New Landscaping

Our big house project the last few months have been redoing the landscaping in our front yard. Neither Brian nor I are big yard people, so this has been slow, dreaded, and not very fun. We're calling ourselves done until Spring at this point.

This spring/summer we tore out and replanted a big 14'x14' planting bed and a smaller bed thats maybe 6x6 right next to it in our front yard. When we moved in, nothing in the landscaping was pretty. No color, no flowers, except for a sad lilac bush in the back yard and lots of ugly bushes. So over the last few months we've ripped out 5 or 6 evergreen bushes, screened hundreds of pounds of landscaping rocks from the soil (I say we, but that was all Brian... the previous owner used rocks instead of mulch and we HATED it. And it was so old that there was bunches of rock integrated into the first 6 or so inches of soil), and replanted the bed.

I don't have a good before picture of the front of our house, but you could see in the the video I did when we first moved in. And here's the after:

 Please ignore the hose/watering can/ mulch bag... Wide view including the cute little tree we planted. The tree will get tulip and daffodil bulbs in the fall.

In the corner by the garage wall and the evergreen tree thing we planted a climbing rose, in front of it are iris (the tall spikes) and evening primrose (pretty pink little flowers). Behind the iris right by the roses (and in the back corner by the porch) we planted bleeding heart bushes, which will flower in spring. In the front porch corner are day lilies and Asiatic lilies. We also planted balloon flowers and something I forget the name of that reminds me of lavender. By the path to the swing we planted creeping phlox that will get teeny white flowers in the spring. Everything needs to fill in a bunch, obviously, but so far we're happy. Its pretty and colorful and we'll wait until spring before we decide if we need to make changes. Although I will probably plant a few bearded iris bulbs on both sides because I love them (and the iris we put in aren't bearded).

Now, we are not landscape designers, but I think we're happy for now. I hope it looks nice when it fills in. :)

Next spring we'll tackle transplanting the azaleas that aren't doing so well to the sunny side of the house (they're on the other side of the porch), put something new where the azaleas are (I'm thinking Hydrangeas, because I love them) and create a proper bed on the side of the house to plant. Brian's thinking roses... I'm thinking lilacs.  But next spring... because we've lost our will to work outside (read: Brian doesn't want to dig out anymore rock and I don't blame him!).

Validation

Allison left me this little note the other day when she was having some quiet reading time:

And for those who can't read preschooler phonetics, it says "Mommy, I am so happy you stay home (hoem) everyday (evreday). Love (she drew a heart) Allison."

If that's not validation, I'm not sure what is.

Mama's in trouble...

Starting to crawl at just 6 months old.

Something tells me I'm in big trouble...

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

Oh what do you do in the summertime

When all the world is green?

Do you spend 7 hours building a swing set with your husband 

for you kids to play on all summer long?

 Is that what you do? So do I.

P.S. And there was much joy and rejoicing in the backyard!

PreSchool Graduation

Allison has "graduated" from preschool. I'm really not quite sure what that's supposed to mean, except that I have a child headed for REAL school in the fall, for which I cannot possibly be old enough.

Her preschool held a fun little graduation celebration with carnival-like games and a few bouncy houses to celebrate the occasion. It was pretty fun...

 Carter playing their hoops game, which he totally owned... 

 Allison looking cute. :) 

 Look! Proof that I was there! Ignore the gery band on the side... I'm still having disagreements with my camera. I'm pretty sure it know the threats of replacement are empty, since what I WANT isn't cheap...

 Seated for her graduation.

 Saying the Pledge of Allegience

Receiving her certificate. 

And we are now just one short summer away from starting Kindergarten. And if I play my cards right, I could get down to one kids for 5 whole hours each week starting this fall. :)

Ballerina in Training

This week was Allison's last week of ballet for the year which meant recital week. I spent a lot more time that I would have like running her back and forth to rehearsals, but that's part of my job description, right?

 Ready for dress rehearsal... its really weird to let your 4-year-old leave the house wearing more make-up then you are... 

 Recital night with Miss Alyssa, her teacher. 

 The ballet school was brilliant and had coloring activities backstage for the little girls

 At intermission... hyper & ready to watch the story ballet that made up the 2nd half.

With Daddy and her flowers... Daddy always gets to be the good guy and give her the flowers. 

We have really love the ballet studio we chose for Allison this past year. Light of the World ballet is a company and school and the company considers it as a ministry. It is really a wonderful environment to have a little girl in: no body image pressure, not worrying about questionable costumes or choreography, and the women who dance in the company and teach the classes are loving and Christ-like. It is really a great place to be. Needless to say, we'll keep Allison there until she is ready to move on from ballet or she outgrows their training, which could be never. 

Oh, and are you wondering if there's a video of her dance for you to see? There sure is! Where is it, you ask? Well... my camera and my computer and I are currently having a disagreement about what the camera has on it (the video is there!!!) and whether or not it will download. I killed a brand new pair of batteries during said argument today. I'm not sure that the camera realizes that this is a matter of life and death for it...

I'll post the video when I figure out how to get the camera to play nice.

Who's she look like?

I'm sure I'm not the only mother of more-than-one who gets this, but I get asked all the time who we think Lindsey looks like: Carter or Allison. Both Brian and I have been seeing Allison in her and sticking to it.

Then I started looking through photos last night. What do you see?

Newborns:

 

 In my defense, they all look alike as newborns, pretty much. Right? I think this is why were first said that Linds looks like Allison and were sticking to it. But look at these...

And almost/about 4 months old 

(and I chose 4 months because I, true to third child form, don't have a great picture of Lindsey in the last 6 weeks.. oops. Note to self: take more pictures).

 

 

  

She looks like Carter! Maybe its the chub... and the bald... I mean they all looks like siblings: all the kids have got my eyes and my distinctly shaped "Allison" chin from my mom's side (Allison is a surname on that part of our family tree), I think they all have the same nose and same shape of lips...

But, I admit my mistake. Lindsey doesn't really look like Allison. She totally looks like Carter.