I got some trees!

It takes so long to get everything all ready.  You plan and plan things out how you want your yard to look.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't work out.  I carefully thought it all out how I wanted everything to be, where I wanted this and where that should go.  I have visited the store countless times looking for great deals and things that will be perfect for my yard.

I found 4 trees that I loved, one in particular that I had to have the minute I saw it.  It took some time to get ahold of the right people to get them.  I was so excited the day we picked them up.  4 trees for our yard!  I could hardly wait to put them in their places!

After all my hard work and planning, I think my yard is done!  It is such a accomplishment when you get it all taken care of and it is finished.... well almost! With all the excitement of doing our yard, the neighbor kids wanted to help and so did my own girls.  For the most part it was helpful, but the idea and picture in my head wasn't the same outcome of their helpfulness.

See here it is... my finished yard.....  for HALLOWEEN!

I must admit it looked better at night.

 There's Spiderella!  It was formed after Emily.  I wanted to do another one this year for one of the other girls, but didn't ever get around to it.  I was so busy...  life has been CrAzZzY!

 We covered our lights with these pumpkin buckets.  If only I would have remembered we had 3 with broken handles, I could have used those instead and used these are real treat buckets.  Oh well, they were $.97 a piece.

 This was my FAVORITE tree.  I loved the black bird in it. 

 Would you have guessed these use to be tomato cages?  They are turned upside down.  Then I put lights on them too so after 6pm the timer would turn on these lights and any lighted pumpkins.

 Here's our graveyard... it was so windy, I didn't ever put the grave stones out.  I was afraid they would blow away. 

 We had tons of bugs and snakes on our front door.  The kids even put some on our door bell.  They didn't decorate how I had it all in my mind, but they had fun decorating and it was okay.  I am getting better at letting go of things being done MY way.

 Here's one of our trees that we got... from the garbage pile at the public works building.  Robert that I was crazy!  Perhaps he is right.  "You got dead trees for Halloween?  Why?" 

 This is Jack, he come back every year now.  Him and Spiderella.  The girls told me I put his shoes on the wrong feet.  Ooops!  A neighbor boy told his mom, "did you know that Jack is just fake?"  Kind of funny!

Then I also got some sticks...  I think they were from my trees mostly.  I put them in a pot and we had spiders and snakes and bugs hanging from them.  The girls put spider webs all over them, but I didn't want them that way.  I took most of them back off.

Good Clean Fun

Maybe not really clean, but it was fun, or so they said!

The kids were playing in the left over dirt from our yard, that is piled up in the area that will someday be our playground area. 

I think someone decided they needed water... but I think they got a little carried away!

If you think this looks bad, you should see TWO of my bathrooms now!!

This was from Lindsey, Lauren, and Thomas, a cousin from WA and a neighbor boy that must have decided it all looked fun too!

They took turns hosing them off, and then Robert took over with the hose.

Building a park

We are trying to get our garden all ready to plant in.  Last year it wasn't ready in time to plant a garden.  Because the soil is so bad out here we are taking the dirt out of our garden boxes and getting better soil to add into the boxes.  I saw we, but it is really Robert doing it so far.  On Saturday he wheeled loads of dirt out of the boxes and put them into our undeveloped playground area.

Lindsey and some of her friends decided to build a park.  They took the clumps of grass/weeds and replanted them in the pile of dirt.  As they were constructing their "park" more people came to help and watch the developments at the new park.

Then they put rocks in the side so that they make a water hole of some sort.  I told them the water would just go through that.  They told me they put rocks in it and so the water would stay.  I tried to tell them that the rocks won't hold the water.

Then they decided (since the water didn't stay) that maybe they wanted a waterfall instead.

But the water didn't stay in the desinated area. 

It made a great mud hole at the bottom of their "park" which seemed to be a good idea too.

When they were done playing in building the park, they wanted to cover it up with a tarp.  I suggested them to just leave it.  They were worried about what will happen to it if it rains.  They didn't want it to get washed away.  It rained over night... I wonder if it did get washed away? 

I guess we don't need that playground and all the fancy wood chips and all those things which we haven't had the money to do yet.  The pile of dirt and the left over pile of rocks seem to be okay for now. 

Something new

I have seen this before so I thought, I would try it. Shortly after we moved, I went to an enrichment activity for RS Birthday dinner, and some of us brought cakes. I had nothing pretty or special to bring my cake on, so I covered a cardboard piece (like I normally do) with aluminum foil and took that. I saw so many pretty cake stands and told myself I was going to get one. A few months passed and I saw an add for Target I think having a cake stand on sale. I bought it! Then I saw someone that made their own.

You take a glass plate and a glass dish... candle stick holder, vase, sundae cup, milk shake glass, or thick stemmed wine type glass. (The one on the left is a candle stick holder and then a vase on the right. I got them at the dollar store along with the glass plates. I had looked at DI and Savers but didn't see much there.)

Then I got some apoxy type glue for glass... (which I got really for my side mirror on my car that I broke this morning... oops, hope Robert doesn't notice the shattered mirror, although the girls did when I took them to school.) There is a glue called E6000 or something like that at home improvement stores you could use. I picked up mine at Smiths. It was like $3 something. After you wash and dry the glass pieces you turn the plates upside down, and put the "stands" on the bottom of the plate. Use a wet q-tip to clean up any extra glue. My glue said it would set in 5 minutes, but then to not use it for 20 minutes.

Then you have some new cake stands.... I am excited to use them, I almost made some cupcakes just to use them. So it costs about $2 without glue and about $6 if you count the glue.

I kind of ruined my glue and couldn't save it so I was thinking of what else I could use it for. Then I remembered another project I had seen and wanted to do and hadn't done yet. I had bought a stairs banister rod (I am not really sure what to call it) from Home Depot for like $2.40 I think. I then bought a cup and saucer at Savers for $1.49 for the pair. I made the bottom of the banister become the top of my stand and then sawed it to make it level. I then glued my cup to the saucer and the saucer to the stand/banister. I put the banister in the ground first so it would hold the cup up.

Now all I need to do is put bird seed in the cup and I have a cute little bird feeder in my front flower bed. I hope my cat doesn't catch on to the idea or his own bird feeder... one that he gets to feed off the birds. (cost about $4 without glue) I have also seen where they cup and saucer is screwed into the pole... or using a copper rod or tubing I think is what it was called. I still have another banister, thought I would maybe do this as a gift perhaps too. Yeah, Robert has a birthday coming up... he would LOVE it! I have also seen this with the fancier china dishes, but I wanted something more casual. I don't really like the white banister, I will have to do something with that still... still thinking. Maybe just paint or maybe just sanding will make it look more rustic.

Yard Update...

Here is the latest updates of our house, from beginning to current condition. I am a little frustrated with the grass, but I think it will end up okay, I just get frustrated right now over the large bare spots due to the rain and wash out after the hydroseeding. *grrrr*


Our house when it was on the market...

Our house as of a day or so ago...

This is the side/back view of our house, prior to us buying it.

This is again, on the market picture....
and current view....

This is what our yard looked like this spring before we started doing the yard work.

This is what it looks like today....

This is before the yard work. We added to the corner of the rock walls, its hard to see but their was a bit of a gap.

This is during the winter, in our muddy yard, where Lauren got stuck in the mud.

This is a picture of our front side yard from the balcony that the kids took.

This is after our rock wall in the front and side of the yard.

Here is our trenching... for sprinklers.

More trenched yard....

Other side of yard after trenching...

Back yard, you can see the added rocks here in the corner...

South of front yard, after sprinklers where covered up.

Curbing...

back yard curbing and future cement slab/patio

More curbing and ready for the hydroseeding...

Future spot for our playground...someday... (where the bobcat is)

This is what our grass looked like when we left for Washington... beginning of July.

This is what the grass looked like beginning of July...

This is what it looked like when we got home around the 27th of July.

Back yard when we got home...

Back yard now...













Front yard when we got home... (compare to the above picture of what it looks currently)

Front North yard when we got home....

And now.... a bit of a different view, but it is coming along.












Rob has planted some seed in our back yard which seems to be the worse of the bare spots... hopefully it will all work out. We also have a bare spot along the South of our garage, I guess the sprinklers there aren't working out good or something. Looking at the whole picture, it is a big improvement... Can't wait to get PLANTS in here. Although that will have to wait until next year. *sigh*

Sorry, I tried and tried to fix the gaps and the formatting but couldn't make it work out... Sorry!