Back Yard Bliss

We heart our back yard

It is the reason we bought this house

It is huge and full of trees

We have been spending lots of time outside 

of course the last couple of weeks it's mostly in the morning

It is actually quite shady most of the day

But after dinner the sun shines directly through this break in the tree branches

We have managed a couple of afternoons in the blow up pool

Notice the welt on Christian's tummy

with lots of trees

come lots of mosquito's

He has had several ginormous bites

I finally broke down and purchased a small water table

Caught one on sale at Target for $25

It's one of those things I wished I had purchased with child #1

Would have gotten all my money's worth out of it

But none-the-less

We are loving our little one

And when the big boys take over

Chris just moves his little bottom in

LITERALLY

I'm telling you

little bit can hold his own in this family

Mental note though

Don't put it so close to the flower pots

It just becomes a muddy mess

Then it becomes a game

They take the toys over to the sandbox and roll them around

All the sand sticks to the wet toys

Then back to the mud pit to wash

As long as everyone has fun

It doesn't bother me

You have to pick your battles

And muddy boys is not one of them

But this is the aftermath

And the bath tub after the clean up

How come the heat never seems to bother kids?

I am always soaking wet with sweat and miserable

Of course my white freckly skin can't take much

The big boys have been practicing holding their breath

Connor is up to almost 10 seconds

Probably more than I could do

I think I buy a water gun every week

Always worth the buck

Especially when Mamma wins the water gun war

One of my favorite parts of the yard is the wildlife

OK, just the birds

I wish I could shoot the freaking squirrels and bugs

Here is one of our pretty cardinals

  I used to really like her

Until I caught her pulling apart my basket for her nest

I wanted to attract some finches

So I bought a finch feeder and finch food

They have not come yet

But my once full feeder is now almost empty

Because of the FREAKING squirrels

And if that wasn't bad enough

I left the bag out overnight

and the stupid squirels ripped it apart

So those fat little rodents have eaten an entire bag of food

And I don't have any new birds

And all my plants are dead

OK, so it might be my fault for not watering them

But a little rain or a break in the triple digits

PLEASE

MOTHER NATURE

What are you doing outside in this summer?