Summer Fun and Our New Fence

Getting ready to go to the pool. We never seem to manage to get any pictures while AT the pool.

Flowers in our front yard

Happy Ava!

Back of the fence almost done

Grandma pushing Hayden on the glider swing

Hayden decided to get in too

Ava splashing in the pool

Josh and my dad working the jack hammer for the post holes for the fence. It took 4 and a half days due to all the rock to dig the post holes when up in Iowa it probably would have only taken a day especially since we had an auger and a jack hammer.

Our playground is almost complete. We need to finish the border and do a retaining wall. We're almost done spreading the rubber mulch. Over 200 bags to make it the recommended 4 inch depth.

Posts are up!

Hayden opening a couple of birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Hayden's Birthday Weekend

For Hayden's 2nd birthday we celebrated by having a small party on Saturday of close friends and family that live here in town. We did a Farm theme and the kids took turns swinging at a pig pinata. All the kids enjoyed playing on the playground and eating cake and ice cream. After everyone left we put together the gifts he received and he had a blast checking everything out. Grandpa Pat got him a Mustang Power wheels and Hayden loves it. He gets a big kick out of the radio and has to stretch his leg out really far to push the accelerator. He'll eventually learn how to do that and steer at the same time. Haha. On Sunday we went out on the houseboat. We got to take a long cruise on the lake and the big kids (Uncle Adam was in town) took turns riding on the wave runner. Ava was pretty content with her toys in the pack and play since she was having trouble balancing her crawling skills with the sway of the boat and Hayden had fun looking out at the water and the boats, eating snacks, and playing with Fiona (Jenn's little dog). We did lose a bubble gun that Hayden threw overboard. Whoops! Luckily it was only a $4 toy. The bad part of that is he only played with it one other time. After they docked the boat, Hayden went on the wave runner with Josh and just cruised really slow in the no wake area. Josh said he had fun.

Our new playground and some other random photos

Our big project for this year was saving for a playground set for the kids to have fun with for many years. It took lots of planning (I am having withdrawal from not buying clothes for the kids. LOL!) and removing of some trees for this set and for the fence we're building starting next week. We started looking at sets back in March and Josh did a lot of measuring in the yard to see which set would fit and we found this one to be the best match for our yard. Since it's set up we still need to build up a retaining wall on three sides to house the the playground surface.
We borrowed a bobcat from the resort so we could cut away at the yard and make a level area for the playground

Trying out the wave slide

Hayden's a great climber so he has no trouble climbing ladders

How about a game of tic tac toe?

It took the playground guys two days to complete the project, but the night before we let Hayden play around a bit since only the bottom picnic table and the top roof needed to be finished. After they were done Josh started laying the fabric down so we can build a border around the playground and fill it with the rubber mulch we have stacked in bags in the yard. The rubber mulch was pretty expensive, but we wanted a surface that was safe and durable and long lasting. We won't need to replace it every year like regular mulch and it can sustain an 8 ft. fall plus retains its color for 10 years.
We added on an infant seat and a toddler bucket so they can both swing and we ordered a different ramp to use until they are around the age of 4.

Picnic table and deck

Tic tac toe board

Ava is now cruising!!! Here she is after she crawled to the gate. In case anyone is curious, her eyes are turning brown and right now in certain light they have a green hue to them. It's a very interesting color and they have a dark blue ring around the iris like Grandma Debbie's eyes.

Hayden is really into climbing Ava's crib and she loves having a visitor-- when she's supposed to be napping.

Birthday Invite

For Hayden's 2nd birthday we are doing a party with all of our friends and family that live here in town.