Ode to the Swedish

Confession:

I love IKEA. 

I mean I really, really love IKEA.

And miracle of all miracles, Colorado finally got their very own IKEA.  Which happens to be just twenty-five minutes from mi casa.

Like my friend said Tuesday night as we happily wandered the aisles, "Just being in here makes me giddy."

A few days after it opened, Kevin surprised me and asked if I wanted to go, even though I already had plans to go with girlfriends the following week.  Um, okay!  (I love my husband!  Willing to brave the insane crowds...with his wife who was surely going to want to buy a bunch of stuff.  I think he likes me.)

And it was so, so fun.  Free kids' meals, Swedish meatballs, and lots of fabulous items to drool over look at.  Mary (and Tigist!) each got a new high chair.  Nice and small and easy to clean (!), and we just push Mary up to eat at the table now.  She feels so important.

I also found some fab (and cheap!) plastic stools and organizational stuff.

And (as if I needed another reason to like IKEA), this mama-to-five loves these signs posted everywhere.  Children always welcome?  Okay!  (I actually took this photo in the family bathroom.  Where my children were having a dance party.  Yes, we have fun everywhere we go.  :) )

The only drawback?  You gotta assemble everything yourself.  And, people, I am just not that great with tools smart  strong patient.  Here's hoping Kevin'll give me some help!  Because right now my living room looks like the IKEA warehouse exploded.  Which, now that I think of it, is maybe not a bad look.

Anyway, yes, I am a very strange, simple person.  I like IKEA.  Here's to many more coffee-drinking, meatball-eating, Scandinavian-furniture-buying trips ahead!

***And yes, this post is completely 100% frivolous and silly.  It's actually kind of ridiculous to have so much fun at a big store filled with inexpensive, put-it-together-yourself furniture and random cafeteria food items.  But hey, I don't always have stories about trips to Rome, or about Catholic books I'm reading, and I certainly don't usually always have pregnancies or adoptions to announce.  So, sometimes we just gotta lighten things up a bit, even here at Just Showing Up.  :)