Tea Party

Little Miss Coral got a tea set for Christmas this year. It was actually part of the pots and pans set that her grandma and grandpa gave her, but I had put it away for a little while because they are real ceramic. Ceramic + toddler = disaster/broken. But, it was snowing one day last week, and we were stuck in the house, so a tea party only seemed appropriate.

Coral was ecstatic. We busted out an old blanket, all her animals, her ceramic set, some water (instead of tea) and some snacks.

We have been having a tea party every single day since.






















Yes, this is what life is like for a daddy who has a little girl. Andrew gets suckered into tea party's, painting nails, doing hair, playing kitchen, and playing dolls.

Coral has this whole routine down now. She knows exactly where we keep the blanket, can quickly set up all her animals, and knows how to fill up each person or animals cup once it is empty.

Come over to the Hodgsons, Coral is always looking for new friends to have a tea party with.

Kitchen Transformation

Yup, you guessed it, I painted my kitchen cabinets. For the last two years my kitchen has been screaming PAINT ME PAINT ME. I ignored, mostly because I knew what a big task it would be, but with our basement renovations starting next week (taking away my only spot to do a project like this) I jumped on it.

Let me just say, I knew this would be an exhausting project, but I honestly wasn't prepared for how exhausting it would really be. For those of you who are flirting with the idea of painting your kitchen, I say go for it, but prepare yourself for a long hard week of painting.

Ok, so let's get to it. Here is my kitchen before the big transformation began.









Go ahead and say it. I know y'all are thinking it. Laura Hodgson you are crazy. Those are practically new cupboards! Why would you paint them???

Well, I just really like white kitchens. My kitchen doesnt get a lot of direct sunlight, so sometimes it felt like I was cooking in a cave. Moving on...

The first thing I had to do was decide what white I would use. You would think that white is white, but there are so many different tones of white. There a whites with a grayish tint, or green, yellow, or even pink. There's ivory white, antique white, and then an extreme white. I needed to pick something that would look good with my very white backsplash, and my touch of grey walls. After much deliberation, I finally decided to go with White Dove from Benjamin Moore.

I also decided that I didn't want a glossy finish on the cabinets. My backsplash is glossy, so if I did my whole kitchen glossy I would have needed to provide all visitors with sunglasses when they came into my kitchen. So I went for an acrylic satin finish, which isn't quite flat and has a tiny bit of sheen to it.

Next I took off all the doors. It's easier to paint them this way. I then sanded them with my new sander that my hubby got me. The guy I talked to at the paint store said that with the special primer I was using, I wouldnt need to sand, but I did it anyway. He also said that if there was any grease where I was painting, the paint wouldn't work. So clean those doors well.

I primed using a special paint for cabinets called Stix from Benjamin Moore. I used a small roller instead of a brush so it wouldn't leave paint lines. Then I used a special paint called Cabinet Coat in the White Dove. I needed to do four coats of this (front and back) before it looked good. Let me me tell you, half way through this project I was SO over it, and ready for it to be done.

On a side note, the primer I used was very stinky. If you use this and have little ones in the house, I suggest they have a playdate at someone else's house for a few hours.

Alright, are you ready for the after shots?









I left some of the doors off for open shelving, and miss Coral helped me pick out some wallpaper to put behind them.













So what do you think? Much better eh! Now I must say I am slightly nervous because I know painted kitchens can chip easily, and I have a rambunctious little girl who loves to help in the kitchen, but I have extra paint for the occasional touch up. It takes about 30 days for paint to cure, so we will try to keep Coral out of the kitchen for the next month of so.

And now to enjoy a coffee in my new, bright, beautiful kitchen.

Birthday Party Planning

Guess what came in the mail?



It's something for Corals birthday party. Yes, this year I feel very prepared for her birthday party, and it's still four weeks away.

For Corals party this year, I really wanted to do something girlie for it. Something like a tea party, with pink decorations everywhere. But, that's just what I wanted. What kind of party would SHE want? Well that's easy. Either a puppy party, or a Barney party. There is no way you could ever convince me to have a Barney themed party, so puppy party it is. She has been talking about it non stop since I mentioned it.

Right away I thought about having an adopt a puppy party (don't worry friends of Coral, you will not be taking a real puppy home with you...this is a pretend adopt a puppy party). I found this website called A Dolly's World that sells unstuffed animals. Similar idea to build a bear. They send you the unstuffed animal, and you go out and get the stuffing and make your own animal. They had all kinds of different animals to chose from, but we were looking for a puppy. Coral was with me while I was browsing, and she picked the one she wanted for her party.




Here it is! They are so soft and actually really cute. So the plan is to set up stations in our house, similar to Build A Bear where the kids can stuff their own puppy, feed it, groom it, and get it checked out by the vet. Oh and the best part about these puppy's? No sewing required!




The head comes pre-stuffed. You stuff the rest, then it closes with a zipper, followed by Velcro. Easy for the parents who will be helping the kids. After, the kids will get a certificate of adoption. I think the kids are going to have a blast with their new puppy.

And then there's the cake. Coral has been talking about a puppy cake for weeks. "coral want a puppy cake, kaden like puppy cake, Emma like puppy cake, Auntie Brittany make Coral puppy cake". I don't know how she knew that my friend Britt makes amazing cakes (probably just assumes because almost every time we see her she has delicious treats for us) but she insisted that Auntie Brittany would know how to make a puppy cake. Lucky for Corals guests, Britt was up for the challenge!

For decorations, I'm not going big this year. Probably just a few balloons because they are Corals favorite. No big deal.

And lastly we have one more thing waiting to arrive in the mail for Coral. And that's her present of course! I really really wanted to get her a wooden doll house for her birthday. However, as much as she would have loved that, I think a few years down the road (or maybe even next year) she would appreciate It more and know how special it is.

We still got her something really special, just not a doll house. She is getting a Schoenhut classic mini grand piano. It's 30 keys, the width of a normal piano so she gets used to proper finger spacing. We had the option of getting it in black, white or pink, and went with the black because it's the classic grand piano look. I think she is going to love it. She always wants to play on grandma and nana, and even great-grandmas piano. Now she will have her own little Coral sized piano to play on.

And now we wait for her birthday to come. I never plan things this early. The anticipation and excitement is to much. February, here we come.

Pallet Bed

I mentioned in a post a few days ago that the guest room has been rearranged since getting Corals Christmas present. We really didn't have any other space to put her play kitchen, and figured since hopefully it will be her room one day, why not put it in the guest room. Out went the double bed, which left a big empty space in the room. Enter pallet bed.




The guest room is one of those awkward shaped rooms to decorate. It's long and narrow, and has a bay window in it. I knew that once it became Corals room, I would want a day bed in it. I just didn't know where I would put a single bed with a headboard in the room without it looking awkward and out of place.

We kinda have a little splash of the rustic look going on in each room of our house, and wanted to continue that theme in the guest room/Corals room/mostly play room now. I had first gotten the idea of doing a pallet bed after writing a post about our rustic coffee table. I had mentioned that you could easily recreate the same look by using pallets. Then a light bulb went off in my head and I thought ahh, pallet bed.




I looked on Pinterest to see what kind of pallet bed I would want to create (only using two pallets, or four pallets to make a higher bed). Turns out a lot of other people have thought about making a bed for free by using pallets. I finally decided to only use two pallets, and would add legs to them to give it a little extra height.

Andrew went out and got the two pallets, and I sanded them down. Then he attached the two together for me, and added caster wheels for the legs.



Then came the headboard. I wanted to either use an old door, or old rustic windows (glass out) for the headboard. When we were at my parents for Christmas, my dad let me dig through his pile of old doors until I found the perfect one. It was an old door, but had glass in it. So a combo of the two things I wanted. I smashed out all the glass, and sanded any loose paint off.




And that's all there is to it. Coral loves this bed. We spend lots of time together reading books on it.

Now to find some art to hang above it....

Potty training!

Just three days ago, Coral was terrified of the potty. She wouldn't go near the potty and would run when you asked if she wanted to sit on it. Today, she is almost potty trained. I have heard plenty of times that Coral will be potty trained early. I didn't think so though, mostly because of her fear of the toilet, and she seemed to be still wetting a lot of diapers (a sign that she wasn't learning how to control her bladder and hold her pee). But the other day, she just simply refused to put a new diaper on. I told her that's fine, but she better not poop or pee on the floor. To my amazement, she held her pee for almost two hours, and when she started to go , she said oops and stopped herself and asked for a new diaper. Ah ha! So she CAN hold her bladder and she is smart enough to understand that she can't pee or poop on the floor. It's time to get potty trained. First we went to the store to get a little seat for the potty. I wanted her to learn to go on the big potty rather then on the little ones designed for toddlers, simply because big toilets are everywhere....little ones are not and I do not want to carry a mini potty around with me everywhere.


Coral picked out a seat with Elmo and cookie monster on it. Then she got to pick out her very own stool to help her get on the potty. She was quite proud of her new purchase. Next we had to decide when we would potty train. I wanted to give her a few days where I knew we were not going anywhere, and our time could be completely potty focused. We started yesterday. My game plan was to just let Coral go completely naked all day, and when she asks for a new diaper, I would know that she has to go. I had my stain remover, and was ready for lots of accidents. Next I made a smoothie for Coral, and put ground flaxseed in it. I normally would never give her an extra amount of fiber, but I also know that for most toddlers, getting them to poop on the potty is the hardest, and I wanted her stool to be softened to make it easier for her. Then I gave her salty crackers, which made her thirsty, but gave her apple juice to drink (which is high in sugar, so it doesn't quench your thrust, making you want to drink more). I wanted her to drink lots and have her little bladder full so she had lots of opportunities to use the potty. Next we played with her doll.


Her baby sat on the potty, and I would squirt water from a bottle behind the baby's back, making it look like the baby was going potty. Coral was impressed. She was even more impressed when baby got a candy for going potty.


She kept asking to sit on the potty, but wouldn't pee. From 8 till almost 11 yesterday morning Coral held her pee. She was squirming. She was crossing her legs, and every now and the she would let a little drip out, but quickly stopped herself. As soon as she did I would scoop her up and put her on the potty. I kept repeating over and over that she couldnt go potty on the floor. Finally the poor girl couldn't hold it any longer and she gave in, and went potty for the first time on the toilet. We called daddy right away to tell him the news. Coral then got to put on her first pair of panties. I told her once we put panties on there are no more diapers. I wanted to go straight to panties, skipping pull ups (naps and bedtime being the exception where she wears a pull up with her panties over top of it since they don't have control while they sleep yet). I felt using pull ups would only make the process so much longer. It feels like a diaper, it looks like a diaper, really what's stopping them from just using it like a regular diaper. Nope, cold turkey was my method. Once Coral had that first pee on the potty , she caught on very quickly. The rest of the day she had five pees in the potty and two poops. She had two tiny accidents in her panties, but both times she stopped herself and ran to the potty. She woke up in the middle of the night and screamed for the potty, and had a pee before going back to sleep. Today I have given her some space, and have been letting her tell me when she has to go. She says " sit on potty" or "its potty time" whenever she has to go. So far today we are 100% accident free, so she is doing great, but we haven't gone anywhere or seen anyone. The real test will be when are out doing errands, or on a long drive to my parents house, or at Sunday school, or play dates with friends. Will she still tell me that she has to go potty during those times? Today we are very proud parents. I am very thankful that Coral caught on so quickly. Yesterday was one of the most exhausting parenting days I have had in a very long time. Potty training is a lot of work, and takes every second of your attention. I really can't imagine what other parents go through when it takes their child a long time to catch on. I have heard that girls are easier to potty train then boys...Crystal, I will be bringing you a bottle of wine when it's time for Kaden to tackle the potty. This new excitement also brings new fear of the unknown. We have never known parenting where our child is out of diapers. I am sure grocery shopping will be three times as long now, and I don't even want to think about taking Coral swimming (getting in and out of the pool for potty runs? No thank you). Little miss Coral, we love you and are very proud of you.

A few of my favorite things

This is another post from my iPad, since Andrew needs our computer for work, so it might look different then my other posts (my last post turned into one looooooong paragraph as soon as I hit post). So hang in there while I attempt to figure this thing out. These are a few of my latest favorite things. First of all...


Coral got panties! They are so tiny and so cute. Coral loves them and is excited to wear them when the time comes. I told her she can only wear them when she is ready to go on the potty, and when she is ready to stop wearing a diaper.


Also for Coral, a little chair for her. She got this from my sister for Christmas and LOVES it. Whenever we go to someone's house that has little chairs, Coral is all over them. Well actually, Coral climbs all over any kind of chair. I love that it's a chair that goes with the rest of my decor.





New chair for Coral, and new chairs for me. Like I said, Coral climbs all over our chairs. Long story short, she climbed on one of our old chairs, it fell and smashed into pieces. The other chairs were falling apart anyway, so, time for new ones. I found these in the as is section in Ikea. We still need one more to make the set complete, but Corals seat is on the other one for now (and if you have a child in a booster seat, you know how dirty and banged up the chair can get) so we will wait until she is out of it to buy the last chair.


This thing. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it's purpose is, but I love it. It's the perfect yellow for my house, and I love how it looks on my kitchen table.


Tea. Not just any tea. But this tea. Chocolatey mint by pc. It's delish. I have always been a huge fan of mint tea, but this has a little taste of chocolate in it. A chocolate and mint combo is one of my favs.


Art that Coral has been bringing home from Sunday school. I love how proud she is of her drawings or crafts when we go to pick her up. Oh and what's that beside the drawing? Plastic balloons from my nephew Kadens cake. Coral saw them in the store and has been obsessed with them ever since. She brings them every where with her. It took a lot of convincing to make her leave them in the car this morning when we went to the moms and tots at church.


Corals pots and pans that are now being used for real food. Coral is a little collector. These blueberries have probably been in each one of her pots and pans, and then in every single tupperware that she has access too. I love when I put her to bed at night, and then while I'm cleaning up I find things hidden and stored by her.


Another new fav is Corals new winter coat. Coral didn't have a winter coat, and honestly she was doing fine without one, until she asked to go for a rhino ride while we were at the farm over Christmas. So, I found this blue winter coat in Belleville, on sale from $60 down to $13. Good deal. And then Coral got her rhino ride.


I posted this on Facebook, but just in case you didn't see, this is my new chair. Well kinda Corals new chair. It's in the guest room, but since getting Coral her play kitchen, the guest room has become more of a play room since she spends so much time in there. I found this chair at value village. It caught my eye right away,and I was stunned at the mint condition it was in. But, I walked away. As much as I loved it I just didn't know where I would put an over sized chair like that. Before leaving the store, it hit me that the guest room has yellow accents. Two guys helped me load it into my car, and we were good to go! I love it. I love the shape of it, I love how huge it is (Andrew had to take the door off to fit it in the room) and I love how comfortable it is.


Another new fav is the old antique quilt my sister gave me. This is another new thing in our guest room. Getting that play kitchen for Coral really changed that room around. We didn't have room for it any where else, and we figured since that is going to be Corals room one day, why not put it in there now. We had to take out the double bed, and put in a single so the kitchen and chair would fit. You can't tell from the picture, but the base of the bed is actually made from two wooden pallets. I will do a post on that once the bed is complete (still missing legs, headboard, and an actual mattress).


Lastly, y'all remember this thing? Corals bumbo? Well, it's been found again, and Coral is using it as a seat all around the house. Her chubby little legs didn't fit in it for a long time, but now that she's thinning out, she fits in it again. Funny little girl. And those are just a few of my latest, favorite things.

Happy unholidays!

Ok y'all. I have gotten a couple of messages from people saying they miss the blog. The holidays are officially over, so let's see if I can get back into the swing of things. I'm hoping everyone enjoyed the holidays as much as our little family did (although I must say, the holidays are exhausting once you have children. Any form of schedule goes out the door, and your dragging your child from place to place.) Here are some of the highlights from the Hodgson Christmas. First of all, our good pal Jacqueline got engaged! Who doesn't love a Christmas engagement? Watching Coral open gifts was a lot of fun this year. She was much more aware of what was going on, and loved every minute of it. Some of her gifts included :


A play kitchen from mommy and daddy. Coral spends hours at this kitchen everyday.


A metal shopping cart from nana and papa (my parents).





A cash register and pots and pans from grandma and grandpa (Andrews parents).


Play food from auntie Rachel.


And a wooden clock from uncle Tim and aunt Nadine. She also got a little outfit from them, and Coral proudly tells everyone that it is from uncle dean when she is wearing it? She also got an adorb outfit from auntie Jacqueline, to which she rolled her eyes and said "probably Emma's". I guess she's just used to wearing Emma's hand-me- downs that she assumes all clothes are from her. Another highlight was watching all the cousins together at my parents house. Coral always has so much fun with her cousins. She and Emma would go into my parents room and lay on the floor together and giggle and giggle. Chloe still treats Coral like she is a newborn baby, and is always eager to help with diaper changes. Kendal, well I'll be honest, I don't think he hardly noticed Coral, and Kaden notices Coral a little to much. He would constantly watch her every move, and was quick to tell her off if she went near any of his toys. I love every minute I get to spend with my nieces and nephews. I also enjoyed having my brother-in-law Nathan around for the holidays. He came over quite a bit over the holidays. It allowed Andrew to revert back to his 12 year old self, wrestling in the basement, playing hours and hours of video games; and it entertained Coral. Coral is quite smitten with uncle Nathan. He spent lots of time reading to her, singing to her, and helping us put her to bed. Other holiday favorites are of course the wine and cheese, Christmas with the Binningtons, Christmas with the Heinrichs, the Stobbes, And the Hodgsons, new years eve with some of my favorite girls, and many many more things which I can't talk about now because my little babe is waking up from her nap. Annnnd we are off to do some more celebrating. My nephew Kaden is turning two tomorrow....which means miss Coral will be two in only five more weeks. Time to start planning that birthday party of hers.