The Yard... In the Begining

When we moved into this house the yard was a disaster.  Back in 2003, we had to destroy and rebuild.  Since then it has been a never-ending work-in-progress.

  

We are on a corner lot and the house is positioned in an odd spot on the lot so there is no real front or back yard, there's just one giant side yard. There used to be a random chain link fence running through the middle of the yard.  I'm not sure of it's purpose, so it had to go.

 There was also a tree stump about the size of our dining room table right in the middle of the yard.  If there were still a tree there, it would have been really cool, but there wasn't so we removed the stump.

We removed a lot of weeds, vines, trees, and poison ivy

...and we flattened out this part of the yard.

A giant hole was dug to make way for a door to the basement. 

It was a lot of work to get the yard to look somewhat normal.  Not a pretty yard, but it would do for a while.   

More on the yard to be continued in my future blogs...

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Allyson is a little liar!  Her favorite lie to tell these days is, "I accidentally kicked her in the face."  I don't know how many times I have come into the room where the girls are playing and Molly is screaming and crying and that is what I hear from Allyson.  She believes that if she calls something an accident she is off the hook.  WHATEVER!
Today, when I asked her why Molly was crying she sold me that Molly accidentally hit her neck on the wall.  I told her I didn't believe her because that is impossible! 
So, I sat her down and told her that I'll get more upset with her if she lies than if she did something wrong and just told the truth.  She seemed to get it.
A little while later we went on a walk.  I showed her some wild strawberries and told her that she can't eat them because they might hurt her and that she couldn't eat anything she finds outside (a good general rule, I think). She had one in her hand and was facing the other way, I say " you aren't eating that, are you?" 
"...No"
LIAR!!!
Then she was playing with rocks from someone's garden and wanted to take a handful with her.  I told her to take two and leave the rest.  She asked if she could take three and I said no, only two.  So, she stands up hiding her hand.
Me: " did you take three?"
her: "...no."  So I checked her hand... LIAR!!!
My goodnes, she is driving me crazy!  ...at least she's cute:

 

For the birds!

This is on our porch right outside our bedroom window.  It makes for a cool learning experience for Allyson, but at 5AM, it SUCKS!!