Phase 1: All Girls Together Now!

From Left to Right: Vixen, Tortoise, and Zebra

           Today begins Phase 1 of All Girls Together!! Since Koala will be joining us in just a few short months, and there is no room in Tortoise's room for a baby crib, and it's not completely "fair" to put 3 girls in one room while Tortoise gets her own room all-to-herself... they are all moving in together!! We recently completed our 1,000 sq. ft. addition in which we made 2 new bedrooms (one for the boys and one for Vixen and Zebra, while Tortoise got an "old" bedroom all to herself), a HUGE playroom, an all-new living room, and a very small room that I had claimed as a craft room. The brand-new playroom will become the all-new Girl's Room, the not-yet-finished craft room will now become a permanent nursery for our babies, the brand-new room that Z and V were in will become the "new" Playroom, and Tortoise's "old" room will become my all-new Craft Room! The girls are VERY excited about the move.. surprisingly they ALL wanted to share their room with Baby Koala. :) Yay for Baby Koala!! 

Tortoise and Zebra shared a room before Vixen was born,
and all 3 shared one 10x10 room until the addition was done
the room was WAY too small though, and T and Z were usually at odds

I am excited that T and Z are looking forward to rooming together again.

               So Phase 1 begins!! During this phase of evolution... lol... all 5 kids are currently in the playroom sorting out toys.  A bit ago, I went in the room and dumped ALL the toy bins on the floor, then told them to sort out all the toys into individual piles by who-they-belong-to. When the toys are all sorted out, they will get their toy bins back and must pick which toys they want to keep. I explained that the rule is: "From now on, if a toy does NOT fit into YOUR toy bin, YOU must pick a toy to give away." -- the fact is, these kids have WAY too many toys... so today is dedicated to thinning out the piles into their bins (they each have a toy bin with their name on it). If they can't get a toy into the bin, then they must figure out what needs to go to make it fit. Anything that isn't in the bins when the day is through gets donated. :) THEN, when they go into the playroom each night before bed to clean up the mess, the theory is that it will be a quick job because everything will fit into a bin, and nothing will remain on the floor. :)

My Girls

            When Phase 1 is complete, we will load up all the toys designated for donation and take them to town... then we will go to the park!

What beautiful artwork!!

            Hopefully, Phase 2: Finishing Brand-New Girl's Room will begin tomorrow... during this phase, I will -finally- paint the window trim in the room, hang the curtains, and lay the flooring in the room. Phase 3: Moving Day, will begin hopefully next week... on that day we will move all the girl's beds and dressers into the new room, and move all the Playroom flooring into the new Playroom and assign spots for toy bins and books. Phase 4: the Nursery and Craftroom will come after that... I have 3 months in which to paint, lay flooring, set up the furniture, and get everything ready for Koala and I. :) I'm excited!!