Backyard

Because we like to keep our life complicated and full and always 'in progress', we started a backyard renovation last spring. Just before school let out, we had 14 trees removed from our yard, then we had the ground leveled and retaining walls built, then we added a fence and grass. Voila...now we can actually PLAY in our backyard. (A garden is soon to come...maybe spring?) A few weekends ago, we took the day to clean the yard (pine straw and leaves accumulate on grass much quicker than on ivy, or maybe it's just more noticeable....) and spread out some pine straw on un-grassed areas. Once we finished that, we made a temporary fire pit. Since it was so nice outside that weekend, we just HAD to try it out that night. Lehr got some marshmallows and the kids found roasting sticks. After dinner we sat on a blanket by the fire and roasted. Eli brought out the current Harry Potter selection and I read from it until there was no more light to read by. My conclusion? Fire pit=happy family times.