We have had an amazing spring full of fun, laughs, and lots of sweat and hard work. While I was on my last maternity leave that I will ever have, I figured to make it more chaotic and decided that we should landscape our backyard. I have wanted to do something for over a year with our backyard but never had a clear vision of what I really wanted. I just knew that we had about 4 different spot in our backyard that were dirt spots that wouldn't even grow grass. We spend a lot of time outdoors once spring hits until winter time so I knew to take full advantage of our outdoor space would be worth it. Plus having a 3 month old while the kids are all home for summer it would be nice if I could just tell the "big" kids to go out and play while their sister sleeps. This would let me have the best of both worlds still having Finley sleep and stay on a little schedule, while Cyril, Paxton and Piper get to run off their energy.
While on maternity leave I was feeding Finley when I heard a chainsaw outside and the noise was coming from down the street. There was a house up the street that they was cutting down a 50+ year old tree down. I start thinking of my backyard and the upcoming spring and summer and knew I had to act quick. I finish feeding Finley and put her down for her nap and run up to the house to see what they are going to do with all the tree stumps. They said that I could have them but they are very heavy and I needed to let him know what stumps I wanted since the guy was coming to do cleanup in 15 minutes. I picked out 5 nice size tree stumps and limbs, since I didn't want to go overboard and knew we had to move them to our house.
Once we got the tree stumps moved to our house then I started making a plan of our backyard and all the fun stuff we could do with the space provided. I started to realize that my kids love to climb, play pretend restaurant with their make shift "mud kitchen," and loved to dig. I knew that these tree stumps would be a great start to a natural playscape area for the kiddos. I started talking to Carl to get him on board to help me make this dream a reality, meaning I need him to do the heavy lifting and digging, since I wasn't even 6 weeks postpartum and wasn't even supposed to be lifting anything heavier than Finley.
This project started as something that was going to take all summer and we would do things when we could, but quickly turned into a project where if we hurried and got it done in the springtime while I was on maternity leave then we could enjoy it all summer. I'm the type of person that has a grand idea for a project and wants it to be done now, or even yesterday. I'm not very good with taking things slow and just occasionally doing a project when there's time, I jump in head first and go all out which sometimes turns out to be overwhelming at times for me and whoever I bring into the project with me.
Luckily my husband is a good sport and knows me by now that he knew what he was in for before even committing to it. Our natural playscape and landscaping took about 6 weeks to be all done from start to finish, and was finished just in time for the start of summer.
This is the beginning of the project and before pictures. As you can see there is about 3 big dirt areas that we had to figure out what we were going to do. This is when we had set the tree stumps into the ground and had started leveling out the areas we were going to work with.
Before:
After:
Our natural playscape is broken down into about 5-6 different little areas where the kids can play together or separate if needed. I wanted it cohesive enough so that it doesn't look like we just put random stuff together but also friendly so that we could still mow around each area. We wanted it to appeal to kids of all ages because we don't want to have to redo everything in a couple years when the kids grow up. We also didn't want the area too thought out meaning we still wanted the kiddos to be able to give them tools but also wanted them to have to use their imaginations on what to do with each area.
The first area is a little play area that is pea gravel and has a bunch of different outdoor games for the kiddos. First, Carl built an outdoor balance beam out of 4x4's. We then bought some different pavers and placed them in the area for some stepping stones. I then ended up painting some of the pavers to give the area some color and so that they could play hopscotch, outdoor tic tac toe, and checkers. We then put some large boulders around the edge to keep the pea gravel contained and so that the kids could play on them.
The next little area is just a semi tire dug into the ground with a 2x4 hanging out by it (not attached). We think we might try to get a couple more tires for each side so that the kids can crawl underneath them or jump on top of them, but it's fun to see them using it for a balance beam or crawl underneath it when we use it for an obstacle course.
The next area is our tree stumps that are dug in the ground. The kids like to jump on them and use them to build their sand castle/ sand concoctions for the sand restaurant.
This area used to have a tree that was torn down before we bought out house. There is still a large stump that was never ground down so it was an area that would never grow grass and it had a very large incline that made it difficult to walk around or on it. We ended up leveling the area and placing a large semi tire in the middle with mulch around it for a sand box. We then contained it all in a rock border that is close to underneath our deck that our kids have always referred to as their "animal house."
Their animal house has turned into a mud kitchen but still had the same name. Here they had a lot of bowls, kitchen utensils that they like to make food and pretend that they are running a restaurant. Let me tell you these kids are super creative with their sand food creations. It's not just hot dogs and mac n cheese coming out of this sand/ mud kitchen.
This is the before picture just outside of the kids "animal house." It used to have red rocks in this area without a border so that the rocks got kicked into the grass all the time. It was a pretty sad area that had only 1 overgrown plant in it so we leveled this area out.
before:
After:
We first put up a cinderblock wall to hide underneath the deck and beautify the area with planting the flowers in the wall. We then laid down the pavers and finished it off with some large boulders to give the kids a nice area to sit or play. They have a picnic table that we decided to put in this area so that we could "eat" at their mud/ sand kitchen.
Yes I know there is an unsightly area in the lattice that my children destroyed but luckily they have great imaginations and use it as a pass through from the kitchen to the "dining area" of their restaurant.
This is our view from the deck. This is what it looks like now that the playscape is up and running and usually has toys and all kinds of other creations laid throughout the area.
The last part of our project was to make more of an "adult" sitting area in the area by our house that was just dirt.
For this project it took a whole family effort. The kids helped out when they could and wanted to.
Before:
After:
This area is shaded almost 80% of the time so it's nice to come out and sit on the patio and watch the kids playing in the yard.
I also made our outdoor shed as an accessible area for everything summer. The kids can find their water guns, sidewalk chalk, frisbees, and air pump for the inflatable pool.
And since all of this landscaping happened while I was on maternity leave I thought I would show you a couple cute pictures of how much Finley has grown through the 3 months of this project. I will say she was a super big helper by showing us how good of a sleeper she was so that Carl and I could go outside and dig and do the heavy lifting while she was sound asleep in her crib.
I just love her smile!
Last day of school for the boys!
Looking back it's been a long spring but so excited to have summer and the rest of the time to enjoy our hard work.
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