Big Kid Beds and New Rooms

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that the kids were five and a half years old and still sleeping in toddler beds (essentially, in their cribs with the fourth side removed), crammed into a tiny shared room. The plan was always for the boys to move, eventually, into the "sun room" in the far back of the house when they were old enough.  We inherited a bunk bed from our friends the Evans and it has been sitting lonely in there for years (except for occasional visits from  Caroline the mountain goat).  And the rest of the room filled up with junk and stuff.

So on April 1st, when I was off school and the kids were in school, Grandma and I hired some nice ladies to come in and help me de-clutter and get the rooms set up.  Then on Saturday we had the 1-800-Got-Junk guys to come out and schlep all the junk out (and a bunch of the stuff from the basement) and paid them a few bucks extra to carry Caroline's new bed (also from the Evans) and chest of drawers (from Laura and Alexa) so that Uncle and I wouldn't have to.

And just like that, the baby room was gone and we were ready for big kids.  

Caroline had to bunk with me for one night until Uncle could come over and help me assemble her bed, but once she was moved in, she was set.  There's a trundle underneath that is currently stuffed to the gills with stuffed animals and which she hides baby clothes in that she wants to "keep for my baby dolls to wear".  She decided she didn't want to take all her brothers' decorations down off the walls, which is kind of sweet.

When the kids came home the first day they INSTANTLY wanted to move their clothes into their new dressers, which means they are no longer spilling all over the living room.  (YAY!)  This also meant that I could convert their old clothes "organizer" into a toy cabinet and move the old toy cabinet into Caroline's room to house her dolls and hair things and make-up supplies.  Now the boys want their toys in their room, but we'll work on that one slowly as there really isn't room.

It is amazing how much bigger the house feels now that we are actually using all of its rooms.