Curb Appeal

This past weekend we did a little landscaping to the front of our house. We have a ton of hostas. I love hostas, don't get me wrong, they are hearty and good ground cover, but we have way too many in the front of our house...too much of the same green color. Here is the "before" picture.
So we pulled out this bed of hostas...

...and planted two Limelight Hydrandea bushes. We also planted some flame grass that is supposed to turn red/purple in the fall! We did add a few of the hostas back in the front of the bed to fill it out. The rest of the hostas we moved to the side of the house to help hid some down spouts.

We have been reading up on hydrangeas, but are definitely new to the hydrangea world, so hopefully these guys last a long time! I really like the way this project turned out!

Any suggestions on how to care for our hydrangeas?

Balloons 2011

No summer would be complete, for me, without a trip down to Indianola for the National Balloon Classic. This year, we didn't make it down till the very last night, but it was worth it.
Not too much wind and depending on how high the balloons were, the wind was changing direction, so balloons were taking off from all sides of the field and flying in, it was a lot of fun to watch!

Lots of balloons dotting the skyline!

New this year was the Panda Shaped balloon

...and there was a bald eagle shaped balloon too!

It kind of feels like a family reunion going out to the balloon field, most of my actual family is there and then lots of people (who feel like family) that I have gotten to know throughout the years are there too, so it is always fun to catch up on how everyone is doing. We had a great time watching the balloons fly, as always.

Big 5 for Nathan

Last week our nephew Nathan turned 5 years old! Heather and I were at her Grandma's in Monroe, I was mowing the yard and Heather and Grandma were making corn to freeze. We met the Pella VL's at Jersey Freeze for some ice cream cones!
The ice cream was melting fast on a hot day but it sure was good!

All smiles for Nate-dog turning 5 years old!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Pool Party!

The past two years, we have rented a pontoon boat at the end of the summer to spend a day out a Big Creek Lake, but this year 2 of the 4 girls are pregnant and wouldn't be able to get in the water at a lake, so instead we headed to a pool for an afternoon of fun!
The girls really enjoyed the rafts and relaxing in the water...

...and the boys enjoyed plenty of shenanigans!
Aaron with the flying suplex/belly flop onto the floating blue mat
Derek pulls the six-gun shooter salute!

...flying smile, over Derek and the fountain!

Heather and Dawn enjoying the water!

Then the guys started to get creative. In this photo, Aaron is catching the football in mid-air and then flipping it to Derek as he is also jumping into the pool!

Heather and I are all smiles on a beautiful day!

This one is more complicated...Derek started with the football in corner, threw it to me as I jumped in the water, I tossed it to Aaron, Aaron to John and John back to Derek...the 4 pass hand off without the football hitting the water...simply amazing!

...another one of my favorite pictures or Derek jumping in the water!

After the pool we had some pizza and celebrated the two birthday girls, Heather and Kim!

...and the whole crew!

A day well spent at the pool!

Weekend with Girls from the OC

Last weekend, Heather and I got to spend the weekend with our nieces and had a blast. We picked them up Friday evening and hung out with them till Sunday. Saturday evening, after a fun filled day, we headed to the park up the street to check out the playground equipment. Addy loved the twirly slide!
...Gracie did too!

The girls even got Auntie Heather to climb up!

Karys and Gracie made it across the monkey bars!

Sunday rolled around and so did the clouds, we were hoping to go to the pool but with the cloudy conditions, we decided to set up the sprinkler in the front yard...that was a big hit!

Addy loved it, she kept coming over to us to tell us how wet she was getting!

...this is one of my favorite pictures...summer fun!

No better way to end a summer day than with popsicles!

We had a lot of fun hanging out with the girls for the weekend! They did awesome and I am pretty sure they had fun too!

AP's 2nd B-day

A few weekend's ago, we headed to Pella to celebrate AP's 2nd birthday. He had a Curious George themed party out at Red Rock Lake.
Brent, Doreen and I enjoying the birthday celebration!
Nathan and Grandma Doreen playing Bags...

...with the birthday boy and Chad. Having so much fun we scream!

Heather tosses her bean bag.

AP got a little tired playing organized games and decided to start a stick collection!

After some games the birthday boy opened up his birthday presents...and we got a big thumbs up!

Me and the birthday boy!

We had a great time celebrating Aaron turning 2, it was lots of fun to hang out with the family for an afternoon. Happy Birthday Aaron!

July 4th Adventure (part 3 of 3)

No trip to the Twin Cities would be complete without a stop to IKEA. Sunday morning, we said our good byes and made our way to IKEA. A couple hours later, we left with a ton of great deals and stuff for the nursery!
After IKEA, we headed over to our friend Seth and Nicole's house in Eden Praire. We had a great time catching up and hanging out with Seth and Nicole. We saw some great fireworks Sunday night and then Monday we went and played a little mini-golf!

Seth and Nicole are also expecting and Nicole is due 3 days before Heather!

Some action shots from our golf outing!

It was a great day and we had a ton of fun!

...but all good things must come to an end. Monday afternoon, we said our good byes and headed back home (with a trunk full of IKEA buys). We had a great long weekend, 3 nights, 3 different beds, we had a lot of fun with family and friends, it was a great way to spend the 4th of July!