Project - Day Two

You know how I mentioned how tired we were yesterday after all that work?  Yeah, well, with all that we did today?  We're like 10 times more exhausted than yesterday and we still have (God willing) two more days to go!  The rain held off until the very end of our day today, so we only worked in the rain for about 30 min.  I was so thankful!  Tomorrow and Monday might not be as cooperative.  We'll see.  Anyway, here are more pictures of our progress - Day 2.

This is the west side of the house and the part we got to today.  This is our "Before" picture.  As you can see, it's mostly crab grass there too, with a few more lilies thrown in - some daffodils too.  They all got dug up, along with the irises there at the end.

Instead, we now have a blueberry bush on the end to compliment our growing raspberry bush.  Hopefully it will grow really big too!  The clematis that we moved to this spot yesterday is looking much better after the shock it received (aka being dragged with a snow shovel to its new spot!) yesterday.  Hopefully it'll continue to vine up our trellis.  We worked on the entire west side and got nearly all of it done.

We removed the sandbox, which has been a faithful companion of our kids since Madie was just a wee 3 yr old.  I remember Noah sitting in it when Madie first got it and puking inside of it.  Ahh... the memories. :-)  We're now gifting it to a friend of ours whose 2 yr old will just LOVE it!  The crab continues to spread the love!

This is the area on the west side by our patio where the sandbox was.  We took it out and we dug up all of the irises by the patio.

This whole area is now empty.

We just got around to starting this when the rain came.  I'll show you "Before" and "After" pictures when we're able to finish this spot.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!!  So, on our to-do list, we still have this area to finish, the fire pit, tree planting, mailbox area and a small space on the north side of the patio left to complete.  I think it's fair to say we are tired and would rather NOT do anymore, but at the same time, we're eager to finish it.  And, with recital next weekend, there won't be much time for work next weekend at all, so hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to get most of our weekend project done by the time work and school roll around on Tuesday.  Wish us luck! :-) 

Memorial Weekend Project - Day 1

It seems like we've been doing a lot of smaller projects as of late.  Nothing major, other than painting or installing stuff.  But, this weekend, we are tackling a much needed re-do to our landscaping.  We did our landscaping 9 yrs ago and have done some minor upkeep over the years.  But, we were so tired of looking at our flower beds and seeing more crab grass than flowers, so we decided to bite the bullet and re-do it all.

Our 7 loads of rock came on Tuesday.  I had Tater get in the picture, so you could see how many rocks 7 loads is!  It's a WHOLE lot!  Pete took the day off, so we would have 4 days to work on it and thank goodness he did, because this is going to take us ALL of those 4 days, if not more.  Our plan is to dig up all the weeds and get rid of some of our flowers and the mulch that is there and add new heavy-duty weed barrier and rocks.  We are going to add a new mailbox and add rocks and maybe some plantings there.  We're going to plant a tree in our backyard in memory of Mrs. Brannon, the kids' social worker that passed away a couple months ago.  AND, if we actually are still able to fit it in, we want to build a firepit.  This is only day one, so we'll see if we're able to accomplish all of this by the end of Monday.  I'll be REALLY surprised if we do!  But, here we are, at the end of Day 1, and I have a few "Before" and "After" pictures for you.

This is the south side of our house.  That big bush is our raspberry bush and we have tons of irises along the rest of it.  This is the "Before".

This is the "After".  We pulled out an entire area of Irises, because the raspberry bush was crowding it and we want to let it have room to grow.  When we dug this all up and ripped up the weed barrier in this area we discovered a HUGE ant colony.  It stretched from the bush to nearly the end of the house.  We would pull up the barrier and find thousands upon thousands of ants and their eggs.  It was DISGUSTING!!  I love the look of a pretty garden, but I loathe gardening.  I hate bugs and dirt and all of it, so thankfully Pete was very good about letting me take breaks from it and keep my distance, at times, from the bugs that we uncovered.

This is a little farther down from the pictures above.  Same side of the house, though.  That big mass of stuff is literally just crab grass with a few lilies thrown in.  You couldn't even see the lilies anymore.  We dug up that entire area, since it too was getting crowded out and we were tired of the stupid crab grass growing everywhere.

This is what it looks like now.  Again, same side as before, just a different angle, so you can see how we spaced it out more and added all the rock.  That's as far as we got today.  Might not seem like a whole lot, but it was a full-day of work!  Pete also did some more small stuff around the front of the house, but this was the biggest part of our day.

As always, Tater was by our side and made sure to help us the whole time. :-)  He loved spending the whole day outside with us.  Just felt bad that there wasn't any shade for him.  Hopefully we'll get that tree up in the next couple of days, so he'll have some shade soon.

These irises were just in the one spot that we cleared out.  Pete took the entire lot of them up to our friends, James and Donna.  They're going to be working on their own landscaping project this weekend too!  They only live a couple blocks away, so it'll be fun to trade off some of our "produce". ;-)  So, here we are.  Day One is complete.  We are both a little sunburned, definitely both exhausted, and ready to wake up and tackle another full day of digging, planting, and rock-laying!  Last time we did this, we were still in our 20s.  Little bit harder to have the same amount of energy 10 yrs later when we're staring down our 40s! ;-)

Tech Rehearsal

Last night was Tech Rehearsal.  We've never had it on a weekday, so that was definitely different.  Madie didn't get home until 9pm.  I started developing my very first migraine right before we were to leave.  It sucked, because I was having blurry vision and having a hard time focusing, so the drive over was a little nerve-wracking.  But, we made it.  I quickly texted Pete though and told him I needed something to help with the pain.  He, thankfully, was able to leave work early and get me some meds and caffeine.  I was able to watch Madie's first performance and Livie's performance, before I gave up and went home.  Pete followed us to make sure I was ok, then headed back to be with Madie until it ended.  I've never missed a tech rehearsal, so I was really disappointed with that.  

Here is the photo I got to take of Madie's very performance.  Tech is where the kids come, dressed in their regular dance stuff, and practice their number a couple of times, until they get a feel for it on the stage.  They all did a great job!

This was Livie's.  Two of the girls were missing last night, so that's why the older girls stepped in.  They won't be on the stage during the performance though.  She did a great job too and I can't wait to see them do it in their costumes next week during dress rehearsals.  Hopefully I won't have to deal with any more headaches and can stay for the whole thing!

More Dance Prep

As you saw me post earlier this week, the dance recital is coming up soon.  That means dance pictures are in full swing for my girls.  On Saturday, Madie had her pictures taken.  Because she's in 3 different numbers, I let her pick out her favorite to get pictures of.

She got all of her costumes on Saturday, but I only got to see one on her before I had to leave.  She's since shown me the other two here at the house, but you all will have to wait to see those pictures after recital. :-)

This is her favorite!  Her ballet costume.  Isn't it pretty?!!  I don't even think it's the prettiest one either.  She has a purple one and a black and hot pink feathered one.  So fun!  She's so tiny that they had to safety pin the gloves, so they would stay up on her arms, but it's really so cute on her.  Tomorrow night begins tech rehearsals, so hopefully I will be able to post about that later in the week.  Can't wait for recital!!

Basketball Hoop

I don't know if most people would blog about something as insignificant as putting up a basketball hoop, but I'm not most people! :-)  I'm mostly blogging about it, because (a) it looks great! and (2) it took a lot of work! 

While Madie, Noah, and I were off watching Ironman 3, Pete was here with Livie digging a very large, 2' deep hole.  What a trooper!

Our neighbor Leroy works with concrete all the time and was very sweet to come over and help Pete smooth it out and make sure it was all the right consistency.  I helped mix the concrete, I'm happy to say.  It took 2 separate weekends to get those two steps done.  Mostly, because we've been so busy and our weekends have been full of many other things.

We had to let the concrete cure for several days, but today we finally finished it all up!  Pete worked on putting the whole thing together last night, with a little help from me (aka sorting all the parts and handing them to him as he worked).  It was hard to put together and Pete MAY have said a few choice things as he was building it, but at least it's done and looks terrific now!

Because our driveway is sloped, we have a problem with the ball rolling into the street, so I bought this net that goes across the end of the driveway and that's helped a lot.

The kids have been outside playing off and on all day today.  AND, I'm proud to say that Pete and I went into overtime during our free throw contest.  We were all tied up, but then Pete came back to beat me by 4. It's a lot of fun and hopefully will be used often.  The best part?  It can go up to 10' and down to 7 1/2', so we can adjust it for them.  Granted, I can't actually reach the handle when it's on anything other than the highest setting, but we'll just make sure Pete leaves it in the lowest position for us. :-)

The End

Last night and today was our last day with our 2s.  I don't think it's sunk in that it's over.  I'm always sad to see it end, because with 2s, they tend to forget you a little and that sweet relationship you build with them over the year is lost.  They might say Hi or wave shyly at you, but it's never the same.  Just have to count your blessings that you got to add a little to their lives when you could and take those sweet memories with you of the time you spent together.

Last night we met with our Thursday night class.  This class started off with just 4 kids and it wasn't until March that we got 2 more and then in April we got another 1!  Those three little ones that started late this year will join us again next year, so I'm really excited about that. :-)  We had the best time at one of our local parks.  This one didn't have any swings or slides, but they played with chalk and bubbles and a frisbee.  They chased a squirrel, played in the fountain, and climbed cannons too.  It was SO much fun!!  They all sat really sweetly for this picture.  How could I not love my job with such amazing students?!  And, because it's a parent/child class, I've had the joy of getting to know the parents as well and have formed great relationships with them all.

Last year we didn't get a chance to sing our goodbye song before we all went our separate ways, but this year we did.  I brought a big blanket and before we left to go back to the school, we all sat down, sang our special song, and got great, big hugs and lots of high fives from each of them.  What a joy for us!!

Today went a little differently.  We met in our classroom like we did last night, then we had everyone jump in their cars and drive to another local park where the 4s were playing.  We sat and had some drinks, before doing our goodbye song and getting all our goodbye hugs.  Our Thurs night class has always been full of sweet, quiet little ones.  This group is full of energetic, excited little ones that are always ready to tackle their day full-force!  Way too much fun!

Because of that boundless energy, our picture with them wasn't quite as smooth as the one we took the night before, but it's so perfect for them.  So cute and so funny and seriously the best way to end our time with them!  It is always hard to say goodbye, but just like our Thursday night class, we had 2 that had a late start, so they will join us next year too.  So, we'll have 5 returning, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them again in the fall.  I love each and every one of these amazing explorers and wish them the absolute best this summer and the coming years!