the book or it will remind them a picture in another book. We stop and wait for someone to trot off to get the similar item and then all exclaim 'same' as the two items are shown to each other.

*Ella running most everywhere that she goes because life is just that exciting.

*Noah explaining to me how water is pumped in a fountain and his general amazement with knowing how things work. The other day when I was unclogging the P-trap (hi Ginny!) in our kitchen sink, he was right with me, tools in hand, telling me how the water goes down, down and out.

*Ella bathing for sport...at least twice a day, because that is the way that we roll.

*Noah's response of 'oohhh, tanks Momma' to things that don't really require a thanks but I know that he is feeling thankful in his little heart.

*The way that they watch out for each other. The other day we needed to be somewhere before naps were over so I woke Noah up, got him bundled and headed out to put him in the car. As he realized that it was just the two of us, he asked if we were going to bring Ella. I assured him that we would and got an 'ooohhh, tanks Momma.' I went back inside, woke and bundled Ella. As we walked out the door, she got all panicky and started to ask about Noah. She was similarly relieved to learn that we were all going together.

*Little sayings. One thing that I think has helped them continue to nap (for three hours each day, thank you God) is that we have little tents above their beds. To these three year olds this is really cool. The other day, I could tell that Noah was not settling down to sleep and suspected that his tent had fallen down. I could hear him calling over but what finally got me in the room was his statement of 'I HAVE AN ISSUE!' Sure enough, tent was down. Issue indeed.

*Watching their minds work. The kids love painting and after a particularly messy morning, I painted their hands and helped them do hand prints on paper. A few days later we were driving down the road and out of nowhere, Ella tells me, all silly with joy 'we don't paint the road. We only paint paper and hands.'

I could go on and on, but I'll stop here so that I actually get this posted and get to the mound of laundry on my bed. I'm so thankful for these sweet days.

Happy Valentine's Day

A brown box to open at 6:30 am full of love from grandparents? Check

Handmade candy necklaces that are eaten before breakfast? Check

Valentine boxes full of Light Queen love notes? Check

We are ready. Happy day, friends. We love you.