Last Day of School and Backyard Progress

Emily had her last day at school last Thursday. It wasn't really a school day as much as a play day. They joined up with another class and had a water day with a slip-n-slide, water balloons and one teacher that was chasing them around with the hose which they all loved. Parents brought in fruit trays and healthy snacks and then for lunch they ordered pizza. So here are some pictures...

Emily taking her turn, but she won't ever slide, just runs. She's never been one to slide.

Mrs. Becky, the aid, I loved her and hope she's still helping in first grade next year.
We got lucky with a christian teacher and aid this year. Not bad for public school!


I just thought her stance was funny. What was she thinking about?

Water balloon toss. Her and her partner made on successful toss, then it was over.

Happy dance you think? Not sure, but it looks like one! Yay schools over!

Emily and Hunter on the swings. She's super sweet.

Friday and Saturday

And to our yard. Mike, my Dad, Joel, Jed, Josh, and Will all came Saturday to help finish digging out our backyard. But the day before, Mike and I ran around buying retaining wall bricks, gravel, shed, and "the rotatillar". This rotatillar turned out to be more work than it was worth. First, they give us a ramp to take home so we can unload it. This isn't just a small tiller, it's a pretty heavy duty one. Well, it's raining out and mike can't start it to get the wheels unlocked to get it down the ramp and it weighs too much to carry out. So he calls me out to continuously pull the starter line, (like a mower), because that momentarily unlocks the wheels. On my first pull, the handle falls off and the cord reels back into the machine, unreachable. Mike then realizes that there's a neutral setting and is able to get it down, but for what? We can't use it now. Luckily my dad comes over and is able to fix it. Jump to the next day. Mike goes to get it started, (and I'm so mad I missed it, but my mom witnessed the hilarious scene), and it is waaaaay more powerful than it looks. As soon as he clamps down on the handle to make it go, it shoots out of his hands and is jets across the backyard full speed towards the house. Mike is leaping over shovels, pick axes and wheel barrows trying to stop it and the other guys are leaping out of this powerful machines way trying to save their limbs. My mom said to have captured Mike's face on camera would have been priceless. It did finally stop itself just before our glass door. Mike finally figures it out, although he did jet across the yard a few more times, long enough for the blades to start falling off. So into the truck it went, back to Guy rents where they refunded us our money and sold us the excavator, (something tells me they got the better end of that money deal!). It ended up being a lifesaver, what we needed all along. So here are a few pictures of my dad driving it and the last picture I got of the progress of our yard.


This is what our driveway looks like after working every saturday.

The rotatillar broke, (see story above, hilarious), and so Mike got the excavator
He had a ton of fun running this, and he admitted it this time!

Sunday

Mike and I worked for 5.5 hours Sunday. He built the wall while I took dirt from one of our many tall piles and filled in behind each layer. A lot of work but it turned out so nice. We also leveled and laid out that pad for our shed, which I am very excited to see put together.

Tuesday's work

This is a truck that has a bed that tilts, Joel is kicking himeself for not realizing one of the youth dad's owned this after two weekends of shoveling dirt out of the back of 3 different pickups.

The youth worked fast today. They removed a ton of dirt and dug out the area for our porch.

A couple bumps!

This is where my dad ran into the fence with the scoop on the excavator. He was actually using a tool attached to the bottom of the machine that pushes dirt and he forgot that it was sticking out. It's an easy fix though, better than our house.

This is from last weekends bobcat hitting the side of the neighbors house. Good thing no one is renting there right now! Another easy fix.

This is the frame for our gate, good thing it's yet again another easy fix! Maybe you should have a license to drive these things.

Look how level that dirt is outside. It's amazing!

Anyone want to lay cement this Saturday?