Spring cleaning, morning sky, papier mache dragons, and knit cuffs

So I got an itch to do something about some corners of my home that weren't working too well. Here's a 'before' shot of the chalkboard table and chairs that resided in our kitchen...a spot which always became a catchall for a basket of laundry.
And here's another corner...this is the living room and those are the couch cushions tossed on the chair there. On the floor is a basket of Plan City toys for the Parking Garage, which usually resides in the living room.And here's Lily's room. This was a bad, bad arrangement for many reasons. There just isn't a great place for these in her room and because of the placement they also were a catchall for laundry and toys, as you can plainly see. Ahem. Then, when they did get played with, all the toy food and dishes would somehow end up scattered everywhere in the room.
So! I moved the kitchen set *into* the kitchen! It works well there--the kids can cook while I cook (and they've already served me some yummy food!), there are already hooks there for their aprons, and my rule is that all the food and implements must stay on the green rug, so it keeps the mess contained. Yay!

And here's the living room--the chalk board table is now a blank canvas for artwork (chalk and eraser is in the bucket) and it's in close proximity to the bookshelf and library book basket for sitting down to read.And Lily's room is much more clutter-free. The ledge is now a perfect place to store a basket of her baby brother's toys. I love finding new ways to re-arrange and make our home and things work better for us.

I took this one morning last week--I think it was around 7 am. That blurred light above the neighbor's house across the street is the moon. The other blurred light is the porch light, I moved the camera too soon (um, there was a car coming and I still had my pj's on). But I still like this pic, the color of the sky is so pretty and there's the century old house across the street and the bare branches of the old maple...it's kinda neat.

Grace made this papier mache dragon from 'eragon' for a school project. I think it's 'Sapphira'. (I should know this). It turned out really cool.

Eric likes to knit! Here he is using his knitting spool while watching TV. That's a good use of TV time! He also has his own needles, but we haven't done that yet.

Here he is with his Superhero cuffs. "I can block lasers with them, just like Wonder Woman!" he says. I love that.