Teeny Table Rehab

With the days getting cooler, and daylight hours getting shorter....it has crossed my mind that Charlotte and I will be indoors.  A LOT.  And soon...sooner than we realize.

So that has led me to start working on fun indoor things for us to do- (or at least write a "To Do List" of ideas to do!).  The Teeny Table Rehab; however, managed to get checked off my "To Do List" and so I thought I would share...

Pictured above is my old pink table and chair from my childhood.  If you look closely, you can see it is in pretty rough shape.  Jeepers (family dog still lives with the parents :) ) used it as his furniture for probably more years than I actually played with it...thus leading to a thick layer of dirt build-up between the cracks, wood-wear-and-tear...etc.

Before I could make it look all pretty and "new," we had to use some elbow grease to get that thing clean.  And on one of the particularly chilly mornings we've had recently, I decided to get started.  I bundled Charlotte up the best I could, loaded her into her "safari vehicle."...with her favorite basketball, and got to brushing and sanding the dirt and chipped paint away.

Yeah, so her hat is a little small....but she looks cute as a button with her chubby cheeks and chin all smashed forward.  Hehehe, love it!  Don't worry, we got her a new, larger hat for the cold season...the cute hat pictured has been retired.

She looks like... "ummm, mom...what are you doing?  And why am I all bundled up like this?  Are you nuts?"

Being the "responsible" mom I am (haha!) I didn't make Charlotte sit out in the cold for too long while I brushed and sanded.  Plus it was almost nap time...but we resumed our work later after it warmed up a bit.  See, even Charlotte pitched in and did her part! 

Look at her brushing that table all clean!  

It's very serious work.

I apologize there are no pictures of us painting.  But it was a two day process.  That ol' table and chairs drank the paint like water...and required more than just a couple coats of paint.  So I sewed up some cushions for the table and we pureed some pumpkin while we waited for the paint to cure...

To my surprise, Charlotte grabbed the pumpkin outa my hand and started eating it!  Just like a cookie, like it "ain't no thing" to just eat pumpkin fresh from the oven.  Love it.

 And Charlotte had to take some time to EAT that freshly baked pumpkin.  Because what else do you do when you are a baby and you don't even realize there's an awesome surprise coming your way?

FINALLY Charlotte got to test out her Teeny Table.  And she loves it!  Oh yes, I must mention- Charlotte started walking the weekend we finished the Teeny Table Rehab!  A friend of mine pointed out that Charlotte took her first independent steps to the Bible.  (I was so caught up in the fact that I missed them while Ben and I were out, I didn't even realize that my Dad had told me she took her first steps while trying to get to my Bible placed just out of her reach.  Just got up and walked to it.)

She received the little tea set from her friend Lillian at her birthday party.  And the "birthday cake" is from her Auntie Pam.

I was so excited I was pretty much giddy when I plopped her down in front of it.  I like the feeling of working hard on something, rehabbing the old and making it new.  It's just fun...

OOOOO, Mom!  This is so great!  

Yes, I do see some fun tea parties in our future.  And maybe, if you're so lucky to be friends in the area, you can come sit around the Teeny Table with us!

PS) Other Cold Weather/Indoor play project ideas I have are:  homemade playdough, homemade fridge magnets, set up a "safari" lodge play area in our unfinished basement, pudding painting on plates......and that's it for now.  Feel free to post any ideas you have!