Finite!

Yup, Kid Approved!

The kids find a new use for Mom's cushions.....

So, the deck project is almost done.  We decided in the planning stages we needed a cement pad at the end as a step, running from the brick to the fence.  We calculated how many cubic feet of cement we would need, Ryan made the forms, and then off to the Co-op to get bags of cement.  My poor van!  Ryan came home with 38 bags of cement....at 55lbs a piece.  Anyone care to do the math on that?  Like I said, my poor, poor van.  When I told my dad that we brought home close to 2000lbs of cement for that pad, he said "Oh? how many trips did you make to the store? Two? Three?"  Uh.  No.  One.  Ryan even said he bottomed out once coming home.....oops! Anyways, here's the pics.

Ain't it pretty!?

Oh and in case you wondering, 38 bags at 55 lbs a piece, moved twice (once from the van, once into the wheelbarrow), then mixed by hand, dumped and spread out = two very tired and sore homeowners the next day!!

Whew. Done.

So that's the deck.  We did get gravel and haul it all in, with pails, to the side yard and behind the shed, but that's a post for tomorrow!  Here's one last look at the deck from the front.  A far cry from what was there before!!

Deck

So here's where we left off! With a few kids thrown in :)

Actually if you look closely behind the kids, you can see the deck boards being laid out.

The boards are just the right length to be cut in half and laid on the deck. We opted for the dark brown color of Trex deck boards.  No painting. No slivers. No upkeep. No painting.  Did I say that already?? :) I'm excited to the extreme over our deck boards.

AND, what's a deck without a few new deck chairs??  Ok, well I was supposed to put my BBQ back on here, but I just love the new private place to sit too much!  I love these chairs I found at Jysk, with their apple green cushions.  I bought a cheap plant stand to go between them to hold my bevvies! And look at the beautiful step Ryan built!

I had to go buy myself some lights to go along the lattice!  Just too relaxing!

 

Now who wants a drink??!

My Idiot Dog

I rescued this ornament from my Grandma's garage sale.  It was destined for the garbage as his head had come off at some point.  It had always appealed to me and I thought it could hang out in my house for a year or two till I was sick of it.  I keep it empty, just moving it to dust it.  However, yesterday at the Farmer's Market, I bought some chocolate raisins and some chocolate almonds and I thought, "hmm that dish would make a fine candy holder too!" So I dumped the whole bag of almonds and half the bag of raisins in it. I showed the kids we had some treats, in which most of them turned up their noses at, except Blade had one or two raisins.  Ryan had a couple almonds and I had a couple too.  That was it.

This afternoon, I was cleaning up a bit before Family Friday supper and I thought, "oh I should dust under that rooster" (I call it a rooster, who the hell really knows what it is) I picked up the empty dish and swept under it with a dish towel...and noticed that there was one lone raisin in the bottom.  Then I realized, "hey wait a minute, this was FULL yesterday.....where the heck did all the candy go??"  I asked Ryan, I asked the kids.  Nope, none of them ate it.  Where did it go?

Well, the dog was acting incredibly weird last night and wanting to go outside.  I guess a kilogram of chocolate treats will do that to a dog....&%$*.