Fireflies!

It never quite feels like summer until we can start catching fireflies. Our yard has been filled with them which has been so much fun. I love watching our backyard woods start to twinkle every evening. Feels magical.

lazy days

The boys and I picked up lunch from La Farm one day and enjoyed a picnic at Bond Park. Oliver was immediately drawn to the geese by the lake.

When the girls got home from school, it was sidewalk chalk time. I love our driveway. (Easy for me to say since I'm not usually the one having to frequently clean all the yard debris off the driveway. We're still discovering all the different bits of nature that fall from the trees at different seasons.)

Sad that I kept taking the chalk away from him. He LOVES to eat chalk.

memorial day weekend.

We kept things simple and easy for Memorial Day weekend. Backyard camping, pancake breakfast on the deck, and a few friends over on Monday for a cookout (do not confuse a cookout and a bbq in North Carolina).

Relaxing with a book.

No need to go camping anywhere else when we already live in the woods.

Art projects on the deck and cereal for dinner one night.

target practice.

Aunt Stephanie sent Elsa a real archery set for her birthday. Elsa was so excited to try it out. She got the hang of it pretty quickly. Everyone else had fun trying it too.

Oliver roaming our backyard woods. He looks like Elsa's target. (Don't worry. He wasn't.)

Simon is always climbing.

Time out to catch a little frog.

zip line + croquet

jungle slide.

The kids set up a secret hideout in our backyard (well, more like our side yard). It's kind of a crazy overgrown area that feels like a jungle right now. They set up a slide there that empties right into the muddy stream and a little "hut" that they can hide in. They have a lot of fun playing with the girl that lives next door. This "jungle" is between our two houses. They can play for hours out there and always come inside completely muddy. And happy. I love it. (Though we do have to remove the occasional tick but the kids are used to that by now..."Mom, get the tweezers." They don't even flinch anymore.)

zip line!

Our backyard was just asking for a zip line. Ben installed it one Saturday evening and after some trial and error (like going WAY too fast and running into the tree) he finally got it just right. We hung it pretty low so at least the girls could get on and off unassisted. But it's just high enough for Ben and I to ride too. As long as we don't gain all that weight back!

These photos aren't the best since it was getting dark and my iphone was starting to act up (finally had to upgrade my phone which is good since I rarely take out my real camera anymore). But the zip line has definitely been a huge hit. I'm excited for the next backyard project, whatever that may be...

snowy river.

Anyone remember The Man From Snowy River? We had the piano music for the soundtrack when I was a kid and I remember attempting to play "Jessica's Theme" as dramatically as possible on the piano. I kind of want to try that again. Mom, do you still have the music?

We had our own little snowy river after all the snow we received. The little stream that runs through our yard is usually dry or just has a trickle of water. But after it rains or snows, we get quite the little rush of water. Without fail, Oliver is always soaking wet when we he comes in from playing outside. Oliver and I went out exploring a few days after the snow storm and had fun walking through the stream.

The wetlands behind our yard were pretty, well, wet. Also, I found out that all balls eventually come here to die. There must be two dozen balls out there.

Backyard explorations can be exhausting.