{The Farm} Creek Time

Happy Wednesday lovely people! Today is my last day of school this week and I am definitely going to be enjoying this beautiful weather. My garden and I have a date tomorrow morning to get a little cleaned up and ready for Easter! 

This past weekend was gorgeous in Missouri! Saturday saw some family time in downtown Columbia and that was fun. I hadn't been there in a few years, even though I go to Columbia a lot. I'd love to have some time, without kids, to explore the stores but that may have to wait. 

On Sunday, we went out to the farm. My mom wrote a book that was published and her publisher wanted videos and photos from their farm, which appears in the book. You should totally check out the book, Letter Trees, on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble! It's a great book all about finding letters in nature - something we do a lot of as we walk around the farm! 

So during our visit, we went down to the creek. It's always a fun place, especially in the spring. We just had a lot of rain this past week, so it actually had a pretty good amount of water in it. Plus there were some little critters for the kids to see. I caught a bullfrog tadpole to show the kids and they were able to see some frogs too. No turtles though, which was a bummer. But luckily, there were no snakes! Now in a week or so, I'm sure everything will be out and going crazy! 

The above photo is just a vertical image of the horizontal image above to show more of the whole creek bed. The rocks are gigantic and full of plant life right now. 

Below is a rock face, the second we now have found. It was just staring up at us! 

Ferns! I love the look of them all coiled up. I should have dug some up for my garden. 

If you follow me on social media, you will hopefully have seen the video of the waterfall. It was so peaceful! I had to "rescue" Nate after he slipped in (barely, but dramatic for a 3 year old) so my feet were wet and I just kept getting in the water after that, letting me get a few shots that normally wouldn't have had happened. 

Get out there and enjoy nature and don't forget to buy my mom's book, Letter Trees! 

{Play Yard} Stairs

The stairs are complete!! No more ladder climbing. 

My dad and Doug worked all day a couple days ago after Doug poured the concrete base. They measured, cut and got things ready until they ran out of time that evening.

Today things went much quicker because of everything they did previously. We (and by we I mainly mean my dad) worked on finishing things up. We got the steps done and all screwed together. He also made two hand rails for both sides and got those up. They are made from cedar, the steps are treated. I'll let the pictures describe the rest. 

Here's the top where it meets the base of the "castle". 

Here's a side view of all the cut outs that my dad and Doug did. 

I know this is a weird angle but my phone and Blogger won't fix it. Doug scratched and M, D, L and 12 (for the year) in the concrete. The M and D got covered up but you can still see the 12 and L. 

DONE! Well, before the handrails went up...

Krypto hasn't figured it out that it's not for him. He'll get up to about this level and jump off. I really hope he doesn't kill himself but some day we'll have the whole thing fenced in.

And here's the Princess checking it out! Check out that gorgeous cedar used for the handrails. Nice and soft, hopefully no splinters!

Here's her climbing up to go on her slide, which she did at least 10 times tonight! 

{Backyard} Lily's Play Yard

Last year we created Lily's swing set and for her birthday this year, my parents gave her a gigantic spiral slide. The slide needs a place to be put though, so enter in what we finally got around to building yesterday. It's not done, it needs about another day of hard work or so (minus the concrete in the holes and its dry time).

Here's the crew (minus me and my mom) - Lily in her pink, frilly Dora dress, my dad and Doug.

Those are 6x6 posts for support. This baby's built better than the majority of new homes!

Lily helping her Papa checking the distance between the two poles. 

Another cute shot of Miss Lily helping.

And Blogger's being weirdi about the next images and not letting me make them bigger ... sorry!

The supports. The "frame" around (horizontal) will be the floor. It's 5 feet up from the front and a little more (over my 5'6" head) on the back due to the slope of our yard. It'll be where the slide attaches and will have some more supports of course for safety. We're thinking below the deck underneath would be a good place for something extra fun but we've yet to decide. Suggestions? We've thought of a little picnic table for her, a rock box (instead of sand), or a little house. 

Another shot of how it's attached to the previously built swing set. They are two bolts (possibly 2 more will be added) attaching the swing set to the 6x6's to keep it more stable too).

Chalk

Lily found the container of sidewalk chalk the other day and decided we needed to go outside. Luckily, the temperature wasn't too bad and so we set off to color. We could have gone outside to our large patio but she wanted to go out the front and onto our driveway. Our driveway was made a very long time ago and it's really bumpy, not to mention full of cracks, but to a three year old, it's perfect!

And, of course, in true Lily fashion, it's done in style. Cowboy boots (with paint from when we went to a local art fair weeks ago that she doesn't want me to wash off), a pull up, and a shirt. No pants after daycare seems to be her motto lately. She'll come home and say "now can I take off my shorts?"

This one is great... she is a true girly girl almost all the time but the girl loves to get muddy and dirty too! She comes home daily with sand and dirt in her hair, all over her face and body, and now chalk.

Lily knows how to spell her name and we're working on writing it, so chalk makes for a great alternative to paper and crayons for her. Plus, while were in the middle of coloring outside, Daddy came home and he joined in on the fun!!

{Play Yard} Swing Set

Thanks to my parents, we now have a swing set in our backyard!!! The frame, two seats (one baby, one regular), and the time, energy, experience, and wonderful-ness was a gift from my parents for Lily's 2nd birthday! We had a few people contribute to the fund, so that will go for the purchase of a third swing and will be saved for next year's addition to it - a playhouse and slide combo (well, that's what I'm planning now!).

It is awesome! My parents came over Sunday and got most of it built except we needed an additional tool to complete it for the swings, so Dad came over today to finish it. It is soooo great!! Lily saw it today from inside the house and was like "wow! swing!" Then she wanted to go outside!!!

Thanks Babby and BauPau!!