Pete's Birthday Party

Jump in, there's plenty of room!

Keeping cool

Sesame Street

The boy getting more creative with how he watches tv...

Another yard update

What a difference a gallon of fence stain and 4 yards of mulch make! Next project - fence in the rest of the brick area to restrict pool access - stay tuned!

Happy birthday Pete

Pete turned 35 today and we celebrated with a delicious (and super fun!) dinner in the city at AQ. Happy birthday, we love you!

Baby girl Wen

Jack got a new cousin today! Steve, Michele and Brendan welcomed a new family member early this morning, a beautiful baby girl weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz. We can't wait to meet her!

All done!

Phase one of our fencing project is complete just in time for an extra spicy Bloody Mary sundowner! Next up: chili and Game of Thrones, staining and weather-proofing sometime this week. Thanks for reading (East Coast Wises, Cezanne, Mere), West Coast Wises signing off!

Meanwhile...

The boy is cozy in his nest. Almost 5pm and still napping. Bedtime is only two hours away!

One board, two board...

three board, four! It's getting there!

Meanwhile, a nice hearty chili is simmering on the stove. Feels like the appropriate meal for someone who is spending all day building us a fence.

Supports attached

Vertical supports attached, potato bomb completed, Jack eats bacon for the first time. Quite an eventful morning, especially given how difficult it is to get Jack to eat any kind of meat. Had to bust out the big guns: bacon!

Building a Fence

We've finalized the design and are going with a low (36") horizontal fence using brackets to hold the 4x4 supports and 1x4s for the slats with .25 inch gap between slats. The photos are of a quick (shorter) mockup of what the fence will hopefully look like by the end of the day. We're still undecided on what color stain to go with -- light or dark??

In the meantime, I am putting together something called a smashed potato bomb with fried eggs. With bacon, of course!

Backyard Update

We've been making a lot of progress on the backyard. After the retaining wall was completed, we removed the large magnolia tree that was too near the house. It was a beautiful old tree and we were sad to see it go, but the roots were absolutely destroying everything around it and would no doubt have gotten into the house or pool eventually. Before we can grind the tree stump (hopefully this upcoming week) we had to remove some gas and electrical connections that went into the brick oven we removed. The fact that it took the plumber more than 2.5 hours just to dig 18 inches because of the huge tangle of roots surrounding the gas line confirmed that removing the tree was the right choice - who knows what further damage the roots would have done.

Pete also put some sod down last week at pool level, which I think gives everything a nice splash of color.

Today's project: building a fence! Live blog to follow...

Mandy Graduates!

Yesterday we celebrated my cousin Cheryl's daughter Mandy graduating from high school. How time flies - congrats Mandy! (and yes, Pete and Jack wore matching outfits for the occasion)