Spring Projects

With our new house comes an abundance of projects!  I'm so excited about a couple of them - a fun new sand box (mega sand box, really) for Gavin, and a vegetable garden for me!

Gavin LOVES his new sand box.  He spends hours upon hours creating construction sites, cities, etc. in the big box, deep in concentration as he plays away.  In particular, the construction trucks from Santa as well as new concrete mixer impromptu gift have been put to good use.  It's been fun to watch him!

And, after a year off due to our move last summer, I will officially be back to gardening this spring/summer!  SO, SO, SO excited about this!  Brad and Gavin built me a beautiful raised garden bed in our backyard as my Mother's Day gift.  It's fabulous - lots of sweat and hard work (and mosquito bites) to get this thing ready to go.  As of today, it is ready for planting, just in time!  Given we live in critter haven, we had to fence it in. While extra work, I'm excited about the possibilities for veggies I previously was unsuccessful in growing due to rabbits helping themselves.  Sorry critters, you're not welcome in this 12 foot by 14 foot haven!  (Please come visit, just don't jump the fence) 

Extra cool thing is that our underground sprinkling has been set up to water the garden - one of my pitfalls at our old house.  Gosh, you forget to water it one day and it looks terrible.  Now it's self-sustaining - just need to weed and harvest.  Gavin and I even bought gardening boots and we're planning a special section just for him.  He wants to plant radishes, carrots and cucumbers.  And I bought him some fun dinosaur and dragon figurines to place in his section, to keep it safe you know.  I'm interested in peppers, tomatoes and herbs mainly.  I think we'll plant this weekend!

 The garden site, pre-build

(it's hard to see the fence around the garden, but it's there!)

In other spring-related news, the red bud tree that we planted in our Grace garden last summer is in blossom right now.  And it looks spectacular.  I've come to love red bud trees - there was one at the hospital we would pass daily on our wheelchair route from my room to my hour of freedom roaming the hospital, Gavin on my lap, Grace growing in my belly.  We watched it two springs ago transition from dormant to beautiful flowers.  Then Grace was born.  Since then, I've payed closer attention to these beautiful trees growing in the wild.  They are hard to miss - the beautiful bright pink buds among the green trees in a forest, almost hugging the other trees.   Standing out so vibrantly.  I suppose there is some symbolism in our choice to place a red bud in our Grace garden.  She is our angel, beautiful and bright, hugging us.  The tree was a gift from my coworkers which makes it extra special.  Some of the people who have provided the most constant support over the past two years.

This photo doesn't do the tree justice.  It was almost too bright out when I took this photo (not complaining about the brightness, though, it's lovely to have so much sun after such a drab April).

And to round out spring, some photos of Gavin playing his first round of outdoor soccer, official with cleats and shin pads.  He likes it.  I think the coach is crazy for trying to wrangle in twenty-ish four year olds!  Yicks!

That's all for now.  Sorry for my lack of blogging - between work, swim lessons, and soccer practice, it's been a busy spring.  I do have some posts prepared that I haven't published yet capturing some additional moments in the Clark family - to be posted soon, I promise :)  I think you'll like them - most of them at least.