My favorite place...

Before we had kids, Luke and I dreamed of having a giant kitchen table. The kind with plenty of room to eat and play and a table that could fit all of your friends, should the need arise. One of my best goodwill finds was a giant Ikea table for 60 dollars! Seriously, this thing sits 8 without the 2 extensions it comes with. Ok, its Ikea, its definitely not real wood and it won't last forever, but when its covered in marker and baby goop and maybe a few scratches when your husband used it as a wood working table, its probably better that its not real wood and that we didn't spend a fortune on it. We figure the nice, expensive furniture can wait until after the kids are covered in snot and spilling milk on everything.
This table has turned into everything we hoped. We haven't had to break out the leaves yet, but its been surrounded by great friends for dinner. It has become Eden's spot to color and do puzzles, mostly because Judah can't reach it yet. Right now Luke is sitting here grading papers, Eden is coloring and entire sheet of paper red, and I've been doing really, really important things on the internet while sipping my coffee for too long. This table is usually a mess, and not in the cute blog way...You know,  piles of beautiful paper and matching jars with crayons organized by color with a sweet little sprinkle of glitter on top. Nope, its more the left over banana smear from breakfast, half empty coffee cups from the morning, markers without lids sort of mess. But somehow its still my favorite place...