Sweetly Home: Aubrey's Play Yard

While we live at my inlaws home while ours is being renovated, we've had to come up with some creative solutions for our ever growing little girl. For most of her life (until she was 9 months old), she shared a room with her Daddy and I. Then my sister-n-law moved out and Aubrey was moved into her old room. But, it was still not a space for her to daily play. Grandma long before had become creative and used a kiddie pool to contain Aubrey's toys...and Aubrey! It worked wonderfully until Aubrey started standing up and then the pool became unsafe for her.

We then graduated to a play yard. This worked so great for a few months but again, Aubrey was growing bigger and was practicing her walking skills.

The set up in the middle of the living room. We later cut the mats down around the play yard and filled the gaps inside the play space.

Last week we added more panels to the play yard, some new mats, and created a nice, big space for Aubrey to play in. It's WONDERFUL. She just plays and plays and plays. She truly loves it in there.

Here are some photos of her current play yard and a little personalization project I did to help make the space more "her." (I apologize for the lighting and quality. They were taken with my iPhone at night. Unfortunately, there was no way to photograph the play yard in the day light without it looking a wreck. :) )

I purchased these buckets at the dollar store. There were only two white ones though so I'm on the lookout for one more to complete the set.

I set up my Cricut Expression and began cutting out some vinyl letters for Aubrey's buckets. I used the font "Pharmacy".

This bucket says "Aubrey" with butterfly's before and after her name. Unfortunately it was really hard to get a shot of the entire name.

"Toys" with stars before and after the word.

Aubrey's Play Yard Set Up. We moved the couch and love seat to accommodate they play yard. It now takes up the back half of the living room. It's in a perfect nook! And yes, her grandparents are amazing for suggesting we create this space for Aubrey and for giving up so much of the living room for her.

If you happen to purchase these panels, the instructions will tell you that you cannot set up a square/rectagnle with them as having the panels not on an angle will make it much more wobbly. And while we found this to be the case, the play yard is supported on each side by walls, side tables, a couch and a love seat. My welder Father-in-Law is also in the process of fashioning stability bars to also add strength. Aubrey hasn't had any issues and she generally never hangs on the walls anyways, but we certainly want this to be a safe place for her.