Lofty goal.

Long before we moved, Katie decided she wanted a loft bed. Back at our old house, her bedroom was exceptionally small, so I spent an inordinate amount of time pricing loft beds: beds from IKEA, from other furniture stores, even from mail-order companies that would send you a custom bed built to your specifications (some assembly required).

We never managed to get that bed before we put the house on the market, so with a move imminent, we decided we'd wait until after we moved to get Katie a new bed. And then we waited and waited and waited... and WAITED to sell our house and get in our new one.

So when spring break rolled around, I realized that we've been in our new house for 18 months, and Katie's still sleeping on her poor old bed. Since Kates was going on a week-long retreat for spring break, we figured that'd be the perfect time to surprise her with a new bed. (I originally just wanted to replace her old mattress. It was in awful shape, with a coil dangerously sticking out of one side. But since we had a little extra time and access to a pickup—and IKEA had one in stock—we went ahead and got the loft bed Katie really wanted.)

So after one leisurely trip to Frisco, we had Katie's new bed and mattress! Of course, that means my next few days were spent assembling the darn thing.

Just clearing out her bedroom took hours. Finally we had the old bed out and enough floor space empty to begin the assembly. Like most IKEA projects, the instructions were fairly easy to follow, but it still took me a while to get the whole shebang up.

On Thursday afternoon, we picked up Katie at church. I gotta admit: I was nervous she wouldn't like her bed. We so wanted to surprise her, but I was afraid we could be the ones surprised if she decided a loft bed wasn't for her after all.

I shouldn't have worried. Katie was THRILLED! Stunned, but overwhelmed!

Once she'd been home a few days, she and I went desk shopping. We found this little white desk at Target, and it fits quite nicely under her bed. We were also excited to see that its legs matched the ones on the white bookshelf she already had in her room.

It was fun surprising Katie with her new bed, and it's great to know she's getting good sleep on her new mattress. And the desk? It's getting plenty of use, too.