Saturday, April 5, 2014

Backyard Completed!

This has already been an incredibly productive weekend! We went on a really nice family walk, and went on what Ellie calls "the adventure trail," where we saw a couple of families of mallards with their new ducklings, and the two random orange koi/carp/carrot fish. When we got home, Adam went down for a nap, Ellie got babysat by her friend Elmo, and Tim and I did some yard work in anticipation of our new table being delivered! And because, as promised, we are doing our very best to keep up with yard maintenance. I don't relish being the worst looking house on the block. Though also, I am not very motivated to scrape weeds out of sidewalk cracks when I walk outside and find that someone has let their dog poop on my driveway. Still, today I was the master of all weeds, with my angry hands and my bottle of Round Up. And Tim was the master of the mower.

The table looks great! I am so glad we went with the largest one they have, because we have lots of entertaining to do this coming summer.

It fits nicely under the cover and doesn't take up too much room - there's still a good bit of space for Ellie and friends to drive their trikes back and forth, and it fits all eight chairs well. As you can see, we did keep the little blue patio set as an alternate seating area. And because it's such cute furniture, even if we only use it a couple times a year for pictures of the kids.

I mean... right? Please note: Ellie is wearing that skirt today. She's still the very cutest.

But back to the yard. Here is a photo of Ricardo's handiwork, putting in the succulents and the crepe myrtle trees.
I think it looks great! And yes, there has been a lot of new growth on the neighbor's trees, but I wouldn't put it past them to raze them back to bare stumps at any point, hence why we planted some trees of our own.

So, TA DA! This is what we'll be working with for the near future. I'm really happy with how it's all turned out. The patio cover has made a huge difference in keeping our house cool, and provides such a nice seating area. We have eaten outside a ton since the chairs arrived. I like that we kept the grass for the kids to play in, but there's enough concrete for bike riding and chalking and playing around. At some point we may do the whole fire pit/built in grill area, but for now, I think what we've done is perfect for our needs and concerns. Tearing down the old cover over the kitchen has also been great - we don't miss it at all, and it makes the side yard look so much bigger and brighter. Our lemon tree and peach tree are starting to blossom a little, so hopefully we'll have some fresh fruit this summer!

The other new addition to our house is this:
It's not pretty, but hopefully it'll keep me from repeating "Adam, that is not for babies" fifteen times a day for the next few months. He just can't help it. He loves electronics so!

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