Holy Perfect Dot Spots!

A couple weeks ago, I went shopping for new placemats for my kitchen table.

 If you've been following me for a while, you'll remember that my husband made me a farm house table for our new house. I love it. It's so beautiful that I nearly have a heart attack when a guest sets their drink on it. I try really hard not to look like a completely rude hostess while I swoop in to grab their drink and set it on one of the placemats. One friend suggested that I put a tablecloth on the table...but it's too pretty to cover up and it's 7 feet long (which makes finding the perfect tablecloth tricky).

 So, I frequently shop for new placemats. I'm picky about the placemats. They have to be certain colors, certain fabrics and they can not be bumpy (because the bumps help my kids spill their drinks).

I took my kids shopping with me. I love my kids. I do not love taking them shopping. They each had their opinions about which placemats we should buy. We didn't agree until we set our eyes on these perfect polka dot spot placemats.

They are vinyl, kind of squishy and 17 inches. My kids were so excited that I agreed to buy them, until my daughter noticed that I was putting 10 of them in our cart and that they happened to match my classroom. That's when she yelled out, "You're not going to let us use those. We should have known they were perfect for your classroom, right?" Busted.

She's right.  They are way too bumpy for home and perfect for my classroom.  I'm going to use them as seat cushions for different center areas.   I think they will help me define a few spaces, but allow that space to easily be transformed back into a different kind of work station after center time is over. Isn't it funny that I never thought of using placemats to help define a space, until I found them in the colors to match my room?

While they are not being used at a center, I'll keep them in a basket for kids to use to sit on during quiet reading time.  I let my kids grab pillows from around the room to sit in a comfy spot to read 2 or 3 times a week during quiet reading (the other times they read at their own seats). Having these extra seat cushions will help when we run out of pillows.

I found the perfect polka dotted placemats seat circles at Kohls.  They were originally 5.99 each.  But, between the sale price and my coupon I only paid about $2 each.  They also had orange, black, yellow and brown.

Plan for today.  Long bike ride, dog walk, reading, beach time, sunset and campfire.  Summer is so good for us.