Some people renovate their own kitchen...

We, apparently, just renovate our little ones' kitchen.  Three Christmases ago, we got Anni a little play kitchen.  We kept it small, because we were living in an apartment, on a budget, and figured her imagination could make up for what it lacked in size.  Throw in some ikea pots and pans and we were set.

For most of the time we lived in the apartment, it lived in a variety of angles in a corner by our kitchen/eating area (I'm still completely unsure as to why apartments feel the needs to put carpet in the dining area, but that's neither here nor there).  At some point (a point I, of course, have no photos of) I bought a stack of ikea spice racks and we managed to get one hung before we moved. 
 

When we moved to the house, it took a few months, but we finally got that one lonely shelf back up.

 
It was good, but it definitely wasn't quite enough.  We had added play food, dishes, and some empty spice bottles since the original purchase of the kitchen, and I got really tired of finding places to stuff everything.  I had had other simple organization plans for awhile, but it took a day of Daniel's parents coming down to help us with other, more important, things (mainly a leaky kitchen pipe) to get our rears in gear and get it done.
   

Ta-da!  It's one of those things that the girls really don't care about either way, but this mama is very happy that there is a place for everything.

We added a second shelf, and, on the first shelf, we added a row of hooks for the tea cups and hot pads.  Then, we (I say we, but Daniel and his dad actually did the work... I just directed) added several "s" hooks the the little bar over the sink so that the pots and pans had a home of their own.  Maybe I should start thinking about some upgrades to my own kitchen now...