Joseph's Birthday

With school and football, it's been hard to schedule an activity. Then, when we did, I forgot my camera. So, here's us with Joseph several days after his activity. We went to a movie with him and ate in the car on the way.

Cousins' Gathering Place

Our new house has become a gathering place for cousins.  Though the backyard still isn't quite finished, the kids had the first picnic on the "island" (picture #1) and watching the excavation in the backyard became a "spectator sport" (picture #2).

Backyard Evolution

The pictures, above, show the transformation (so far) of our backyard (as seen from our bay window).  Picture #1 was taken in July of 2011, picture #2 was taken in February of 2012, and picture #3 was taken today (August 2012).

These pictures show the transformation (so far) of our backyard (as seen from the back of our property).  Picture #4 was taken in July of 2012, and picture #5 was taken today (August 2012).

Our Barn

We've been using our neighbor's barn (right center in 2nd picture) for a horse shelter and stacking hay under the blue tarp.  We're building a barn that will be divided into two sections -- one for horses and one for hay, etc.

Deforestation

We used to have about 2 dozen Chinese elms around our house that gave good shade, but looked trashy.  Michael and I cut down about half of them a month ago, but we were going to leave the rest for shade until we got ready to landscape.  Well, after huge limbs started falling randomly, we decided that -- for safety's sake -- we'd better cut down the rest immediately.  The remaining trees were too high and too close to our house and/or the neighbors' fences to cut them ourselves, so we hired it done.  We also removed the deck in preparation for landscaping and, when we found that it had rotted, we were glad we took it down when we did.

Chase's Birthday

For Chase's birthday, we went to see "Ice Age 4" (3 thumbs up), then went to the Arctic Circle playland (that's a yoyo at the upper right of the 2nd picture).

Bauer's Birthday

For Bauer's birthday, he had a party at a "splash pad" (that's Bauer and Chase in the second picture).  Afterwards, we took him to see "Madagascar" with several of his siblings and cousins.