Ryan's mom came up this weekend so that Ryan and I could go on a date (more on that later) and to just hang out. Ryan and I really wanted to do some yard work and let's face it, it's kinda hard to do with a busy 19 month old who loves to be outside but also loves to "walk" and explore outside. So generally when we're outside we don't stay in our yard for long...So the plan was for Ryan's mom to watch Hailey and for Ryan and I to work in the yard. We had some ugly, big, overgrown flowers that needed to be pulled up and just some general care that needed to be done (well, really lots more than that but that's all we were going to tackle). See, we bought our house in January when everything was dead, so we didn't really know what needed to be done to the yard until this spring/summer when things really started growing.
Anyways, somehow pulling up the flowers turned into let's pull out some shrubs and replant pretty flowers in their place. I swear, these shrubs in the front of our house have been there since it was built, like 15 years ago, and they were extremely overgrown and not taken care of. This is what we started with:
Yes that is Ryan's truck tied to the shrub so that he can pull it out. He was way too excited about that.
But, it didn't work with that strap. You see, the shrub was so heavy and the roots so deep that it broke the strap. So, Ryan's mom cut back the branches, we tried to break up the roots with a shovel and water it so that ground was soft and Ryan went and bought a chain. Then this happened:
It worked! Ryan was SO happy! Then he had to do it again to the other shrub.
Then we, and by "we" I mean Ryan and his mom, got to work digging up the rest of the roots, laying new soil and stones around the outside. Then they planted the new plants.
Ryan had a cute little helper with the flowers. And yes it looks like it's getting dark in the pictures because it was. This took all afternoon...
Here's the finished product:
You can actually see the pumpkins on our porch! We love how it turned out! We still have 5 more that are double that size to pull up on the other side of the walkway but that's not happening by our power. We tried the same method this morning with them and ended up with tire holes all in our front yard because we couldn't pull them out because the truck couldn't get traction. Boo! :( But we are happy with this side!
And in case you were wondering how Hailey entertained herself during all of this here's a peek:
She moved the potted flowers from the porch to the sidewalk and back again at least 10 times.
And at the very end she realized she could make faces by pressing her face against the glass of the storm door. These make me laugh every time I see them... (and please excuse my basket of clean laundry yet to be folded in the background).
Being a homeowner is fun, right?!
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