Allies first day of Kindergarten

Wow. Keri and I still can't believe that we have a kid that is old enough to be in school. Needless to say that there were tears involved with the whole bus/class thing today.

Here is Allie's first day school outfit pic. She had to have the baby doll in the pic with her.


Waiting for the bus that picks her up 'in front of our house'. WoooHoooo! Notice Kiki off to the left. She wanted to go too.


And here is a pic of me and Kiki waiting for Allie to go into her class.


Kiki won't know what to do with herself with all the free time with her and Mommy.

Backyard Playtoy

About 3 months ago, we decided to level out some of our backyard for a playtoy. 3 months later (it felt like 6 months) I'm finally at a point where it feels like I'm done. Except for growing the grass on about 1/8th of an acre. If anyone knows of some good hydroseeding or DIY lawn starter instructables let me know.

Here is our front yard about to be destroyed. Lesson Learned: I wasted ~$100 dollars in tarps. I thought they would protect the yard, but they were completely ripped up and shredded when the bobcat got started.


This is about ~100 yards of dirt, 6 loads fill, 2 loads topsoil.


I wish I had a before picture of when it used to be trees and bushes, but this is the earliest I could find. There's about 40 yards of dirt there, worth about 40 bobcat trips.


~ 80 bobcat trips back and forth really ripped up the yard.


And here is the front yard all mangled. See the tarp below. Shredded.


And here is the play area with the structure in place. It was like this for maybe a week before we found a playtoy we liked.

Here is the final product. I still have to plant the anchor blocks, on the right, and make the structure level. It's a beast. I'm dreading it.


I'll start growing the grass sometime in October. Hydroseed or peat moss, either way, it's not going to be easy. On the bright side, at least I'll learn a new skill, or does that sound too cheesey...