this picture does not match the title but I like it.
Memorial Day weekend we made a really ambitious todo list and then really got after it. But before we started it we had my cousin Anna’s wedding.
We got there Friday night just before the wedding party walked in. Including little Drake.
He was really excited to see our kids and got distracted from his responsibility.
Our kids did pretty good. Bean snacked and climbed Heath and I and Pumpkin sat on Peanuts lap and they did a good job.
Then the wedding ended and we all headed outside.
The newlyweds took off in a Bentley.
and we took advantage of our nice matching clothes for some pictures.
Then we went to the reception. It was pretty great, the groom made a bunch of homebrew, the kids imeadiatly got special boxes of dinner and lots of our family was there.
Once we got going the kids alternated between dancing, running and eating. We visited and let them run around and wear themselves out. Everyone was well behaved and we got to stay pretty late. Bean had done a good job sneaking in a power nap between the wedding and reception.
We woke up Saturday morning and entered productive weekend mode and it was intense. I didn’t take pictures of everything and I assume I’ll forget several small quick projects. Saturday’s major effort was on our carpet. Heath and I moved all the furniture to a little patch of floor that we had already done.
This exposed all our old stained kinda gross carpet.
Then we got it up and out of the house.
We also pulled up the pad and got it out
Then we were left with a million staples and rooms and previous walls bordered with tack board and nails. Heath and I got busy getting rid of nails, boards and staples after terrifying the kids with stories of tetanus shots and kids stepping on rusty staples and getting infections. Usually we can’t keep shoes on any of them but this did the trick.
We put them to work helping.
I worked on this project all day, mostly removing boards and staples but also moving furniture around and cleaning up.
Heath worked the food truck that night and headed out. I moved a bunch of stuff around the basement, setup another bed, did laundry, tried to fix our dryer and some other projects.
I kept the kids busy by letting them watch a movie and eat down stairs.
Then I pulled up and cleaned up the last of the carpet stuffs. In the morning Heath and I moved everything back.
The floors were stained less then then we expected from the first section we pulled up but they certainly need some work.
But stained hardwoods look better then stained carpet. We probably won’t do a lot with the floors for a while now.
Actually before moving furniture I had gotten up early, eaten a slice of pizza and then gotten busy digging.
We have done a lot of random things with the flower box out front of our house and we decided to try something new.
I dug pretty hard for about 3 hours strait and ended up with about an 8ft by 8ft and 2ft deep hole.
The kids played in a little pool and slip and slide and with water guns while I dug. Late in the afternoon Grant went to another wedding with his dad and we took the girls for a treat and Heath and I got big drinks to help cool us down. 
Then we went to Home Depot and used Heath’s service in the Marines to get us 10% off a bunch of lumber and supplies.
We got everything we needed for the box and took it home.
.
We ate some dinner and then got busy building the box.
We had a lot of help
Then we put Bean to bed and Pumpkin read us some books.
She is really excited about reading right now.
Then Heath and I went back to work.
We both dug a bunch more and worked on the box.
We worked until it started raining and then we grabbed all the tools and brought them inside. In the morning I ate a banana and then did some more digging.
Peanut came back and we put him to work.
He recruited some help.
It became pretty obvious how big this sand box was going to be.
It was tempting to turn it into a pen for the children.
Heath and I picked it up and dropped it in the hole. It didn’t fit and we cut some edges out some more and dropped it in again, it didn’t fit and we made some more adjustments, it didn’t fit and we dug some more and dropped it in again and it fit. We didn’t take any picture for some reason. I got cleaned up and Heath’s mom, brother and grandma came over for lunch.
Then I loaded up the grill.
It was a great meal and I was really hungry. After lunch Bean took a nap and everyone else visited. I worked on projects besides the sandbox like the broken dryer.
Then we made up some stuff for dinner and headed over to Mike and Julies. We had a great meal, visited and then walked their new dog Dexter to the park. Our kids played a bunch.
We stayed past their bedtime and then then rushed home and got them in bed.
In the morning I got up early and filled in dirt all around the edges of the box and dug a bit out of the bottom.
Then I did some planting on the other end of the flower box.
I think I planted 4 or 5 sunflowers and 5 or 6 butternut squash plants.
We had planted the seeds for fun a few weeks ago and they really took off.
It didn’t happen until just now but I feel like it belongs with this post. This morning I put down a layer of week blocking stuff.
Then a dump truck came and filled it with sand.
and perfect!
Next in store we will install a large umbrella in the middle of the box, build a storage bench or 2 around the edges and a folding cover to keep out the pests.
Well maybe before all that stuff we will start playing.