Yardwork and more...

 Summer is coming to an end around here, and we are taking advantage of every weekend we have left.

Colin and Maggie are starting their first year of Pre-K in a couple of weeks.  

The kids had to get new lunch boxes and backpacks, as well as nap mats for Pre-K.  

We have them all ready to go, and they are both super excited to go to school.  It's nice that we can keep them both together for another year, even though they will be in different classrooms, they will be attending the same school.  

Showing off their new lunch boxes and backpacks

Colin went with Spiderman and Mags chose Hello Kitty

 All ready for school, Mom and Dad!

 Mags is becoming quite the fan of Superheroes, just like her older brother.  

She has convinced him to borrow his pajamas to wear to bed.

Lookin good, sis!

 The kids trying out their nap mats watching Curious George

 A few weeks ago St. Therese had their annual Ice Cream Social.

We have gone the past few years, and this year was just as much fun, or maybe even more, since the weather wasn't too terribly hot.

The kids spent the majority of the time in the bounce house.

It was especially fun until Mags got a goose egg on the side of her head from a collision.  She goes FLYING around in there since she's so little!

 We also took advantage of a free Curious George exhibit at Crown Center a couple of weeks ago.

The kids really liked it, and they probably would've had a little more fun if there wouldn't have been so many BIG kids around.  They monopolized the more interactive areas, but it was fun for both of them!

 Maggie wanted another picture with George, one of the most popular guys in our house!

We have had such a nice run of mild temperatures the last few weeks, plus quite a bit of rain.

It has made everything so nice and green outside.
Brian and I decided to purchase some things for our "weed patch" in our front yard.

This used to contain the HUMONGOUS bushes that hadn't been trimmed in years (you couldn't even tell we had windows in the front of our house they were so big!)

So, last fall, we tore out the bushes and had plans for some nice plants and shrubs.

 Here is what it looked like, weeds and all.  It needed some major work, from weeding to leveling and removing of the thorny bushes around the tree.

Here is what we've done so far.

We got the ground all prepped, laid down the black weed fabric, and purchase some ground cover, lillies, mums, transplanted some box woods, and bought some new ornamental grass to swap out for our other ornamental grass we planted this spring.

We only get an hour or two at a time, due to kids that aren't so good at staying occupied outside, although Colin has become quite a fan of collecting worms and roly-poly's now.  Maggie just wanders around outside taking our shovels and getting dirty.

We are waiting for mulch to go on sale for the fall season, and then we'll have the majority of our landscaping done in the front yard.  It looks sooo much better with just a little work and probably $150 or less.