Happy Mother's Day!

We had a very busy but productive weekend!  I wanted to get a lot of outdoor work done, but the forecast was calling for rain on Saturday and Sunday.  So on Friday, Hailey & I headed out to some local garden nurseries to buy some plants (for our side yard), vegetables and herbs (for the garden), and a new tree to replace our dead one.  I called Brian with a plan for planting and he took a half day of vacation to come home and help out.  We managed to get the rest of the garden planted, weed and plant the new plants on the side yard, replace the tree, weed the rest of the landscaping beds, and re-do all the brick work around the landscaping.  We felt great being able to get so much accomplished, however our muscles definitely feel otherwise!  Now all that is left to do is mulch the beds, mow the grass, and stain the deck, which we're hoping to accomplish over the next couple weekends.  As you can tell, the rain held off for the majority of the weekend.  We had a couple light showers move through, but that was it.

Today we went over for a barbecue lunch at my parents' house to celebrate Mother's Day.  My dad grilled some hamburgers & hot dogs, my sisters made cheesy potatoes and corn spoon bread, and I made my grandmother's summer salad.   My sister picked up an ice cream cake for dessert as well.  We spent some time outside in the nice weather...still a little chilly, but the sun was warm!  After everyone left, Brian, Hailey, & I stayed behind for a little while to talk with my parents about my grandfather.  If you read this post in time and have an opportunity to say a prayer for my grandfather, we would be very grateful, because he is in great need of them!  He is having major vascular surgery tomorrow at 1 pm to attempt to provide some circulation back to his body.  It is a very risky surgery and will take between 4-5 hours.  There is a very real chance he may not survive the surgery, but we are trying to remain optimistic that he will make it through.

  This side of the house gets shade the majority of the day, so I did some research and found these plants do the best in shade.  The large bushy plants are rhododendrons.  In between those are hostas and bleeding hearts or hostas and blue pulmonaria.  Both the hostas and rhododendrons will get much bigger and expand, so I can't wait to see how they change over the years!

On Sunday morning, Hailey wanted to go outside to see what Daddy was doing right after she woke up.  She put her shoes and coat on and headed out the door.  Who needs to get dressed, right?

Brian works on new brick work while Hailey rides her tricycle in her pajamas.  The sun is deceiving, because it's really only about 50 degrees at this point!

The new tree, a pink flowering cherry, to replace our dead flowering dogwood.  All the nurseries were not carrying the flowering dogwood this year and one confessed that they have been having problems with it, so we had to decide on a new type of tree all together.

 My Mother's Day present...a fuschia hanging basket.  Love it!

Natalie (left) and Emily (right) watch the lights and toys on their swings.

The girls of the family!