Tree Felling and a few others

We had an evergreen tree in our front yard that was getting too big for the small front yard, ruining our lawn, and getting in the way of our neighbor's driveway, so we took on the task of ripping it out. The kids thought it was so exciting!






They pulled while Greg sawed the top off. That was the fun part. :)

There was great celebration a few days later when after, a bunch of digging, sweating, and pickaxing, he got the stump out! The tree was right next to all the utility boxes and lines, so it was tricky business getting the roots out without messing up the wires.

I've never liked the three big bushes in front of our house, so we decided to take those out, too, while we were at it. The kids worked hard getting the first two out all by themselves. They worked all afternoon while I dug around the tree stump. When Greg got home he helped them get the last one out.

We replaced the evergreen with a lilac tree (I've always wanted one) and the three ugly bushes with three Skimmia bushes that will have white flowers in the spring and red berries after that. All the plants are small now but will be just right when they mature. We're all about a low-maintenance yard. I think we're set for at least a few years now.

Our playroom couch reached the end of its life, so we gave the kids permission to finish the destruction. We bought this couch before Kari was born. It lasted 10 years--not bad!

The mess wasn't much fun to clean up but making the mess sure was fun.

Just a random photo of Aubrey with a little too much lip gloss applied.

And this just cracked me up. The size of this Nutella at Costco was unreal. It cost $37.99! No, we did not buy it. Our kids like Nutella, and I do usually buy it at Costco but in a much smaller two-pack. Can you imagine reaching your hand in with a knife to scrape the bottom of that jar? There seemed to be more people taking pictures of it than actually purchasing it. I didn't see it there the last time we went. Either it sold out, or someone in the purchasing department decided no one needs eleven pounds of Nutella!