Backyard Fun

She just loves being outside, even if it involves rolling around or being tickled in the grass!

Ready to catch a ball!

Have a great day!

Patio in the Making

Re-doing our backyard has been quite the process. We started with a pretty blank slate, there was grass in about half of the yard, 4 sick azalea bushes, an ugly tree, and a tilled up mud pit from the old owners. We wanted a yard to hang out in and enjoy and knew it'd be quite the process getting there! Coming up with a plan and finding the stone we wanted for the patio was a feat in itself. We've been working on it since mid-March (when I say "WE" I mean that it's been a group effort. Our family and friends have been so helpful pitching in to get the seemingly endless job done! THANK YOU, YOU ROCK!). Jason and his dad Dale laid the patio about a month ago over an exhausting weekend, we've been working on the other bits and pieces since then.

Here's how it's all gone down: The sod and 5" of dirt were removed, gravel wheel-barrowed in and compacted, 1" of sand laid over the top, pavers placed and leveled after that. Edging placed to keep it all nice & square and tight. Raised beds constructed and put in place, beds filled & we started planting, arbor made for the entry to the yard, tree removed & hauled away, arbor #2 made for the end of one of the raised beds (kiwi plant to be shared with the neighbor coming soon!), rain barrels moved to the non-visible side of our house, mini-drainage swale made for the garage to drain into, garage gutters fixed, and more garden planted! Whoa baby it's been a busy time!

We still have about 3 yards of dirt to move from the unfinished half of our yard. We are hoping to plant grass there once the massive dirt pile is gone, but we aren't quite sure how we're going to go about that. We thought about paying someone to come and haul it away, but they all know how much work that will be and charge accordingly! There's still work to be done but it's been an amazing transformation already! We even ate dinner outside a couple times this week (thank you sunny days!), what a joy it was to finally get to enjoy our new patio & ever changing yard. Ella LOVED it too!

Hopefully more changes coming soon!

Just after the bushes along the garage were cut down

Laying out the patio plan with stakes...we wondered, "is it big enough?"

Jason digging out the sod, he then dug out 5-6" of the soil to make way for the patio

We had Mt. Scott Fuel Co deliver a yard of sand and 3 yards of gravel to put as a base under the patio

Gravel is down and compacted (pictures sure made that look like a quick easy job!), we rented a plate compactor from a local stone place, well worth the $40 rental fee!

The two pallets of blue stone pavers just waiting their turn

What a tedious job! Jason made a specific layout of all the pavers and where they went, it was like a big jigsaw puzzle. Dale and Jason worked hard to make sure each stone was level and sloping away from the house so it drains well.

Getting there...waiting for the path to be compacted then laid

Ella helping sweep the sand into the cracks between the pavers

Placing and filling the raised beds

Make a Wish

We found a couple of "wishes" aka - dandelions going to seed in our back yard, so we decided it was time Ella should learn how to blow it away and make a wish...(so we'll have a few more dandelions in our yard, small price to pay for fun!) :) Well it was a bit of a hard concept for her. She blew out her birthday candles just fine but this she just didn't quite get. She had spit all over her face from trying to blow, it was really pretty cute. She then proceeded to touch the "wish" to her wet spitty face and got the seeds stuck all over her lips - Jason and I were dying laughing, meanwhile Ella stood there with a look of disgust and disappointment that we were laughing at here, but we just couldn't stop - it was so stinkin cute! We helped her out and eventually blew it all away.

Spit covered cheeks!

Not real happy to have this all over my mouth!

Grass Head

Helping pick the weeds in the unfinished part of our yard

This new hair style is all the rage.

Guess you could say she's "going green"

Two-year Appointment

Way back when her hat and car seat swallowed her up!

She's a big busy girl now!

Ella had her two-year Dr. appointment last week. Dr. says she looks great. Growing like a champ. She weighs 27lb (55%), she's 35 inches long (79%). They say that if you double the height of a 2-year old that is their estimated height as an adult. If that holds true, she'll be 5' 10" as an adult. Seems about right to us...she'll have to get used to buying "tall" pants and gigantic shoes with the genes she's got. :)

She wasn't a fan of being weighed or measured at this appointment. They tried to have her use the big girl stand up scale but that wasn't gonna happen, even after her bear and I showed her how. So to the baby scale she went, kicking and screaming ensued (not quite sure why).

She was very polite and showed the Dr. all of her animal friends that she had brought along to play. She thought it was pretty funny when he looked in the monkey's ears, but not so funny when we wanted to look in hers. :) We don't have to go back for a check up (with her at least) until she's 3 years old...that seems like such a long time between visits since up until now it's been at least every 6 months. Our baby girl is so grown up!

"Ella Go Outside"

This little red wheel-barrow used to be mine when I was little. My aunt and uncle restored it for Ella for her 1st birthday. It looks amazing, it was totally rusted out in the bottom and was quite used and abused. Ella must have it each time we play in the yard. She collects all of her treasures in it...dirt, sticks, flowers, balls, tools...all the essentials a girl could need!

"Go outside" is a daily request from our little nature lover. She's in her own little world, exploring all there is to explore when she's outside. Can't wait for warmer/drier weather so we can be out there more!

Ella's collection of treasures for the day!

Ripping apart a daffodil

Grilled Cheese Bus

We took Ella to the Grilled Cheese Grill. It's a food cart of sorts...it's on SE 28th and Ankeny. They make all sorts of grilled cheese sandwiches, but the best part is you get to eat on a double decker bus. Of course Miss Ella LOVED it, two of her favorite things, grilled cheese and buses together...she couldn't have been happier!

"Cheese!"