Backyard Oasis - Phase 1

On Thursday, my good friend and I took our 15 month old boys to the beach.  I'm happy to report that the boys had a blast and we (the moms) were pretty proud of ourselves for tackling a successful day trip on our own.  The only downside was that there were a whole bunch of bees that came sneaking up on our little spot under our umbrella and I got scorched.  But my skin will heal and the bees didn't sting anyone.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to snap any pictures because priority #1 was hanging on to our little guys since all they wanted to do was run into the water.  I love that they are so adventurous!  Being out there reminded me how much I enjoy soaking up the sun.  Luckily for us, we only live about an hour away from the beach so we will be heading back out there soon.  

Back on the home front, my husband and I have been planning on what to do with our decently sized backyard since we moved in over a year ago.  We planned to maintain a grassy area where Nicholas could play, but we also wanted to add stamped concrete.  One area would be for a dining set under a pergola, another would be for a sandbox, and lastly, a small, cozy sitting area with a fire pit.  As much as we'd love for this whole project to happen overnight, we know that's just not possible.  But little by little, we've been tackling what we can.

The first project we finished, well my husband really, [ I picked out the fabric :) ] was the sandbox for Nicholas.  I found this great pin on Pinterest with step-by-step instructions on how to build this fantastic sandbox.  The sandbox only took 2 days to complete.  A few days later, Nicholas and his friend Milo broke it in.  The sand freaked them out a little, but they got over it and then ran to the pool!  And since we live in South Texas, this sandbox and pool will be getting a lot of use!   

Here's the semi-complete sandbox.  All that was left was to stain it,
staple the canopy on, and fill it with sand

Here, Milo & Nicholas tried it out for the first time.  I think Milo was telling me a joke here :)

"Mom, could you please stop taking pictures of me? It's embarrassing" 

As soon as they saw the sprinkles of water, they just had to check it out :)

Next step of our backyard transformation - the pergola.  Most of the cedar needed to finish building the pergola has already been delivered and hauled from the curbside to the backyard.  My husband has made the drawing as to how he's going to build it, so all he needs is time.  After the pergola goes up, next on the list is landscaping! That's the one part I'm not looking forward to.  The extreme heat and lack of rain where we live makes having nice plants and flowers challenging.  But, we're still going to try.  

This is what one side of our backyard looks like right now.  In a few weeks  the pergola
will finally be completed (my husband only has 1-2 days a week to work on this project).

Stay tuned to see the big reveal!  Thanks for stopping by!