What a gorgeous weekend we just had. The main order of business was this privacy fence that we wanted to get up. Corey and I (with a little help from Erika) spent the bulk of Friday staining it and he and his Dad put it up Saturday. Not a huge home project, but a big one for us.





On Friday, for our five year anniversary (five years!), we went out to dinner at a local brewery and enjoyed an awesome dinner (complete with an eight beer sampler) and uninterrupted conversation with my best friend.

On Saturday night we all went to a party with bubbles, chalk, tons of great food, a gaggle of girls making fairy houses and catching butterflies, and an outdoor movie showing of Bed Knobs and Broomsticks. Yeah, it was pretty rad.









The girls also helped me plant some flowers in hanging baskets on the new fence.







And last, but not certainly not least, we had a live Fish Sticks performance in our backyard. Now, you may not have heard of the Fish Sticks yet, but you will. Corey and Erika started the Fish Sticks this last winter and after many practices they played their single, Hawaiian Cowgirl Robot, to a live audience of two last night. While the girls took their showers, I got the stage ready. It was an awesome performance.

The pole beans I lovingly started from seed didn't do too well. Maybe it was the darn squirrels messing with them, or maybe I just started them too soon. Last weekend at the farmer's market I bought some plants and planted them around our bean tee pee. Here is a picture of the new plants next to seedlings. And also some beautiful lettuce at the market, just because.





And here is the tee pee in the back corner of the yard. The goal is to hide, or at least detract, from that awesome utility post. I will post more pictures if the squirrels don't destroy it.



In other garden news, mud is really fun. The sand box with plastic toys isn't nearly as appealing as dirt, water, and a shovel.





A good friend of mine recently set aside a part of her yard for play with a pile of dirt and building materials like bricks and stones. Of course, her kids love it. It has me thinking about the possibilities for this little corner of the yard.

The last few days have been a little taste of summer with really warm weather and thunderstorms galore. Literally overnight my lettuce, carrots, basil, and cilantro all sprouted. Our Irises are about to pop, too.



This weekend I extended the garden that goes around our yard. Pulling out grass is much harder than I had anticipated, but it's done and I'm ready to plant! Today Audrey and I got a poppy plant and our cherry tomatoes planted. I bought a few plant supports and planted morning and evening glory seeds under them. I also transplanted a rose bush, though my roses have yet to flower. The idea is to cover the fence and distract from the neighbor's garage behind it. I'm still a novice to this gardening business, but luckily my mother in law is also a master gardener and full of ideas when I draw blanks.





Since these pictures were taken I've moved the pots and things around a handful of times and I'm sure they will move many more times before I find the perfect place for everything. For now it's nice to look around the yard and just see things green and growing.

In addition to gardening, there was some bird watching.



And some bike washing.



And some general digging for no particular reason.

Fairy Houses, by Tracy Kane, has been our latest inspiration. This book is about a little girl who makes a fantastic fairy house in the woods and finds herself immersed in nature in the process. Last year we made a small fairy house using a large pot turned on it's side and buried under the dirt a little. We filled it with little trinkets and rocks and flowers. This book sets some rules for building a proper fairy house:

1. Fairy Houses should look so natural they are almost hidden. A location close to the ground is best.

2. You should use only natural materials. Dry grasses, leaves, sticks, pebbles and pinecones are just a few examples of materials to choose.

3. Be careful not to use or disturb any of nature's materials that are still living, especially flowers, ferns, mosses and lichen. Fairies do not like to disturb or destroy anything that is growing in nature.

Erika studied this book many times and we discussed what the rules meant at length. Then we went an a walk around the neighborhood and collected materials to build with. I ended up doing a lot of the work on this house because Erika's fingers, however small, were not quite steady enough for this line of work. She directed, collected, revised, and decorated, and I built the little house much as one plays the final rounds of Jenga. I can see already that this will be a work in progress from tomorrow until snow falls again. As you can see from the pictures, it's already been through a few remodels.



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I finally got some seeds in the dirt today. Since this is Michigan and we could still have a freezing temperatures at any moment, I planted most of the plants in egg cartons so we can bring them in at night over the next few weeks. In my small raised garden bed I planted carrots and lettuce on either side of the already existing strawberry plant that has yet to yield a single strawberry, but somehow managed to survive winter. I also have a small peppermint plant in there that survived the winter. Not quite sure what to do with the peppermint but pick the leaves and smell them.

In two small pots I planted basil and cilantro. I'm saving another huge pot for a tomato plant. In the egg cartons are sunflowers, because last year Corey accidentally weed whacked the sunflowers last year and Erika hasn't forgotten about it, Marigolds, because I heard that they will keep the squirrels away, Zinnia, because they are pretty and I can cut them for the house, and pole string beans because I am determined to get a good bean house going for the fairies this year.

This was a special planting year because it was the first year that I had a little helper. Last year Erika was able to help a little, but this year she really sat and worked with me, really getting her hands dirty and staying focused. It was pretty awesome.