Basement Re-Do for my P-A-R-T-Y girl

So, when you get pregnant in the Spring, you are destined for a Christmas-time baby. And I have one. My daughter Emily, the 2nd child, was born on December 21st. Barring the fact that I almost died and never made it home for my first-born's 2nd Christmas, it was a great time to have a baby. I have pictures of her all snuggled with presents under the tree on that first Christmas.

Now she is 12!

But as she got older we had to finagle a birthday party without making people uncomfortable, both in schedule and in pocket, around the holidays. This year we opted to plan it WAY out into the future so her 12th birthday party we LAST NIGHT. Yep, almost 2 months later! :) She was fine with it because it gave us time to plan.

My husband envisioned a gaggle of girls and said, "Let's finish the basement." When reality struck, we realized there was no way we could finish the basement in two months so we settled for a really cool TEEN SCENE style set up that would be the place we could send everyone under the age of 30 when they came over to play Wii, spend their snow day, flirt wih or annoy each other. It was a beautiful plan.

It started by hoeing out the crap and moving what would eventually be IN the finished basement to one side and hanging a tarp to hide the carnage.

We have a LONG basement and one end has a little alcove of sorts that would work well for a TV and entertainment system. This photo shows a carpet, but basically it was a long cement rectangle when we started. My hubby found an awesome carpet remnant with pad and brought it home to start the madness. Then we wracked our brains trying to figure out what to do with the walls. We certainly weren't going to start studding and drywalling.

So, WALMART to the rescue. I invested in 40-some long vinyl party table cloths in various bring colors. You can see the cool lamp my husband picked up for them in the far right corner - those colors were my inspiration for tablecloth shopping. The really cool splatter paint banner was from my daughter's webshow, The Kim and Kelly Show - that is their backdrop.  My sons has a webshow as well, The Pete and Dave Show, and his backdrop is hanging across from hers in the other alcove we created on the left for the food/cake table for the party. Now the basement can be their "filming sets," too.

 You can see the gray tarp still hanging to the left...that was unacceptable and needed more color. :)

So more color we added...now you can see the food/cake table, too. We needed food, this was the FIRST boy/girl party. And if you are a mom of or have ever even just FED a boy, you KNOW how much they eat. This FEEDING ALCOVE was a necessity!

About 20 minutes before everyone was going to start coming, my husband decided it was perfect timing to start taking the leather furniture down so they would have the furniture we promised. This furniture has lived through the last 5 years of Izaiah and is now deemed BASEMENT quality. Translation: Mommy is getting NEW sectionals! So, anyway, it is then...20 minutes before I have a houseful of couch potato wannabes...that hubby realized our overstuffed 400 lb couches WON'T FIT THROUGH THE BASEMENT DOOR!

 We opt for the bilco door outside - but the ice storms have made navigating to that side of the house while carrying a 400 lb couch completly impossible.

Now, what? 10 minutes to spare (because I had a 10 minute why-would-you-wait-until-now-temper tantrum) so I jumped in the car and stole 18 bean bags from the nearest church ran to my classroom at church to borrow the  beanbags we use for our 5th/6th graders on Sunday mornings. The beanbags were fun and way more iCarly-style than leather couches (which will eventually be inthe basement - as soon as the ice melts)

I reused the "12" candles from December and in between movies and the JUST DANCE Wii Olympics, we sang and had cake. I love my kids' friends, I truly do. But having the option to sit upstairs with my husband and watch

MY NEW TV!

This morning when they all came up, I had the fixins for pancakes all ready. When I asked who wanted breakfast they told me they were coming up to get the vaccuum to clean up the basement before they ate.

And now they DANCE...no wonder they are all so skinny! LOL!

This is the only evidence that there was a basement full of teenagers last night!!

See why I love these girls so much?!

Peace out, Mamas!

 



My "Why me?" Week with Ashton Kutcher!

Do you ever find yourself suffering through the "WHY ME?" attitude?

With two teens in the house, I am always dealing with their drama, maybe it is wearing off on me. But there have been many days in the last couple of weeks that I literally look for Ashton Kutcher and wonder WHO nominated ME to get PUNK'D!

Wednesday it was when was talking to my mom on the phone Izaiah decided to go to fill his snow boots with water in the tub and then pour that water all over the floor and rug I had just washed. Mind you, the snow boots were NOT in the upstairs bathroom. He went past me to the laundry room, ran up the stairs with them and proceeded to find a new use for snow boots.
"Mom, I gotta go, I think Ashton Kutcher is in my house."

Thursday it was when I finally sat down in the living room after all the kids came home. We were all in the same room at the same time - it was sweet. REAALLY SWEET...like covered in chocolate sprinkles sweet.....
Izaiah ran into the room with the jar of chocolate sprinkles I had left out. His body did a "come and get me" pose. He ripped the lid off and threw his head back for a mongo SHOT of jimmies! Of course, as if that wasn't bad enough, when Matthew hopped up to grab them from him, because I was too lazy to get off the couch further from him than Matthew was, he did it again, only THIS time 2400 of them went directly into his nasal cavity! In an effort to clear said nasal cavity he snorted....IN!
"Yes, Dr. Devaney, unless I am being PUNK'D I think Izaiah has 2400 chocolate sprinkles embedded in his frontal lobe."

This morning was the GRAND FINALE!
We are getting ready for the first teen boy-girl party the Brownlow's have EVER hosted. We have an unfinished basement and are getting new furniture for our upstairs living room. So, we are moving all furniture downstairs and my job was to make it so "TEEN" cool that no one would ever want to leave. Uh..did I just say that? Well, anyway, that is what my day is today - unfinished basement ----->iCarly-style set before 6pm. :) I am so excited to do this for her. She likes a boy and he is coming. She is such an appreciative kid, too. She is thrilled and humbled that we are doing all of this for her party. Her birthday is days before Christmas so this is a LATE-birthday party that she has waited patiently for us to get planned for her. She is such a sweet kid. I LOVE doing this for her. Did I say the boy she likes is coming? (giggle)

With this on my mind, I ask my husband to take Izaiah to preschool this morning so I could use every second of time to get organized for when the house is empty for the rest of the day. Well, while I was trying to be productive Izaiah decided to play Wii instead of eating his breakfast and my husband had to leave so I told him I would just take him.

We were running late and we dashed out the door, only to find my windshield covered in ice - not I had to scrape....time is TICKING ASHTON, this is NOT funny anymore!

I get him to school, leave the car running while I run in b/c I also need to run down the hall and get a quick squeeze from my niece before I go. Yay! All satisfied. Turned my frustrating morning around...

...until I climb back in my warm car and see it is on empty. I push the little button on the dash that tells me how many miles I have left before it it TRULY on empty.

0 miles

Well, Sheetz is 1/2 mile away and my house is 1 mile away. I look at my watch, my daughter's bus will be at the house in 3 minutes. She knows not to get on the bus if I don't make it back in time but then that adds a trip to school to add to my day if she misses the bus.

Gas = not running out of gas = missed bus = unplanned trip to school
No gas = running out of gas before I get home = cold walk home = missed bus = unplanned trip to school = call to husband to come bring a gas can ....

I head to Sheetz.

Now, I am home, she made it onto the bus, my coffee is strong and hot...

I just got a text from the mom of the boy she likes, he is home sick and won't be at her party tonight....

ASHTON KUTCHER YOU ARE NO LONGER HOT!

Peace out Mamas.
(I will post pics of the progress of the room in the basement)