Better Lawn and Gardens

I think Lilly's trying to say Baron! She was saying, "Bay-ay" every time she saw a picture of a dog while we were looking through a magazine this morning. (I'm guessing that she's associating all dogs with Baron.) Whenever she wanted to go back to see the picture again, she waved her hands around screaming, "Bay-ay!" until I'd go back to the right page. Then she'd point to it and smile. I was able to

 catch a tiny bit of it on camera, but nothing like she was doing earlier.

Raj hired Perez & Sons Lawn Care, Inc., who arrived today. They were very busy trying to reclaim our plants from being overgrown and neglected since (at least) last fall. They cut and fertilized the grass, trimmed bushes and trees, removed dead leaves and grass, and generally cleaned up the garden beds. They even removed 4 small dead/dying trees by the archway by the corner of the kitchen that they think were hurt by the drastic winter. Shawn had fun supervising from a distance - especially watching Mr. Perez using a power blower to clear out the mounds of dead leaves in the flower beds; though, we stayed inside and watched from the windows so as not to be in the way. Raj has the crew on a schedule to come back for mowing, fertilizing, and more plant maintenance. There's still some pruning that I think could've been done today, but it looks remarkably better. Even spending an entire weekend working on it ourselves, Raj and I agreed that we could not have accomplished all that Mr. Perez's crew did in about 4 hours this morning. Still, Raj is sure we won't need Mr. Perez's crew for very long. It is incredibly helpful to get the yard back in shape and see what it's supposed to look like though. Hopefully, we'll learn to maintain it by watching what they do - and we're getting a few yard tools this weekend so I won't need to borrow Shawn's plastic rake anymore!

While the crew worked, Shawn and I marbleized a couple of eggs with nail polish. I initially caught his attention by calling it an experiment, but I had trouble getting our strings to stay inside the eggs, so Shawn had trouble staying interested while I fumbled with them. He also wasn't keen on getting any of the polish on his fingers, but he did like pouring the drops of polish into the water bowl and watching if the globs would float or sink. I don't have a wide selection of colors to choose from, but I think it's still a fun project.

We spent the rest of the day in the back yard. While Lilly took a 3 hour nap, Shawn and I read a few books that we got from the library yesterday. We set up our folding lawn chairs on the back patio and brought out popcorn and drinks and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon sun while the temperatures were in the high 50°Fs.

We spent the rest of the day in the back yard. While Lilly took a 3 hour nap, Shawn and I read a few books that we got from the library yesterday. We set up our folding lawn chairs on the back patio and brought out popcorn and drinks and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon sun while the temperatures were in the high 50°Fs.