Before and After: Backyard Shed

Sing it with me: WE FINALLY HAVE OUTSIDE STORAGE!! Oh but it is sooo cute too! I have a bunch of before and afters to post in the next week or two, but this one is the newest and quickest.

The gist is, our house does not have a garage. Jason and I have stood in our driveway and in our backyard many times pondering how we could add one and the truth is, with our space configuration, we just can't. There is no sensible way to do it, even if we had an unlimited budget. As a result, we have been using our screened in porch as a dumping ground for bikes, scooters, yard equipment, the snowblower, etc! Poor screened in porch. Definitely not living its best life.

So then we were like, what about a shed? And not just any shed, those nice ones that match your house with shutters and window boxes? Yes. But then for awhile we couldn't figure out where to put it. We have a pretty squared off backyard with two distinct corners and they looked like this.

When you walk out our back doors, empty left corner with lone tree, and right corner = swingset. Here's another view where you can see the swingset canopy in the backyard (to the right of the house).

I'll save you the suspense. We moved the swingset to the other corner of the yard and put the shed in its place! BOOM! On a random day last August, our neighbors were helping us disassemble the sandbox (don't get one) and all of a sudden...liiiiiightbulllllllllb! The guys took off the slide and used PVC pipes on a rotating basis to slide the whole swingset across the grass. They just rolled it right over.

Behold! The perfect spot for a shed! But we didn't order it right then, no we did not. We had to make sure the color was going to be right, that the size fit within our setback guidelines, etc. Plus, if you wait until the winter you get 10% off (which I immediately spent back by adding the cupola option ;) ).

So for a few months there, the spot stood in wait. Along came yesterday...

 

YAY! Welcome home shed! (Ignore the remains of our ice rink - it was more like a puddle filled with leaves and pine needles by the end. It came down yesterday after the Reeds Ferry guys left.)

Now we just need landscaping, a weathervane, perhaps some flowers...come on Spring!

Christmas Day(s)!

Ok the last of my documentation which requires time sensitivity. Let's close the book on 2017! Christmas Day was as you would expect: lots of hyperventilating and wrapping paper carnage. Here is the video of the boys finding out that Santa came. Jason and I had bought them PowerWheels last Christmas, but they sat in the basement for a whole year until we decided to give them to them this year finally. Not sure why we made that choice but we did. Anyhoo. Now I'm trying to remember what the boys asked for from Santa. Ashton wanted "a box of diamonds" - he's super into gems and crystals and all that. Lo and behold, Amazon sells a lovely paperweight set:

I died laughing when it came. PERFECT! Alex wanted a play coffee maker and the Playdough oven, which were easy enough. They wrote several "lists" for Pete to take back up to the North Pole and I think they were pleased on Christmas morning, if you can see past the blur :)

It was a beautiful snowy morning and all was right in the world. After breakfast, we packed up in a whirlwind and headed up to Vermont! I have a couple random pictures that don't even capture the wonderful holiday spirit we all felt (for shame) and then some from when we went sledding the next day!

Subpar. I know it, you know it. Oh well. 

Overall I'd say we hit all the boxes for what one is supposed to do over Christmas vacation.

Deal with copious amounts of boxes, toy packaging and batteries ✔

Sit around in the house and/or in a car for long periods of time ✔

Visit with family ✔

Listen to the ten Christmas songs that exist, in all their 4,558 versions ✔

Count the number of days left until school starts (at least twice) ✔

Overspend ✔

Eat and feel fat ✔

Drink ✔

Realize your blessings ✔

Be Merry ✔

My holiday blog posts this year don't come close to representing what a truly wonderful season we had. It was magical. Ashton and Alex nearly burst with excitement for most of December and Jason and I had so much fun "creating" their Christmas experience - shopping for their gifts, writing them letters from Santa, having friends over for crafts and cookies...it was the best. I hope you found as much joy in this holiday season as we did. All our love to you and yours. On to the New Year... :)

Holiday Staples

The Christmas lead-up was pretty much as you would expect. Get a tree, partake in crafts, concerts, and cookies, fear Pete, and make no less than 9 different lists for Santa.

In the interest of fast-tracking this catch-up process that I'm in, here is our December, in a few pictures.

Holiday Home Depot Kids Workshop - a tree picture frame/ornament thing. The tree was made of wood. Get it? So meta.

Then we went to get our ACTUAL tree. In the past we've had two trees but since the piano came into our lives this year, there was no room for the second one in the front foyer. Poor second tree! We missed it.

We saw two live performances in December - a kids production of Charlie Brown (Alex was sooo psyched ;) )

and Disney on Ice (for which both boys sat, virtually unblinking, for the entire thing. It was a Christmas miracle I tell you).

We also had our friends over for pizza and to decorate cookies (you can guess how long that lasted - also I am still finding sprinkles in random places, those round nonpareils will never happen again!!)

and Jason built an ice rink in the backyard. Yes he did.

This monstrosity did not come into our lives without a few, er, hiccups. But nonetheless the boys have started to learn to skate which is a nice wholesome wintry activity.

Pete (our elf) is always a mainstay. He flies down December 1 and spends a few weeks whipping the boys into shape. As the month goes on, the law of diminishing returns does take some effect, but overall Pete is quite beloved. The boys JUMP out of bed in the morning to be the first to find him. You can see it in Alex's face as they said goodbye to him on Christmas Eve:

Final prep for Santa:

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...

See you on the 25th!