Backyard Update

Just a refresher...here's what the garden area of the yard looked like with the old slanted retaining wall.

Here is a picture of the new retaining wall going up.

And here's what the area looks like now. I love the new straight retaining wall! So much better! The boys love walking on it because of the way it steps down.



Another refresher...here's what the corner under the deck looked like before.

Here's what it looks like now...the crooked fence gone and stairs out of the yard are finished with gravel. We need to make a trip to the dump and put the swing set together...once that happens the area under the deck will look a lot cleaner.

Here's another angle. This was really the most difficult area of the yard to figure out what to do with it. Frankly I'm still not really satisfied with it, but there really wasn't much we could do with it. The way the easement came down into the yard and the fact that the area under the deck would be impossible to grow anything we just decided to do all the gravel. The boys love playing with rocks so...it works!





Look at how clean the easement is!!! This easement hasn't looked this clean in over a year. No more blocks, no more gravel and no more dirt. Owen's a little upset about that! The stuff piled up at the bottom is going to the dump...minus the wheelbarrow.





Here's a look at the yard from the easement.

Here's a look at the yard from the opposite side. The grass is looking pretty good, but for some reason we can not get it to grow right in the middle.

The other day Michael set out to get the stump out of the area where the swing set is going to be. Unfortunately the stump is about 3 times the size of the one he took out with the help of 3 other guys! So he dug it out as much as he could and then we decided to have a little fun.

This is Jack's idea of fun...eating dirt! Don't ask!

We decided to make the stump into our very own fire pit!

Once Owen saw what we were doing he decided to take some of the kindling and wood that Michael was using and make his very own "fireplace".

Then Daddy indulged Owen and lit his fire. "That's my fireplace mommy!"

He was so happy with his fire...it didn't last long. I think we are going to have to watch him though...thankfully those lighter things are child safe and he hasn't figured it out yet. We also keep them out of reach too!

After he was done with his fire he walked...okay marched over to do his job....dig in the dirt. I love how he seriously thinks that's his job! It's so cute!

Ella girl was not too happy during this whole outdoor adventure...she has a cold!

The smell of the fire totally reminded me of camping so I went upstairs and got the little smokies.

I'm not much a smores person so nothing says camping like little smokies. Owen was pretty excited about it too.

Unfortunately the fire was SO hot that the boys didn't even roast their smokies they just stuck them on the sticks and ate them. They thought it was fun. Michael roasted about 6 for us before the makeshift stick he was using was down for the count. It was one HOT fire!!! It burned for about 3 hours.

The next day Michael chopped into the stump and burned it for 5 hours and it really made a dent and set the fence that was behind it on fire, but we were going to build a new one anyway...no really we were!