Landscaping, landscaping...

We have so much to do and it is slooooow going! Our main focus on the landscaping right now is our front yard - obviously because it's the most visible and we're tired of being embarrassed and hoping our neighbors don't hate us too much. ;)

We love our little stepping stones we put in, however, we haven't done any planting because we didn't get them in till July - and at that point it's not really worth it to plant flowers since they'll die soon, and the bushes/trees we wanted to wait till fall for so it's not as hot. So now it looks like that except with a lot more weeds...next spring we should have it pretty much done, I think. Any suggestions for good, hardy ground cover to go around the stones??

This is the other side of our driveway. It looked okay this spring, but then the weeds came. HOLY MOLY. I honestly don't remember what it looked like when we moved in a year ago, but I don't think it was quite this bad. We weeded a couple of times but it was completely fruitless, the weeds would grow back in a matter of days. And see those weeds back by the fence? Yeah, they were like 5-6 feet tall.

So this whole area needed to be redone, which is a huge chore because it's all landscaping rocks. (And weeds.) We considered redoing the rocks and putting in new landscaping fabric, but we changed our minds because 1. We hate rocks. 2. We didn't like how it was driveway - rocks - driveway with our neighbors. We wanted something green to soften the look. (Other than weeds.) So we're probably going to do a tree and grass, maybe some bushes too but I don't know yet.

Ew, I get grossed out just looking at that old picture.

This is how it looks right now:

Every morning I try to go out and work on it a bit. Today I shoveled/raked up 4 more wheelbarrows full of rocks, pulled out the last two of the old peony bushes, and pulled out most of one of the huge roots. We're going to hire a tree company to come out and remove the old stump, but the rest of it we should be able to do okay ourselves. We've made a ton of progress, even though sometimes I go out there and just feel sad about how much rock is still mixed in with the dirt!

This is the huge pile of rocks in our back yard that we've moved from the front yard. (It actually looks a lot smaller in the picture.) They will be under our deck, whenever we get around to building it. In other words, we're going to have a big ugly pile of rocks in the back yard for a long time. I really dislike it, but oh well. I'll deal.

Project #2: Kid's picnic table

Yes, yes I know - how creative. A big picnic table and a little picnic table. But I thought it would be cute and nice to have, so a little picnic table is the next thing I made from the deck wood. The kids even helped me put it together! (Actually, they helped me with the big one too, but I didn't get pictures.)

Everything set up to put the seat supports on!

 

They loved putting the carriage bolts through the holes, tapping them down with a hammer, putting on the washer and nut and then tightening it down as much as they could. Usually Ben ended up making the nut fall off rather than tighten it, but he gave it a good try. ;)

And there they are enjoying their new table!

Kaylee's Birthday

Kaylee's birthday was on Thursday! She's now 4 years old. Sometimes I think about how she's 4 now and go "Wait, when did that happen?" and other times I think "You're only four? Haven't you been around forever now?" Haha! Interesting how that works.

She's a funny girl, cracks us up all the time. She's still an AWESOME big sister to Ben - of course, she does the usual pushing/hitting/grabbing/tattle-telling that any sibling does, but she really watches out for him and you can tell she really cares about him. She loves animals, reading books with Mom or Dad, dressing up, building with Duplo's, being outside, helping Mom or Dad do almost anything, and watching movies.

She's a very happy to have an Elsa dress.  She practically lives in dresses. We had a little Frozen party for her - nothing fancy, because we don't know enough little girls to go all-out. Maybe some birthday we will though!

Here is her birthday cake I made. My cakes are NEVER up to my expectations, but it turned out cute at least. I always have these grand ideas that....sort of turn out....

I think she had a great day, and we're so happy she's part of our family!