Murphy closet

While David was in Omaha this week, the girls and I completely transformed this room.

Until now this room has doubled as a guest bedroom and playroom with a king bed taking up most of the floorspace.

Now it is primarily a playroom with the king bed hidden away behind what I'm calling our "Murphy Closet."  In just a couple of hours I built this tall armoire-type-cabinet that now houses the king bed, box springs, and all the pillows and linens for it.  When company comes to visit, I just open the doors, pull the bed down, and put the linens on.  Every other day, the bed stays hidden behind the cabinet and the girls can play, play, play in the room.  Of course having more floor space meant rearranging the entire room.

Now the toy box wall is located beside the door with the wall of mirrors above.

By hiding the bed, we now have floor space for the girl's picnic table.

I moved Grace's fingerpaintings to other side of the room.

And put the Dora vanity in front of one window beside our Murphy Closet.

I was even able to bring in both the single and double rocking chairs that had been sitting in the garage unused.  I went ahead and made pillow cushions for the seats while I was at it.

Here's a closer look at our newly construction Murphy Closet.  It's pretty big.  8 feet tall big.  This picture doesn't accurately portay its height.  It's the same height as the windows, but just looks taller from this angle.  It's the same viewpoint my girls have. 

I used leftover green glass knobs from a previous project transforming a garage sale dresser.

And I forgot to mention that I painted the doors with hot pink chalkboard paint.

So our Murphy Closet not only hides our king guest bed, it also became an art station.

And wouldn't you know that both girls absolutly love their new playroom.

In fact, the playroom is now the first room Grace and Faith run to in the mornings and afternoons.  In fact, we spend most of our day in there playing, and pretending, coloring, drawing, and using our imaginations. 

All in all, I'm wishing I had thought of this project much sooner.  It only took a few hours of hard work.  I just brought a list of measurements to Home Depot and the kind men there cut my wood to size for me at no charge.  Home Depot is one of my new favorite places to shop.  After bringing all the lumber home, all I had left to do was assemble it.  It only took about an hour to get it put together.  Minus the doors.  I'll admit it took me close to an hour to hang those monstrous doors by myself.  Of course the cabinet is 8 feet tall - a good 2 1/2 feet taller than I am.  After I finished putting it together (with Grace's help -s he handed me all the screws) Grace and I painted it.  It was a lot of fun working together with Grace.  She loves to help and I love having her as my little assistant. 

When David came home "shocked" is an understatement.  Of course, he didn't notice it until he'd been home for a full day.  But his reaction was quite amusing.  I think he was just glad he wasn't here during all the construction and he didn't have to help.  And I think he might be a little worried about the next time he has to travel.  Who knows what he'll come home to then...

Gulf Coast Zoo

Today we went to the Gulf Coast Zoo.

This was our first visit ever to this particular zoo.  Somewhat intimidating.  At least at first.

But then we got to see the baby kangaroos.

And those joeys won our hearts over.

Even Faith was excited to see them hop around.

And would you believe that one hopped right into a bag for Grace to hold!?

He looked at Grace looking at him, and then put his paw around Grace's neck.

Grace responded with, "I think he likes me!"  She was correct.

Then Grace brought Faith over to pet another joey.

Those kangaroos are surprisingly soft creatures.  But they are fast.  Very fast.

And tall, too.  This one is only 9 months old and he's almost as big as my 3 year old.

Then we checked out the cats.  We were amzingly close to them.

We saw lions and lionesses.

And tigers.

They saw us, too.  But just yawned at us.  My what big teeth they have!

Faith leaned in for a closer look.

Then we petted some goats.

And deer.

We spotted some birds.

Some of those lovebirds were kissing.

There were plenty of mommas watching their babies, too.

And little bunnies hopping all over the place.

I particularly liked this big tortoise.  He may have been big and slow, but he was determined to come by and say hello.  Even if it did take him a solid 15 minutes to get to us.

The smaller ones seem to be faster. This one made the trek in  half the time.

The monkeys were cute, too.

After a couple of hours it was time to head home.  Even the merry-go-round wasn't enough to keep Faith happy.  But we will come visit again sometime soon.  I bought a family pass afterall.

A trip to the alligator farm

Today the girls and I went on a little adventure.

To Alligator Alley!

While purchasing our tickets, this little guy was running loose.  He jumped on Grace's shoulder and then took off.  Isn't he darling?  He's only 9 weeks old.  The girl behind the counter told us that he fell from a tree and his mother abandoned him, so she adopted him.  Now Grace wants a pet squirrel.

Next, we bought gator chow and headed out to feed the gators.

I couldn't resist the mini man eaters...they're Grace's age!

We walked along the boardwalk.

And feed a few of the gators.  Since there are over 200, we didn't come close to feeding them all.

Captain Crunch was pretty interesting.

Even Faith enjoyed tossing some chow out.

It didn't take us long to run out of food.

So we decided to walk around the park some more.

It was quite warm, but mostly shady.

When I asked who wanted to see the baby alligators, they both raised an arm and said, "I do!"

Aren't the little hatchlings so cute?

Then it was time for the gator feeding.

This is Wes.  He's the owner of Alligator Alley and I think he's Alabama's version of Steve Irwin.

All those alligators came running as soon as he crossed over the fence.

They knew it was feeding time.  Feeding time is every day at 11:00, 1:00 and 4:00.  It was an amazing thing to watch.

Then they brought a 2 year old gator out for us to touch and hold.  At first Grace announced, "My momma says I can't touch the alligators."  But after a few minutes she looked at me and asked so sweetly, "Momma, is it okay that I touch the little alligator."

She was so brave as she held it and took it over to show Faith.

Next my girls will be wanted a pet alligator...