Al Fresco Dining & Tending One's Garden

For Mother's Day, Brad took us out for breakfast and then surprised me by taking us to Ikea and telling me to pick out a patio dining set!! Hurray! This table folds out to 9' and is exactly the style I was looking for on craigslist but brand-new and much prettier than the ones I could find. And Brad thought we needed a love-seat bench for watching the kids play and for sitting out in the back yard on late summer nights -- isn't that so sweet!!

Blank Northeast corner of our yard with the leftover topsoil and compost from our front stepped beds project.
AND for my birthday gift from March with a few weeks of work Brad built me the raised container garden I had designed about two years ago. It is made of cedar and has a low bed for the kids to try gardening and later for flowers.

Strange husband and sister attempting to move box into backyard...didn't work so well.

My awesomely resourceful Dad moved in by himself with logs off of our wood pile. He didn't farm for 25 years by himself without learning some tricks about moving large, heavy objects. Then he proceeded to level the entire box with a couple bags of sandbox sand we had in our garage. AND he and Dietrich filled the thing with the leftover topsoil/compost pile. In less than a day.

And before bedtime that evening my dad took me to the local nursery to buys me plants and seeds to start the garden. We would have planted it but we were rained out. The plants and seeds were my birthday gift from my mom and dad.

Another reason I love my dad -- He left me with a detailed/labeled diagram of the best way to plant the box for the plants/seeds I had chosen. I love diagrams. Atticus & I planted it a few days ago -- but it doesn't look like a garden per se yet, so I will take a picture later in the season.

My mom spent a lot of time reading to the boys and playing with them. And she did all the dishes while they were here. And delighted in a trip to one of my favorite fabric stores over in St.Paul (Treadle Yard Goods) . And spent some quality time with my sister too.

Why are these the kind of family pictures I always get from these visits -- aargh!