Surprise!

It has been pretty quiet around here, and for very good reason...we were prepping for Chris's Dad Jim's surprise 65th birthday party.

Jim arrived at our house tonight under the premise we were having him over for a family dinner wth Chris's sister and her husband.  This is what was waiting for him:

Here he is (in the red) just after the Surprise:

And the Cake.  More than one person thought this was a hat...

The overwhelming message from the family and friend party-goers was they wouldn't have missed the party for the world, and they had the best time.  We agree and are so glad we could be part of it.  

Happy Birthday, Jim!

The Great Wall

All done!

Ottoman-less

We found a hole in the fabric on one of the ottomans, so we returned them...

One last look:

Ottomans?

We ordered ottomans to go with our new loungers from Target.  They arrived yesterday.  Erica is not 100% sold on the color, but Chris likes them.  What do you think?

Farm Fresh

Our neighbors are out of town, so we got their 1.5 dozen organic egg delivery this week.  Looking forward to making a nice quiche.

Patio Lounging

We have been looking for some time for more lounge-y chairs for the patio.  We have our patio set dining chairs, but they are pretty upright, and not super comfy for things like lengthy leisurely patio reading.  

The problem with patio furniture is it is crazy expensive.  Our search included Kohl's, Lowes, World Market, Pier One, CB2, Restoration Hardware, Target, and Home Depot.  We luckily found something that was stylish and well priced at Lowe's.  Enter the Garden Treasures Tucker Bend Gray Woven Seat Steel Patio Dining Chair:

Even at the full $65.00 price, these chairs would be a bargain considering the prices of all of the other chairs we had looked at.

We ordered two of them online and opted for free store pick up so we could use an online coupon code for an additional 10% off.  

They are comfy, get good reviews, sturdy, and don't have any patio cushions to worry about - our current patio chair cushions are starting to dry rot and it is a bummer.

Let the lounging begin!  Zoey wasted no time:

Sprinkler Work

We are alllllmost finished with the new retaining wall.  We have a couple partial bricks left to install.  But first, we had to get our sprinklers working again.  

We moved 3 sprinkler heads back 2.5 feet and dug the line that goes under our sidewalk to the hell strip deeper.  

Helper Dog

Casualty

Nectarine down!  Chris found this little guy laying on the ground this weekend.

End of Day 2: Out of Daylight

Almost finished!  We are cutting it close on blocks and might have to run to Home Depot for a few more.

Progress Report

There Goes Our Dirt!

Well, we don't have space for additional garden boxes (which aren't really much cheaper an option), so we sucked it up and paid to have all the dirt we removed (3.5 yards) last night hauled away. 

We used Junk King which was the most reasonable by far, and they received good reviews on Angie's List. 

We are pretty darn happy to see it go and not have to deal with it, especially after working all day on the retaining wall. We have made great progress, but are taking a little break. It was a very hot day and we're feeling zapped right now.

Round 2

We are tackling the other retaining wall. Finished up for the night right before dark.

This was the easy part...