Progress

We've owned our home now for seven years and most of the focus has been on the inside renovations. We've done a bit on the landscaping, but we're in the middle of a big push right now to get more of the outside done.

A week ago Curtis and my brother Owen used a big cutting tool (I don't know what it's called) and a jackhammer to break up a lot of the asphalt and concrete outside.

For those of you who have never been to our home, it's right (right!) next door to an apartment building and we have sort of a weird situation with the driveway and parking. The apartment building owns the driveway (like I said, it's weird) and we own the land where most of the tenants parked. Right now no one lives in the apartment building because the landlord went bankrupt, evicted the tenants and abandoned the building. So, we figured now was a good time to get rid of the asphalt on the property we own. This had always been our plan (and the apartment building owner was aware of our plans), and, since we wouldn't be disrupting anyone's lives, we decided to do it now.

We've been working on cleaning up the chunks of asphalt and concrete, throwing it all into a dumpster we rented. The kids think this is so much fun!

Vivian especially is LOVING putting her little gloves on and working hard. She's kind of amazing. She picks up chunks that are really big for her size and sticks with it! She's like the Energizer Bunny; she just keeps going and going.

Eventually she go tired and had to have a little rest.

Dexter was a little obsessed with the gloves. He loved wearing them.

Kathryn is not so interested in working and getting dirty. She was pretty much an observer.

A shot of Vivian cooling down Curtis with a bottle of water.

Betty had fun getting her little toes dirty, too.

One day, the kids had a lot of fun with the exposed dirt and a watering can. That's a recipe for MUD and the kids loved it.

Curtis is now working on rototilling up the lawn to level it out.

And, just because she's so cute...