Well today we finished most of the yardwork for NOW. We still have to do an area on the side of the driveway, and we still have to plant some more trees, and there are is still the fence. We do want to redo that and add a privacy fence. We also want to look at some outdoor lighting too. I think some of those solar powered things would be neat. However, for right now things are done. LOL Here’s some pictures of what we managed to get done:

This is the kids play ground. It’s got a palette of recycled rubber for the flooring. This stuff is pretty cool. It’s supposed to last for 12 years. So that is neat. The kids are in heaven! They are spoiled to say the least. They have their own “park” in their yard.

Then this is the pathway from the front door going over to the play area. It was just grass. We took the grass out and filled it with dirt. The layed 2 rows of patio blocks. We also framed in a section and put black dirt / garden soil there so we could plant flowers in there. Here’s what it looks like now:

All done. I am so excited with the way it came out. I had to add some grass seed in there were you see all the ‘bald’ spots of grass, but for the most part this is what it looks like. I am pretty happy. I hope it stays looking nice. We picked a good day to plant things too. It is supposed to rain tonight and sprinkle on and off for the next 2 days… so it should be good for it. Oh and we water sealed the boards, fence and steps… Oh what a fun filled 2 days, huh?

This weekend has been a whirl-wind. We have been getting things ready for summer finally. We got things down out of the rafters and got the kids things ready. There were some pool floats lounges, sand box toys, balls, water guns, and other outside toys. The big pool was even up there, however I am not sure there will be a place to put it this year. After all the playground and everything else I have no idea where I would even go with it. I will post some pictures soon, but there is alot of yardwork construction going on here!! I can’t wait to get it all done. More tomorrow!!

I obviously have a soft spot in my heart and that’s not a secret, but these days I think my little god daughter Alivia is just getting more and more adorable. I watched her yesterday while her mommy and daddy moved. She’s learning so many things. She’s a little over 5 months now, but she’s the “big girl”. She doesn’t want to eat baby food. She loves our food. I mean LOVES. She’s eating anything you will give her. She’s starting to crawl. Put her in the walker and LOOK out!! She cruises around in that thing like there is nothing that can stop her. She’s so adorable that I can’t help but focus everything on HER! It’s no wonder she’s the D.Q. in all of our lives! She’s a doll and she knows it.

I ordered her a sock monkey. This toy is so cute. Her mommy loves monkeys and the monkey’s name is Izzy (hehe). It is so vibrant in color. She adored the bright colors!! They are hand crafted, which is hard to come by these days, but it’s just plain adorable!! When it arrived, my kids, ages 8 and 5 also wanted one, so I guess I will be ordering a few more! It was the cutest thing I ever saw. We gave Alivia her little monkey and she was all over it. She was giggling at it and she was tackling it. She was in heaven. She loves it. It’s hands and feet are magnetic so we wrapped it around her arm… oh she giggled for about 2 hours as she wrested with that thing. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Of course I had to take some pictures, but by the time I calmed from laughing all she was doing was beating it up. hehe Here’s a picture of Izzy:

I promise to update this with a picture of Alivia as soon as my camera batteries charge! *blush* Is that not the most adorable thing you have ever seen?

I am not sure how many of my readers are animal lovers but I am. I totally adore my little Cairn Terrier and despite what everyone said about how horrible of animals they were I wanted one. I knew no other breed would do. Yes, I have kids and I knew it would mingle fine. I knew I would make it work. When I joined the rescue group 3 years ago I never imagined that I would end up with Sparky though. That was his given name that we kept. He’d been through enough. At 11 months old he had been abandoned and left in a home that was to be foreclosed on by the family that owned him. With a microchip in him and being full breed we contacted the puppy mill (yes I hate them places) and got his complete background so as I could care for him properly. This sweet pup was light of my life from the day I met him. He’s so calm and yes, he does have the sassy demanding qualities of the Cairn, but I love those character traits. He begs and he is persistant. He doesn’t give up. Although he is NOT a barker. He is a begger. He poses so cute for things, it’s just adorable. He of course gets his way. He knows when he is sassy and I say kennel, he goes. Anyhow, the point of my post is, today I was looking online for information about sleeping habits and patterns. I had always wondered why he sleeps with the head to our feet and his butt to our head and always back to back with me. Well I guess this is a TRUE sign that he understands that I am the dominant one in the pack and that he is not. He also sleeps back to back for that reason, but also because this is a “hot spot” on humans. He is very warm there. He is such a smart dog!! I love him so much!! He’s got his head on the corner of my laptop right now… LOL What a character!!

BTW: I strongly encourage any of my animal loving blog readers to NOT watch the movie Marly and Me. That movie broke my heart. I can’t believe that movie! *sigh* It made me so sad. Hug your furbaby!!