Sophie's pool party...just for the fun of it!!

As you know, we have just put in an above-ground pool. Well, my little girl is so happy with it, I decided to throw her a little party so she could celebrate the start of the summer with a few of her little friends. Of course what better theme for a pool party is there than a Hawaiian theme? Oh yes- all my favorite colours, grass skirts, pink fizzy drinks with little umbrellas in them, funny bathing caps...lots of fun things!!

We decided to serve some "nuggets 'n' fries" in some cute take-out containers from Michael's. They were a dollar a piece and made the food look all the better. Lots of watermelon was eaten and we tried our hand at making snow cones with my new machine I purchased at Target. The girls loved cranking out their treat and I loved cleaning up the sticky syrup!! All in fun!!

Sophie had drawn the sweetest picture of herself and her friends swimming in our pool a while back, so I thought, why not use it as her invitation? We photocopied it and when I told her we were going to go around delivering them, she declared it the "best day ever". To me, every day spent with my little girl is my "best day ever!", even if it does mean cleaning up sticky syrup from my deck!!

***Next up for me, a surfing-themed "end of school party" for my youngest son and a "birthday party by the pool" for my eldest son. I'm going to be busy!!

Unfinished Business...

Well, here are some before photos of all the outdoor projects we have under way. The only problem is...there are no after photos yet. We still have lots to do before those can be taken and the weather and our schedules are not cooperating. Paul has made more progress than this photo shows - the floor of the deck is now complete and he is starting on the walls. I want the pool area to be good and private so we can pretend we are not within spitting distance of our neighbours!! The kids decided they could wait no longer and decided to have their very own "polar dip"...the water temperature was about 60 degrees, so needless to say, their dip was very brief!!

Sophie and I are tackling the flower beds but that, too, is slow going. I want to plant with the future in mind and I want it to look "cottagey"...I don't want anything looking too perfectly planned or cookie-cutter. I'll post some pictures of the progress we have made as soon as I get my mulch.

I hope you all are enjoying better weather than we are. It is still basically quite cold and rainy here. There haven't been too many occasions where the kids have had to wear shorts. It's looking like another short Maritime summer...Happy landscaping!!

Backyard Showers

I have never taken a shower outdoors, but I can only imagine how great it would be! The first outdoor shower I ever saw was on television, in an Irish Spring commercial, and aside from the big, dopey guy in the ad (with the bad fake accent) , I thought that shower was the most amazing thing ever! I still dream of having one, but my reasons have changed.

We are in the process of putting in a backyard (above-ground) pool and in my wish list of pool accessories is a great outdoor shower. I picture it on my deck, with a door that has that proverbial outhouse symbol, the crescent moon, carved in it (above peeking level of course!!) I would hang nautical themed towels from fun hooks and wire baskets would hold a nice bottle of shampoo, shower gel, and a sea sponge. Visiting kids (and my own) could rinse the chlorine out of their hair and dirty feet making tracks on my hardwood would be no more. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Then reality throws just enough water in my face. My "middle child" has an issue with water... He is usually in the shower for up to 20 minutes (to wash a small body, no less) before we notice that the water coming from the taps is unusually cold and he is not in his room getting settled for bed as we had presumed. This is our obstacle to a poolside shower. We can just picture him (and to be fair, his little sister) hopping in and out of the pool to "warm up" under the hot shower. We are purposely not getting a pool heater due to the high cost of it, so the amount of hot water we'd go through in a day with a shower would defeat this cost saving measure!

My only hope is that my husband will come through on his promise to come up with a creative solution to heat the water naturally (think modified rain barrell) and rig something up so that I can achieve my girlhood fantasy of standing under a shower in the great outdoors while the birds chirp and the kids splash in the pool nearby. On second thought, maybe I had better rethink that moon-shaped cut-out...I don't want any little pranksters traumatizing me (and themselves) while I'm trying to fulfill a dream!!!

 

More than a playhouse...

When I was a little girl, my sister, Wendy, would tell me all about the playhouse my Uncle Jimmy had made for her in Ireland. We left Ireland when I was only five so I have very limited memories of my birthplace. I remember feeling envious of this playhouse that I had no memory of. It was called "the Wendy house" and it sounded like a dream. How I wished I had one of my own...
As I grew older, I vowed that if I ever had a daughter, she would definitely have her own little outdoor oasis. Fast forward to now: I have a six-year old daughter and no playhouse. But all that is about to change this summer. My talented husband, who is a very doting daddy, is going to make her the play house of my dreams!!! We are putting in an above-ground pool with a deck all around it and attached to the side wall of the deck will be her playhouse. We have a very small backyard, so the width is not there for a pool and playhouse. We were stumped as to how to incorporate the playhouse until a lightbulb went off in my head! It will obviously be at deck level so it will have a slanted ladder going up to it and she will climb up to her little house. Essentially, she will be playing in her house while behind her is the side wall of the pool deck- they will have a shared wall. Confusing I know, but do-able. I am so excited and cannot wait to bring it to life! I picture it with window boxes, cedar shake roof, pale yellow clap-boards, and a gothic style window in the peak. It is to be seen whether hubby will go along with all that!!!

I had originally thought I would incorporate a playhouse into a garden shed for us. The idea was to have the playhouse as the front of the structure and the shed in the back with its own door. This would definitely be a good idea for anyone with a proper sized backyard and really means only building one structure with a dividing wall in between. You could even have the playhouse be a cabin for boys or a fun hangout for pre-teens. In my case, we had better get at it. Time is a' wasting! I want Sophie to have her playhouse while she is still young enough to really enjoy it!!