all shades of pink

I am very proud to say Emi and Misaki have moved into their new room! It's not exactly like what we first talked about but it's beautiful nonetheless and the girls are really excited about it. The room kind of looks like an explosion of pink and honestly, a little too much pink for my tastes, but it's perfect for the two of them.

I painted the room last Saturday (two Saturdays ago maybe). I painted the light pink first and I was so proud of it but when I showed it to Chikara and the girls they couldn't see the difference. Then I painted the last wall the dark pink color and after the first coat it was too much. Chikara asked if he could see it and I wouldn't show it to him! It looked like the circus had come and thrown up on that wall. So I mixed some of the light pink with the rest of the dark pink paint and tried that on the walls and it was much better. It's still bright but I wanted it to be contrasting. And it is!

Then on Monday I took all the girls to my friend's house in the morning and Chikara and I started in on moving the bunk bed from one room to the other and putting everything else in place. We were shocked by all the dust and pieces of paper that we found behind the bunk bed. I think I've cleaned back there maybe once since we bought it three years ago. Obviously I'm going to have to be a little more diligent from now on. The more I worked on the room, the more I liked it. The bedspread is a little darker than the light pink walls but not as dark as the bright wall and the curtains have a white background with different color flowers and then the rugs are another shade of pink and red.

We finally finished around 3:30 in the afternoon and I went to pick up the girls. They had had a lovely time and weren't even curious about what we had been doing. I hadn't told them because I wanted it to be a total surprise. Also, I was worried about how Sakura was going to react to being left out. Once we got back home, I asked Misaki and Emi to take some folded laundry up to their rooms and put it away. I was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with my camera but no sound came from upstairs. I waited and waited and still nothing so I went upstairs and Misaki was already sitting on her bed and Emi was standing in the doorway with her mouth hanging open. Then she turned to me and said, "So *this* is why we went to Ruri's house!". Can't slip anything by her!

They were so excited. They said thank you and exclaimed over every part of the room. Misaki kept saying, "I don't know what to say!", and they hopped from the bed to the closet and back to their beds again. Both of them said they wanted to go to sleep RIGHT NOW! But it was only 4:30 so they had a little more to go. I told them that this was their room now and that Sakura and Natsuki weren't allowed in. They are allowed to come up whenever they want and they can put all their "private" stuff" on the shelves in their bed. Already I can tell that there will be more peace in the house because everyone will have a little bit more space from each other. We enjoy our time as a family but sometimes six people in one room is too much!

Anyways, here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

I have yet to buy the mirror or make the picture frames for their drawings but I haven't seen anything that I thought was right for the room. Ikea is opening in Kobe in two more weeks so hopefully I'll be able to find something there.


Special thanks go to my mom for making the curtains and duvet covers when she visited in February and for the advice about the changing the light fixture. Also, my friend Kelly brought the pink and red rugs from the Ikea in Tokyo this weekend. Thanks Kelly!


Here are Emi and Misaki in their special room.






Amazingly, Sakura has had no problem with the fact that Emi and Misaki got a special room and she didn't. Since she is now sleeping on the single bed that used to be Emi's, she thinks that she got all new stuff, too. I'm a little worried about Sakura and Natski sleeping together but I'm sure they'll figure it out. Natsuki's never slept in a room with anyone before (except for special trips) so she's waking up early in the morning thrilled to find a friend to talk to. We'll keep working on it!

Thank you everyone for your encouragement along the way!