the latest obsession(s)

For Quinn's birthday we made him (and Max) a little kitchen.
I grew up with a wood kitchen that my dad made for all of us and I loved it.
It just seems like one of those things that a house with little kids needs to have - Lots of washcloths, a crazy amount of matchbox cars, and a little kitchen.
Anyways, I looked at TONS of little kitchens online (here) to get inspiration and ideas (if it's going to take up space in my house, I better like what it looks like).
I had seen this upcycle of an old entertainment center into a kitchen, and knew that would be the cheapest, easiest and quickest route, so I started scouting out the DI for something I could use.
I found this for $20:



Score. This thing is seriously solid. Way more durable that most entertainment centers you see.
Initially I planned on painting the whole thing, but then when we went back to N.C. I looked at my old kitchen that's just natural wood and decided to stick with it. I figure wood matches almost everything.
We still have a few things to add to it. We need a faucet. And I need to hang the "window" on the back wall and put curtains around it.
Since Quinn is so into birds right now I bought these Martha Stewart scrapbook birds to use on a piece of artwork. Zach suggested painting tree branches and have the birds sitting on them. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.
And you can't really tell from these pictures, but the walls on either side of the sink and stove top are painted a marigold yellow.



I'll add a few more pictures when I have it all finished, but you get the idea.
Do they love it? No. Zach said we probably should have just built bars into it and hung ropes and stuff and then they really would have loved it. They use it more as a jungle gym. Their favorite thing to do is take out the sink/bowl and climb into the hole.
Yeah, that bugs me.
But oh well. What can you do? Someday they might like it more.
Either way, it was essential.
And I'm trying to fill the house with better toys that will last and that will encourage them to pretend and imagine.
And that I like looking at.
I don't mind cleaning up toys as much if I think they're cute.
This is what it looks like most of the time:


But multiplied by 10.

Anyways, the next thing I've been doing lately is playing with our jig saw and the wood we have leftover from the kitchen.

I started by just cutting out fun shapes and sanding them smooth and giving them to the boys as "improvisational blocks" (or something like that).

But then I saw this set of robots and decided to make a set of our own (I'm nothing if not a total copycat).

I'm bummed because I can't find my woodburner, but it's been fun learning to use our dremel instead. :)

So here they are:

They're great because they can make all different combinations of robots, or they can just use them as blocks.

Quinn likes to build the robots flat on the ground and use the skinny rectangles as arms. I hadn't even considered using them that way.

I love that he figured out his own way to play with them.

And nothing beats the sound of homemade wooden blocks being dumped out of a bag and played with.

Now I'm trying to get my hands on a scroll saw. Can you imagine the possibilities??

Dear relatives,

You're all getting wooden toys for Christmas.

Because Katie is obsessed.
The end.