Room Makeover Christmas Surprise!

A few months ago we officially moved Little Bud into his own room.  He was sleeping every night in the "play room" because if he wakes up and sees someone to talk to, there's no way he's going back to sleep.  He usually wakes up every morning around 5 am (Big Sister used to do the same thing) before falling back to sleep for a few more hours.  So, for the sanity of our little family, we decided it was best for the kids to have their own rooms for now.

With Christmas quickly approaching, we started trying to think of something special for the kids that didn't involve a humongous pile of toys.  In the end, we decided to give their rooms a make over as their "big" Christmas gift.  When we were at Disney, we went through a piggy bank game at Epcot, where you work to earn and save money towards a particular goal.  In the game, Big Sister chose for her goal to be a room makeover, so we're hoping she'll be excited about her new room come Christmas morning!

After some deliberation and lots of brainstorming, we decided for Big Sister's theme to be "It's a Small World", since she is fascinated with geography and loves the ride at Disney.  Unfortunately, that is not a popular room theme.  We've spent countless hours over the last few months compiling and creating all of the components for her room.  I'm a researcher, so I tracked down all of the things we needed to buy (comforter, curtains, material, paint colors, etc) for the rooms, and John is good at making things, so he's been hard at work planning and creating really cool things for both rooms.  We've actually had a lot of fun!

Little Bud's theme is transportation...as in anything that has a motor :)  That boy loves cars, trucks, trains, planes, boats and farm equipment :)  Originally I found the cutest little outer space inspired nursery online (they used cool fabric and embroidery hoops to create the planets) and wanted that to be his theme, but in the end, I knew we had to go with what makes our little boy happy!  I must hear him say, "Vroom, Vroom" at least a thousand times a day.  He even has a funny little humming noise for golf carts (he has to stick his finger in his mouth to "start" the golf cart noise for some reason) that he started making when we were at Disney (lots of people drive golf carts around the campground there).

We painted their rooms a few weeks ago, and we went with a nice gray color, that coordinates with the decor from both of their rooms.  We're planning to prep the rooms sometime between now and Christmas, when Big Sister is away from home (getting everything "mapped out" and putting all the nails in the walls, etc), so that after she goes to sleep Christmas Eve, we can sneak in and get everything ready (thankfully she's a sound sleeper!).

Both of our families got on board with the room makeover, and have bought/made both littles fun things for their rooms for Christmas.  I can't wait to see everything put together; I think I'm more excited about Christmas this year than I have been in a while ;)

John decided early on that he wanted to make a sun similar to the one that's featured

on the ride at Disney World.  It took more work that he bargained for, but the end result is great!

He's hoping to add a motor to the back rays so that they actually spin.

He cut out the foam board, and then we covered the board with orange burlap 

and LOTS of Modge Podge :)  

I bought a canvas a few nights ago, and John's planning to paint a scene on it,

using this as inspiration.