One last post about the kids' rooms and then we'll move on, I promise! There were pros and cons to giving the kids a big "reveal" where they got to see everything in their room at one time. The pro was that they could see how it all worked together. I imagine it would be hard for them to get excited over opening up something like a bed skirt or lamp if we had just wrapped everything up individually instead.
The con of them seeing everything at one time is that it could be overwhelming and they might not notice just exactly how much stuff they were getting. For example, they might see that they got a new bed and bedding, when really what they got was a new bed, new box springs, new mattress, new mattress pad, new bed skirt, new sheets, new blanket, new comforter, new pillow shams, and a new throw pillow. Catch my drift?
Doc and I wanted them to understand how much went in to putting their rooms together and not miss anything, so we came up with a plan: everything would get a gift tag. Now, that would be silly if everything in the room was from us, but it wasn't. We knew early on that we'd receive emails from our parents and siblings asking, "What can we get your kids for Christmas??" So we extended an invitation to anyone who wanted to be involved to go in with us on their bedroom. I shopped and planned out the bedrooms and then let everyone stake claims on items and pay us for them. It was a win-win for everyone!
After their rooms were put together, I sat on the floor and wrote out gift tags for every single thing and who each thing was from.
And then I walked through each room tagging items.
With that done, I needed to wrap the rooms! Yes, wrap the rooms. They had to open them, afterall.
I started by running a long strip of painters tape down both sides of their bedroom doors, with the sticky side out. I had to use a separate piece of tape to tape it down at the top and bottom.
My other supplies were rolls of red and green crepe paper. I started with just one roll of each color. If you ever do this yourself, please note that it will take much more than just two rolls. I had to run to Fred's halfway through the first door to get more, and ended up using almost 6 full rolls.
I started with the green, secured it to one corner, and then strung it from side to side. This is why the tape was sticky side out.
Then I picked up the red crepe paper and wove it in with the green. (Notice that I left the actual bedroom door open.)
I just kept going back and forth, alternating colors, until I made it all the way down the door. Occasionally, I'd add more tape to the edges to secure the crepe paper that I'd strung up. (Excuse the crazy shadows.)
I left Anna's door open at the very bottom. This was so that I could crawl in with my camera right before the reveal. Doc finished wrapping it up after I made it in.
Then it was time for the fun!
Anna won the coin toss so she got to go first. Please look at how she scared Lolli to death when she busted through the door!
She finally made it in and collapsed on her bed.
We gave Anna just a few minutes to look around her room before telling her to pause so Wyatt could see his. It was his turn to bust through the door!
After the initial viewing, we made the kids go through the rooms and get all the tags. It was sorta like a scavenger hunt since they had to find them all. This was good, though, because we wanted to make sure they read them all and saw who everything was from.
By the time we were done with the whole shebang, Wyatt was kicking us all out of his room because he wanted to take a nap in his awesome new bed. Hey, if this room will make a teenager nap? We'll take it!
And that's how you wrap a room. :)