David's Birthday

Because of Father's Day we postponed David's party for a couple weeks. My mom and brother took us out to brunch to celebrate and we went to see "The Incredible Hulk" while we were in Eugene for Laura's graduation party. The stadium seating and recliner seats in the theaters in Eugene are much more comfortable than the ones in town.

For his birthday this year we are having friends over for a Rock Band party and Guitar Competition. We have trophies and prizes for the winners. I'll write more about that complete with pictures when the time comes.

Hawaiian Themed Dinner

We were invited to a Luau Murder Mystery Party at Dave and Holly O's house. We didn't get to play the murder mystery game because one of the guests couldn't make it, but we had a great time anyway with Holly's sister and her husband. We had all prepared part of the Hawaiian themed dinner and it was delicious. We dressed up as our characters, I was supposed to be a hula girl and David was going as a tribal chief. They picked the "gringo"-est two to play the natives.

We will get together another time to play the game, but dressing in a theme was fun too. 

When we decided not to proceed without the last guest, we headed to our house and played Rock Band for the rest of the evening. 

Working on the House

At the beginning of June David and I decided to take a week off, since he was off school, to do some work around the house. These are the before pictures of the front "lawn" and flower bed.

Here is David working the roto-tiller. I shoveled in all the edges. David said he was surprised at how much work I did. I think he thought he was going to have to do this all by himself. Our neighbor told him he was lucky because he has a wife that will do the work with him. We got a lot of compliments from the neighbors and lots of drive-by lookers. 
Here are the after pictures. The lawn is seeded but hasn't started sprouting yet. We are looking forward to it turning green. The path expanded as we removed the dirt and weeds that had grown into it. We put borders around the tree and the flower bed on the sunny side of the lawn. We leveled the part under the tree which had a lot of big holes. It took a lot of dirt to get it flattened out. A wheel barrow would have come in handy but we didn't think of it until we were almost done. We learned a lot during this big project. 

I am filling in these front two planters with ground covers and stepping stones.

Sara's Birthday

Ken, Stephanie, Holly, Dave O
Nathan, Mom, Me, David
May 9, 2008

More Gardening

It is an exciting time in our garden. Since it is the first spring we have spent in this house we are still discovering new plants that have been established here. Before making too many changes we are going to see what is already here.
This was our side-garden back in the Fall before we could really see anything growing. 
Here is the same garden at the beginning of the year when it snowed.
After some pruning it sure filled out with roses, lilacs and irises.
Aren't they beautiful! What a wonderful surprise!
Under my kitchen window we built a box for herbs.
This is the beginning of a flavorful garden. Sage, rosemary, lavender, parsley and basil are just the beginning.

Gardening

With spring approaching there are a lot of opportunities to work and play outdoors. For the last two weekends we have been clearing out more weeds (and the dreaded bamboo) from our yard. With the help of my mother, David and I cleared out a large area in our front yard in preparation for some landscaping. We tried to salvage the roses and various other non-weeds, but mostly it was an effort to get the bamboo out that someone thought was a good idea to plant near the house. David did most of the pulling and digging out of the bigger roots while my mother and I did the smaller ones, loosening the soil in preparation for planting. It is a work in progress and I will post pictures of that and of our kitchen.

It is such a pleasure to buy perennials for a house that belongs to us. It feels like we're building towards something. As Dave's dad said to us yesterday, we're "really making it into a comfortable little house" for ourselves. I am starting to see what the potential is for the front yard and David has some great ideas for the back yard. It is so much fun to see it grow and evolve into something more than what it was before. I am happy to be building up an herb garden and a large pot with lettuce for the year. We don't have a large amount of room, but I hope to make the most of what we have with a balance of edible vegetation and pretty plants.

This is what we started with...


We cleared out all the weeds in front of this part of the house and put up the metal sheeting to protect the wood and foundation. Soon this will be all covered in plants. My hand was in the picture to block the sun. I already bought some plants to fill in this space.

Going to the Park

We had the pleasure of taking our niece and nephew to the park this weekend. I guess I didn't realize how much there is to do at the park. They played on the slides, on the large train, in the water throwing rocks (that was very fun, apparently), and then on the swings. There were plenty of interesting questions. Ian insisted we go up on the slide, but David and I told him we were too big, Dave convinced him but Ian told me I wasn't too big. Cara loved posing for pictures, shouting "cheese" every time she could see the camera pointed at her.