I was sure that this year’s Superkea Sunday was going to be much more crowded than last year’s, when the Falcons were playing. I was wrong! Ikea was satisfyingly dead, and we enjoyed the least congested Superkea Sunday in recent memory.

If you’re new to the blog and have no idea what I’m talking about, we have a family tradition of going to Ikea every year during the Super Bowl and taking advantage of the rare low crowds to shop and explore the tiny fake apartments in peace. This was our sixth straight year! And we were actually home in plenty of time to watch the Patriots lose, too, so that was a nice bonus.

Some Superkea Sundays we have a long list of things we need. Some years we have a short list but with a major purchase or two on it. This year we had a short list of minor purchases: curtains for the dining room and plates and bowls to replace the ones that have broken over the past year.

If Ikea ever stops making this color of dishes, we’ll be in trouble. Or, you know, we’ll just switch over to white dishes or something:

For the dining room, we bought dark green Sanela velvet curtains. Which means that I think we’re going with the more minimalist, no wallpaper dining room plan. Even though most of you voted for wallpaper. It’s easy to vote for wallpaper when you’re not the one who has to pay for it and hang it ;). Also, I could visualize the no wallpaper plan a lot better in my head. I am anxious to begin. But we have to finish our stupid, never-ending chicken pen project first. There are chicks in my bedroom still! I am so ready for them to move outside! I love you chicks, but you’re noisy and stinky.

We also bought some pillows for the trailer.

And, of course, a bat costume for Abe. This was one of our two Ikea fails. The bat costume has three parts: bad head with ears, bat wings, and fluffy leg things. We didn’t realize until the next morning that we had accidentally picked up two packages of fluffy leg things and no wings! So now we have to find a non-superkea Sunday time to go back and exchange. Sigh. But you get the (adorable) idea:

Ikea fail #2: we also tried to buy a couple of folding chairs for the trailer, but they were out of stock. Only they weren’t really out of stock; I was just looking in the wrong place for the wrong color chair. I ordered those online when I got home, though. Before I realized we also needed bat wings.

I believe that was it for purchases this year. We also like to spend some time looking around and getting ideas for future projects and just seeing what’s new at Ikea. This kitchen is not new; it’s exactly the same as last year, but I like it. It seems like a nice, friendly kitchen:

We’re planning to redo Milo and Gus’s room soon, and we’re liking the idea of loft beds in there. And I really like this one, except that it comes with that desk, and I need it without. Because we need TWO loft beds, and there’s no way we can fit two in their room with these giant desks sticking out. So Dave may be building loft beds. If he ever finishes the chicken pen. So much building for Dave!

….except I just checked, and it looks like the desk can be used as a separate piece (we thought maybe it was needed as structural support for the bed). So hmm….will have to think on this more.

I want to come up with a new coat/shoe storage solution for the foyer. Possibility:

….although I think coats would never get hung up on actual hangers. And the main problem with what we have now is that the shoe baskets are too small for my kids’ now giant feet, and I think those baskets would have the same issue. So maybe not.

Abe gets more and more into Superkea Sunday every year. I think he would have been happy to spend hours playing in the pretend kitchens:

And riding the elevator:

We take an Ikea sofa picture every year, but this year’s is…not good. Thanks for putting our sofa of choice right under this glaring light, Ikea!

One notable difference between this Superkea Sunday and past ones is that even the checkout lines were short! That almost never happens; usually Ikea manages to understaff just enough for any conditions that you always wait in a long checkout line no matter how empty the store is. But not this year! We were second in line!

So, all in all, another successful Superkea Sunday in the books!

I had New Year’s blogging goals to post at least once a week and to do more posts about just…stuff, even if I don’t have a big finished project to post about. But I already missed a week last week, even though there is plenty going on that I could have blogged about.

Like Abe turned five! And we had a small family party for him, with a superhero theme. And I got my best kid with birthday candles photos ever! Which is not saying much, because historically I miss the great candle shot every time. Even though we’ve had so many birthdays to practice on. Anyway, Abe had a great birthday, and I can’t believe he’s five! Five is so big! Stop it, Abe!

And then after cupcakes and presents, the kids did an encore performance of their original play, “About Couches and How You Live.” Milo’s not in the picture, because he was the lights and sound guy. My kids are weird, and that makes me very happy:

Competitor for favorite line: Bison, no offense, but you are one lousy driver!

That chicken pen is the big reason the blog’s been quiet…I expected to have it all finished and ready to blog about by now, but it’s taking longer than expected. It’s looking really good, though!

Our chicken pen at our old house was a Craigslisted chain link dog kennel with hardware cloth wrapped around it, so this is much more attractive. Hope to have a post about it and a chick-free house soon!

 

 

 

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