Random Thoughts for Friday

I don't know about you, but this has been a long week.  Maybe it's the lack of sun we've had or maybe it's from chasing too many kids while being pregnant (the third trimester has been kicking my butt), I'm not sure.  Whatever it was, I'm glad that we've finally made it to Friday!  

Here are some random thoughts for this Friday.  Hopefully, this (and some sunshine) will get me out this blogging slump.

{one} I am so over this cloudy, rainy weather that we've had lately.    I'm excited that sunshine and warm temperatures are in the forecast for the next several days.  The kids (my girls and the daycare kids) and I did a happy dance when we saw the sun yesterday.  We have lots of outside activities on the agenda for this weekend including an egg hunt first thing Saturday morning.

{two} One thing that wasn't part of our weekend plans was for our freezer to quit.  David noticed that it was making a dripping sound last night and that things were starting to thaw.  Fortunately, we have a refrigerator in the garage and were able to save most of the contents.  All that remains is some half frozen ice cream (four different kinds) and popsiscles.  Kaitlyn and Madi were quite surprised when I honored their request for ice cream after dinner.  Hopefully, it can be repaired because buying a new refrigerator is definitely not on our agenda for this weekend.

{three} Last night was the first time in almost a month that the girls went to dance.  They were both really excited to go and can't wait until it's time to wear their Minnie Mouse costumes at their recital.  

{four}  I have had zero motivation to work out lately.  First, I was sick.  Then, I had nursery projects.  Now, I have neither excuse.  I'm going to have to force myself to start doing something or all of this ice cream is going to catch up with me.

{five} Speaking of nursery projects, I have been making lots of progress transforming the once purple room into something suitable for a little boy.  This week I made a crib skirt, put together the glider and ottoman, attempted to recover a lampshade (Epic Fail.  It looked so simple on Pinterest), and started to figure out where to hang everything.  Maybe I'll post a sneak peak sometime soon.

This was so easy and much cheaper than the store bought skirts.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the fabric to lay straight.  I even got a solid fabric a try.  After way too long, I decided to scrape the project and just buy one.

So I had planned to stop at 5, but here's an extra one.

{six} Three weeks ago we signed Kaitlyn up for soccer at preschool.  She was (and still is) so excited, but is bummed that so far they have not had a single practice.  Hopefully, next week will be drier and they will actually get to play.

Happy Friday!  Have a great weekend.

Backyard Project

When we bought our house five years, we knew that our backyard would need some work. Despite our efforts (and those of previous owners), it has been impossible to get grass to grow.  And with Molly (our dog), the girls, and all of the daycare kids, we have even less grass.  To make matters worse, every time it rains our backyard turns into a swamp and we can't use it for days.  Our solution to the muddy mess was to mulch the majority of the yard.

We started by adding a couple play areas for the kids last summer.

Then my mom gave us about 30 rectangle paving stones that were no longer working with her landscaping.  We used them the to cover up Molly's running path make a path from gate the deck stairs.  With the addition of a few clearance plants it and more mulch, it turned out really well.

In May of this year it rained almost every day or at least it seemed that way.  Twice we ended up with standing water when it rained over 4 inches in two hours.

We considered adding a patio or a stone fire pit to take care of the mud pit, but ended up just buying a firepit and mulching most of the remaining yard the area around it.  Our backyard was almost complete.  The final touch was to replace our rotten and partially destroyed fence.  We decided on a 6 foot pressure treated pine privacy fence.  We are so happy with our decision.  It is like our own little oasis back there, where everyone can enjoy themselves.  Molly might be the only one unhappy with the new fence since she can no longer see out, but we are loving it!

 Kaitlyn said she was eating her marshmallow like (Curious) George.

Our first fire