Bushman Clubhouse

Welcome to a MASTERPIECE! Ryan completed the January 2011 Project. Let me introduce you to the Bushman Clubhouse!

(Picture the ladder the same color red that the lettering is! I haven't completed that yet!)

It took 2 full Saturdays, several hours during the week and my few hours of painting to get this bad boy complete. It includes a ladder, a bunk for a twin bed, a slide, a chalkboard wall, interior lights and light switch!

I love the Crooked Playhouses, and I think Ryan pulled this off perfectly!


You can see the lights in the ceiling. We put their mini-kitchen in, a little dresser to hold coloring and kitchen supplies (left) and a table with a fresh coat of chalkboard paint on top.

Here is a view of the table, chairs and to the right, the chalkboard. They love playing school, doodling, practicing letters (Cannon).

At the top of the soon-to-be-red ladder, is Cannon's twin bed. He loves climbing up there for bedtime. Ryan put that faux roof on as a safety precaution, to keep him from rolling off while asleep, or jumping off while awake.

And I've saved the best for last! The slide. The kids favorite. I will admit, I needed some encouraging, but has proved to be the best part.

The first weekend it was completed we didn't see the kids. From the time they were awake till when they went to bed, they were playing in Cannon's room. The novelty has worn of slightly, but they still spend majority of their time in their rooms. Also, our new rule, NO TOYS IN THE LIVING ROOM seems to have stuck. Thank goodness! The timing of this project couldn't have been more perfect, since we have been "snowed in" last week (Tues - Fri) and this week (school closed today and tomorrow). The kids have kept themselves pretty occupied, which keeps mom and dad sane!

Ryan's Project Jan 2011

We have been brainstorming for quite a while how we were going to get the kids situated once Brooklyn was ready for a big girl's bed. Ryan was dying to build something, and somehow we came up with the idea of a play house bed. There will be a ladder going to a loft bed, and underneath is a playhouse. Ryan bought a few more tools - which he was waiting for an excuse like this to "need" them! He had built the wall frames in the garage throughout the week, and yesterday brought them in to start putting it together!

I am amazed at how quickly he could build what he did, with minimal help from anyone. And what is even more surprising, is how he could figure all of this out. On his own. Without anyone's plans, or classes, or coaching. All him! And it is really sturdy and precise.

The kids can't wait for this to be done. They already play in the bare bones of the playhouse. Can you tell by the windows and the door the "crooked" aspect? That is completely intentional! If you are not familiar with Crooked Playhouses, click HERE. I've loved the look of them since I saw them on Extreme Home Makeover.

Last night we brought in a smaller mattress for Cannon to sleep on, and he was so excited to sleep in his "house".

Cannon with his big belly hanging out! With his striped pajamas, we should put bars in the window and make it a little jail house! ... No, I don't want him to be comfortable behind bars. We will keep you posted with the progress!

Hiding Place

Brooklyn loves finding little nooks and crannies throughout the house to play in. The latest was when I took our trash can out of Ryan's homemade cabinet, and she climbed in with the Go, Go Fish! game.
She would climb in, and climb out. Close the door, open the door. She played for about an hour! I love seeing kids get excited about their own creativity.

After a while, Cannon couldn't help himself and climbed in after her. Thank goodness it was big enough to hold both of them! Cannon had his toy, Brooklyn had hers, they were happy campers.

An Absolutely Fun-filled Monday

We spent the last Monday travelling to Dallas in an RV with two other couples for a good friends birthday. We watched a movie, played card games, and laughed a lot! We went to Dallas to celebrate with other Dallas residing friends at The Main Event. We left our kids with a babysitter for half the day and with Ryan's generous mom for the evening shift. With the kids at home, we were carefree for a day and had a BLAST!

The Main Event had A LOT of great activities. They had bowling, a ropes course, laser tag, lots of video games, and delicious food. I think my favorite was the laser tag! We were the Red Team, and everyone in our group are HUGE OU fans, so our group leader Scott yelled, "Boomer!" and we all replied "SOONER!!!" Ohhhh, I loved getting the quick glares from the Texans. On their turf. Hahaha, it was great! And we whooped them in laser tag both times! I took this picture right before we went in, I don't know if it was the fog machine or Ryan's aura! But he is glowing!

One of my other favorite activities was the ropes course. Although I am terrified of heights, I forced myself up there and enjoyed climbing around. My hands were killing me at the end of it, because I was white-knuckle grasping all of the helps throughout the course. Ryan flew through it, but was still encouraging me along!

Here we are in our gear before going up. It was such a FUN day, and we definitely needed some time together to just play and relax. We left Dallas around 10:30pm, and because we were in the RV, we could sleep on the drive home...except for the driver, sorry!

Mullet-ectomy

Baby in the front...

BIG girl in the back!

Brooklyn finally got her first hair cut at 18 months! I waited because I didn't want to cut off her cute wavey mullet. And I could put her hair in adorable pig tails. But I kept it long enough that I could still do little pig tails.

She held still pretty good, and I tried to move fast!

Her reward was a nice warm bath, her bottle, and lots of loves! The hair cut made her look more grown up. They grow up way too fast! I love this little girl!

Anatomy

Well, Cannon is at that age. After being potty trained, he needed to know the proper terms for his anatomy and consequently the female anatomy. We gave him the "Penis vs. Vagina/Boys vs. Girls" talk. Which of course, has provided some FABULOUS comedic material!

Scenario #1 (Yesterday): We were at Braums (a local fast food hamburger place) when Cannon had to use the potty. Ryan took him, and after Cannon was done, Ryan took his turn. Cannon kept asking him, "Where's your penis, Dad? Where's your penis, Dad?" When Ryan finally unzipped to use the restroom, Cannon loudly exclaimed: "That's a really BIG penis!" I'm sure Ryan will be sharing that story for years to come!

Scenario #2 (Today): As we were getting Cannon ready for bed, I had asked him about the anatomy once again, not sure if he remembered the female anatomy (With the fear that he would use the same term, penis, if he saw me on the potty!...in public!!!)
Me: Cannon, boys have a....
Cannon: Penis!
Me: Girls have a ...
Cannon: (Pause for thought) Starfish!!!

We could not stop laughing! I have NO idea where he got that, or where he gets most of his material. The amount of laughter he creates makes up for the chaos!.... most of the time!

Christmas Break Activities

For the first time in our little family's history, Ryan took time off of work and we stayed home! And it was wonderful! We had 2 stomach bugs and 3 colds to recover from, which is much easier in your own home. On one of the first days back in full recovery, we took the kids to see the Jasmin Moran's Children Museum. They LOVED it!

They have a mini-world for the kids to play hands on in. One of the first sections we stopped in, is the Grocery Store. Brooklyn immediately grabbed a shopping cart, and began looking around the aisles for products!

Brenna was very excited to not only fill her cart, but check herself out. There was a cash register, with play money in it, and she loved figuring out how much money the total was with the cash in the register.

They also had a fire truck, a fireman's pole, the jackets and hats. Cannon, of course, loved playing on the truck!

And a little slide! Brooklyn was ready to go down the slide again!

There was a bubble station. I thought Ryan was producing an "Abyss" like bubble!

Brenna asked me to do some face painting. I thought it turned out pretty good!

Our little educators! They had a mini classroom, with little desks, chalkboards, maps, everything!

Paging Dr. Bushman and Dr. Bushman.

Doctor by day, car mechanic by night. The kids loved this hands on exhibit. You could change the filter, add some anti-freeze, and change the tires! This is one of my favorite pictures of Cannon!

Coming to you live, from Rockefeller Plaza is the nightly news, with Mrs. Brenna Bushman and Cannon Bushman for Sports. They even had a mini-broadcast studio with a camera and monitors you could see yourself on. The kids thought that was awesome!

She must be delivering some pretty serious stuff! I LOVE this picture of Brooklyn, because she is rarely this serious.

I guess this is the only picture of me! It is much safer being behind the camera. But I had to get a picture with my big girl. This was one of the highlights to the Christmas break. The kids had a blast, and it was fun to do something we don't do every day.