Making Some Changes

Well, we're making some changes to our backyard, and we're super excited about them. When we moved in, there was a beautiful water fountain out back. This just is not the stage of life for us to be having a water fountain in our backyard. While beautiful, it posed a very nerve racking danger to our kids. I didn't feel like I could just open the backyard (doing that has been a dream of mine for some time now!), and have them go outside and play while I work around the house, make dinner, etc. And when we got here, it seemed like it was raining all the time. The rain is so nice, but water would fill up in our fountain, making me even more nervous. I would catch Jett throw something in the fountain, and try and reach in and get it, so all I could see was his little feet and butt... yeah, that's what I'm sayin! So we decided to go for it.

We called up our good friend who has a landscaping business and he came out and got that thing out of there. He also took out the big slab of concrete that it was sitting on. And we're going to put a swing set there- so exciting! Climbing, jumping, hanging, and bouncing are some of the only things I see my kids do around here. We have this playroom full of toys that they don't ever touch. It's so frustrating! I asked them what they'd rather have in there that would make them play in there, and they said some trampolines, and Teda said a climbing wall (she'd overheard me talking about the idea of doing it)... they just like to climb and be active. So the playground outside should help with all that.

I'll post more pics as the project comes along. The next step is having a professional come and disassemble the swingset we've so graciously been given by some friends of ours, and reassemble it at our house. Then it's getting the ground ready, pouring the sand, and then getting some kind of shade put up over it. YEA!

Here are a few pics- on the left of our backyard is just grass, then our swingset will be in the right corner.

Ok, here was our fountain before. I know it's so beautiful! Just not usable in the Shepherd houshold...

This is the left side of our backyard

Here's the middle part...

And here's the fountain and cement half gone on the right side...

Now that the fountain and cement are gone, here's what it looks like now

A little closer up of the right side of our yard.. in Zach's words it's just a blank canvas :)