Recycled Playhouse

What do you do with a huge box? Matt makes playhouses. We got two HUGE boxes delivered to our house carrying our new outdoor furniture. Matt got the brilliant idea on the way home from work to make them into a playhouse perfect for our little girl. What girl wouldn’t love to have her very own house?

Lily wanted in on the action too. We’ll need a bit more time to learn the proper use of the measuring tape.

Peek-a-boo!!

He played around with a few different glues and ended up using hot glue the most.

The columns on the front porch were super thick and needed to be cut with the circular saw. Matt was having so much fun using his tools!

The final touches were put on after Lily went to sleep for the night.

The finished product

The front porch with the railing is my favorite part. Adds so much charm.

And no home would be complete without a mailbox and a doorbell.

Flowers by the front door, a family picture on the wall, and a christmas light chandelier to finish it off.

And then it snowed (two days later). I guess some things can’t last forever.

Now the house looks like a country store. After this storm (and a few other rainstorms) the roof has completely curled up. But it’s still standing and we’ve been able to get lots of playing time in it.

tis the season

…for sneezing, itchy watery eyes, and runny nose. That’s right allergy season is in full swing here in Denver. But it’s also the season for warmer, longer days and new flowers and plants.

We’ve loved getting to work outside in the yard and get our place ready for spring and summer. Lily has discovered the wonders of dirt and her Daddy couldn’t be happier. He was afraid she was being too sheltered and needed to get dirty. She’s definitely had her fair share of dirt and goes through multiple outfits a day. She loves to find the freshest, softest dirt and plant herself right in the middle of it. She could dig and crush dirt clods all day.

She also loves to pull out the new plants. We’re not too proud of this and trying to help her stop before we plant a bunch more. I especially get upset with her when she pulls on the daffodils and tulips we planted last fall. Those things were a lot of work!

We realized that our flowers were not going to have a chance if we didn’t find an acceptable place for Lily to sit and dig. We ordered this sandbox on The home depot website. Lily loves getting in there and digging her little heart out. She especially loves that we aren’t telling her to stop!

And we love that we can be working in the yard while she’s playing in the sand. It’s a win-win!

Cold Spell

A cold spell hit shortly after we started working in the yard and since we only have one car right now, Lily and I had to find things to do inside to keep entertained.

Hmmm?

Lily really got into babies recently and wants everything that sort of resembles a baby to be swaddled so she can carry it around. Here she is with a little Piglet doll in a burp cloth. She’s not the most careful little mommy and often drops her babies which means I have to rewrap them all the time. I’m thinking of making a baby doll blankie with some velcro so it has a harder time coming apart.

Hugs and Kisses.

Laundry Basket Races – These are a new favorite and now she will put her toys in the basket and give them a ride.

The mirror – I’d like to think that Lily is not a vain child but she really does like looking at herself in the mirror. Not sure if she understands that it’s just her reflection but it’s sure cute to watch her interact with her “friend in the mirror”

Here’s a video of Lily giving “kisses” to her “friend”. It was quite hilarious.

Mary Mary, Quite Contrary

How does your garden grow?

We’ve been loving the warmer weather here and have been spending a lot of time outside working in the yard.

Lily is definitely not afraid of getting her hands (and other places too!) a little dirty.

Much to Daddy’s dismay, she could sit in the flower beds and dig for hours. Hopefully these ferns weren’t hurt too much.

Here are some pictures of the yard from September 2010.

The light doesn’t let you see how brown and spotty the front yard was.

And here’s the start of our backyard transformation. We started this tranformation the middle of March and spent about an hour just raking and shoveling all the dead leaves and junk from the grass and flowerbeds.

I repainted a small picket fence to go around our vegetable garden. It was fun to paint so many different colors and made the drop cloth prettier too!

The grass is still pretty sad in the back. Matt has been reseeding every week to try and get something to grow. Hopefully by the end of summer it will look better.

Lily likes to wander around picking up rocks and sticks. She usually has something in each hand.

Helping Daddy move the big rocks from the garden. (This can also be read as: getting right in the middle of whatever Dad is doing. She will almost always pick up whatever tool Matt just set down. Drives him crazy!)

From one of the MANY trip to Home Depot, Matt brought home Lily’s own gardening tools – a hat that she rarely will keep on her head, gloves that are just a few sizes too big, and a water can that she likes to put anything in other than water.

But don’t I look adorable?!

We put up the fence and the gate for the garden and you can kind of see the “trellis” against the garage wall for our peas, beans, and sweet peas.

We’ve planted onions, strawberries, peas and tomatoes (they were planted just last week so they’re not in these pictures). Everything but the strawberries are doing great. We don’t know what happened to the strawberries. Guess we’ll give them a little more time to see if they pull through.

I love being able to go in our yard and see all the improvements we’ve made. I’ve got more pictures coming of all our tulips and daffodils that we planted last fall. So fun.