{in the garden} april

The saying goes, “April showers bring May flowers,” right?

Well, the showers started today after beautiful warm weather at the end of March and the first few days of April.

And, we already have some flowers.

Tulips.

Daffodils.

Mint.

Fiddleheads.

Hydrangea.

Daisies.

And, strawberries.

The back yard is beginning to come alive, too.

Raspberry and blueberry bushes are beginning to get their foliage.

The ground is sprinkled with wild cherry blossom petals.

My makeshift potting bench from our old picnic table.

Tilted pots inspired by Pinterest.

Pansies around the fire pit.

This is what the kids were doing when I was taking photos.

home is…new growth.

no balloons

For the first time in the five summers of living in this house we did not make it to the Tigard Festival of Balloons.

I love to get up early beginning on Friday morning and walk down to the park to watch the balloons launch.

Unfortunately, it was rainy.

Friday.

Saturday.

And, Sunday.

When my 5:20am alarm went off each morning, I listened for the rain, heard it on the roof, and went back to sleep.

Here are a few photos from years past…

And, you can see my posts from last year here and here.

It all worked out ok as baby girl woke up on Friday morning with a fever, so we spent the day lounging and fighting her fever.

By Saturday she was getting some energy back, so we headed out to goodwill while the boys washed Ben and took Odyssey for a swim.

We found a couple of treasures…

so, I have new projects to work on.

By Sunday afternoon, the sun began to come out…

These horses were out on my drive home from Trader Joe’s.

And, I was able to get out and enjoy my happy place a little bit.

We weren’t able to cross balloon festival off our summer list, but we’ll be working on some other items this week.

Stay tuned for a peek into our home later this week…

Oh, also…

Source: kellehampton.com via stephany @ on Pinterest

Kelle liked my yellow dress!

home is…no hot air, but lots of rain.

summer solstice

I was going to write a big post about our yard and how it has changed and grown since my last post, but I am tired and I didn’t take photos with my good camera today.

This morning was beautiful and I enjoyed our backyard…sipping coffee while the kids watched a show inside (it was a bit cold out).

After that, I organized, crafted, and cleaned inside while the kids ate breakfast and played.

Once it warmed up, we moved outside where we organized, played, cleaned (think car wash) outside, and made rainbows.

Summer definitely made an appearance here in the Pacific Northwest today…

I hope you all had a great day, too!

*all photos taken on my iPhone with Instagram…you can follow me @homeisablog

home is…summer.

photos from m{i}phone

It’s been a while.

Why don’t we catch up…

home is…lots of fun thrifting, playing, creating, and spending time with people we love.

{holiday home tour} i really can’t stay…

Did you enjoy the home tours I linked up to yesterday?

Here are a few photos from our backyard…

home is…ahh, but it’s cold outside.

*linking up with…

www.wherewomencreate.com

play outside every day

As you know we have been working on making our yard kid and family friendly this summer.

Our backyard was a clean slate as far as kids toys and activities were concerned. Up until this summer we got by with a few riding toys, a hose, some balls, and the dog water buckets.

This summer it changed.

I saw it coming last summer and had a plan in place. I knew what I wanted to do, but also knew I couldn’t get it done by myself.

You can see the progress of the plan here, here, here and here.

We have some professionals coming in a few weeks to finish the job, and I will post an update when they are done. I think it will take until next summer to really see how things turn out, but we are happy with the progress.

Our latest addition was an easy one that came from an idea I saw on Pinterest.

As I told you in this post, we don’t have a chalk friendly sidewalk or driveway at our house, so I have had to come up with other ideas.

So, along with the sandwich board chalkboard, I also made a large 4′ x 4′ chalkboard that we hung up on the fence.

I bought a precut 4′ x 4′ piece of plywood, primed it, and painted it with chalkboard paint. Ryan hung it up on the fence with screws (we also added some extra blocking with a 1′ x 4′ where he attached it to the fence).

All we had to do was add chalk.

I think I will also hang some of the buckets of chalk like I did with the sandwich board.

It adds some fun to the backyard and is definitely nicer to look at than the fence. I also think we will be able to use it for some fun photo opportunities in the backyard!

home is…family friendly backyards!

*I am linking up with Today’s Creative Blog…

my husband rocks

This is the new view from our kitchen window…

Ryan spent all day finishing the railing so the kids are safe.

We will stain the railing, add stairs from the grass, and a rope ladder next to one of the trees on the back.

Now all we need is beautiful weather for having our friends over to play!

home is…a husband who has made his wife and kids very happy.

playhouse: phase 1

So, last Friday I was able to get to Costco and pick up the playhouse! I am so excited!

Today the little guy and I took a trip to Costco for some necessities, and we took a look at the playhouse.

While he wanted to climb all over the mammoth playstructure on display next to it I was able to convince him to take a look at the smaller playhouse.

He liked it.

He wanted us to take one home.

This afternoon I had a conversation with the little guy about the playhouse while we were roasting fruit snacks over our imaginary campfire (heating vent).

Me: “That playhouse at Costco was cool, wasn’t it?”

Little Guy: “Yeah. I want one.”

M: “We’ll talk to Poppa about it. Where would we put a playhouse like that?”

LG: “I know! We could put it in the backyard.  We have plenty of room in the grass out there.”

M: “When would you play in it?”

LG: “In the summer.”

M: “What would you do in it?”

LG: “I would play with my little sister-wister.”

The stage is set.

The next step is to get a plan drawn out for the platform in between the trees. I will need to consult my treehouse building books for that one!

home is…being more excited about a playhouse than my kids are!

resorting to plan b

Since last summer I have wanted to build a playhouse/treehouse in the backyard for the kids.  We spend a lot of time playing outside when the weather gets nice around here and I think something like this would be awesome…

We have five huge Douglas Fir trees in our backyard.  While I wouldn’t actually build the playhouse in the trees, I do want to build it between the trees.

Aren’t the treehouse’s above incredible? I found them at the TreeHouse Workshop located in Seattle. Wouldn’t it be fun to build and design treehouse’s for a living?!

I also bought a bunch of books about how to build a playhouse and had a vision in my mind. My dad made a quick sketch based on what I told him because I thought he might be able to help us build it during one of their visits out here.

Well, it didn’t get done last summer…or fall.  My parents were only here for 1-1/2 days last fall and on one of those days we had baby girls birthday party.  Needless to say, we did not get around to building a playhouse. While my husband is handy, it is hard to find the time to spend on such a big project.

So here we sit with spring and summer approaching, and I still want the playhouse for the kids. With the only visit planned from my dad being in July (and we are going to go to the Oregon Coast), I am having to resort to plan b.

Enter Costco.

I was at Costco last week and found this:

While it is not perfect, it is close enough to what I want and we can do some extra handy work to embellish it and make it critter resistant (we have squirrels, skunks, raccoons, etc. that visit our backyard at night).

What we will need to build is the platform in between the trees which will end up being a deck around the playhouse (and maybe a bit of storage underneath).

The Costco playhouse also has these added features that would have been more $ to add to any playhouse that we build ourselves:

I made a deal with my husband that I would make (find) the money to buy it. Last week, I sold our single BOB Revolution and made enough money to buy the playhouse!

The bummer is that my husband has been out of town since Saturday, and I have not been able to get over to Costco to purchase the playhouse. I am hoping and praying that they still have it in stock this weekend when I plan to go buy it!

This little playhouse is going to add a nice dimension and some color to our backyard. I can’t wait!

Wish me luck at Costco.

home is…being happy with plan b (and hoping I don’t have to figure out a plan c)!