The hunt for Barbie

My house is still full of boxes. It is somewhat discouraging because I feel like I have unpacked and organized so much, yet there is still so much to be done. I am trying, but now that we are living here, it is harder. Like I still have to fix breakfast and lunch and take out the trash and wash clothes. Boy was I spoiled staying with Momma and Daddy. . .

So the kids have their moments when they are content to play together with the things that have already been unpacked. These moments allow me to focus and unpack and get excited about the new house. Then there are the moments that they want something, in this case, it was Barbies. Jessa had been asking me to unpack Barbies for DAYS. Now, the "play room" is currently a "box room." We had a lot of the boxes put in there because there is no real furniture AND no one needed to sleep in there. So I would agree to open 1 box here and 1 box there to see if we could find things. I am not unreasonable. These kids have more toys that FAO Schwarz, and they have more than enough to occupy them. I have unpacked coloring books, crayons, books, stuffed animals, trains, and many other things. Plus their toy boxes were moved FULL of toys, so please do not feel too bad for Jessa.

There are a couple of reasons why opening boxes searching for Barbies willy nilly is not a good idea. First, if I open it and it is not the right box, I am not about to tape it back. This means that when they are bored, they can scatter the contents of said box all over the house. I prefer to open them when I am ready to put things in their proper place. As much as boxes drive me crazy, box contents scattered everywhere is WORSE.

Second, the boxes are hard to figure out. Here is the way they are labeled:

There are like 20 boxes all labeled with one word:

I knew the Barbies were in a case, so that helped me figure out the size of the boxes to concentrate on. I would let her pick one labeled toys, and we'd give it a shot. This went on for a couple of days.

So yesterday, Jessa was having a rough day. Every little thing would set her off. It was rainy and dark, so we were all sort of feeling blah. But I was making so much progress in the kitchen that I did not want to unpack MORE toys yet. Well, after her third hysterical melt down over nothing, I told her I would find her Barbies.

After about 10 boxes, lots of moving, climbing, and lifting, I found the confounded Barbies. She was SO happy and spent the rest of the afternoon dressing and bathing and fixing Barbie hair. Spencer was even playing with her (she shared a few with him).

I was happy that they were happily playing the rest of the afternoon, never mind the carnage that is the "box/play room:"