Kayaking

I didn't want to buy a kayak for the longest time, mostly because the garage was in such a mess that I wouldn't know where to put it.  We obviously could have put it by the lake, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood to entertain the idea yet.  But funny enough, some of the women around the neighborhood would go out kayaking on the lake and I was invited to join them.  And so, boom..! That same night, I had picked up a kayak for the next day's adventure :-)

I managed to put it in the trunk with the end bit of the kayak sticking out the back window.

I think Charlie is telling me how I actually should be sitting on the kayak while on the lake. Ha ha!

I'm glad the boys are around to help me carry the kayak to the lake. It's just a tad heavy for one person!

Ahhh, so serene on the lake!

We decided to get the boys two sit-on kayaks versus the sit-in kayak that I had used:

And off they go!

Funny how the boys scoot themselves into the water, not realizing that the water is going to seep into their kayak!  But that's actually how it's designed to work, so needless to say, they got a bit wet:

And well, both of them ended up falling into the lake, so they definitely got all-the-way wet!!

Fun time on the lake!

Graham fell into the water here and was just getting back on his kayak.  I think these sit-on ones are definitely easier for them to get back into, although perhaps they wouldn't be falling in so much if they had the sit-in ones. Or perhaps if they didn't try and knock each other over!

Daddy shows up after work to see what's going on :-)

I had missed posting some of these from when we first moved here.  Graham and Charlie brought the surfboard out and tried to stand on it like a paddle board:

Looks like it's not as easy as it seems:

I think being on the knees is the best way to go with a surfboard. It's pretty narrow compared to a regular stand-up paddle board:

Bobby took the boys out one other time to kayak.  What a life for these boys!

Thankfully the neighbor is so nice and can lend us one of their sit-in kayaks whenever needed:

Fall is definitely here now.  Look at this tree!!

There are SOOOOO many leaves everywhere though.  I thought Fall was my favorite season but as of right now, I think I've changed my mind and would like Spring to come!

It seems like it's never ending with these leaves falling onto the back deck despite all the sweeping. Urgh!

I knew I should have stained the deck prior to Fall. There's so much moisture on it now - between the rain and all the layers of leaves, so hopefully the wood will not get ruined. We'll see if I get motivated before winter.  The temperature has not been very consistent... cold for a few days and then back to the 60Fs and even 70Fs for another day or so.  In the meantime though, I need to figure out where to store our kayaks. The garage is still so full.  YIKES!

Tree trimming and mulching

I forgot to take the before photo and I totally forgot to tell the tree that it was going to get trimmed! Here's a quick video from the window:

We decided to have this tree trimmed because it is leaning so much! 

If it's any consolation, it is leaning away from the house.  A huge limb was trimmed off to reduce the weight/lean.

Looks like there's more weeding to be done in the yard as well:

I'm so glad we were able to keep the mulch:

But I didn't realize how much mulch we ended up with.  The guy said something about 2 to 3 yards.  I think there's a whole lot more!!

We got some nice stumps for seats by the fire pit:

And looks like we have a bit more firewood as well.  It will be interesting to see Bob chop these :-D

Ta da!!  I think the tree feels happy too!!

A few days later,... it was time to go through that mulch.  All hands on deck!!

We don't have a wheelbarrow, so we had to improvise a bit.  Yay for skateboards!

And some kid power :-)

I totally forgot about this red wagon:

It's about time Daddy showed up to help out! :-P

What does Graham think he's doing... taking a break?!

Well, I sent him to make us lunch.  I thought he did a great job making everyone ham and cheese sandwiches:

A while later, somehow... I managed to rip my shorts! LOL!!!

And these are one of my favorite pairs of shorts too!  I still haven't thrown them out yet.  I still keep thinking I can sew it up somehow.

I think we made quite a good dent after day one of mulching.  We covered it with a tarp (actually an old shower curtain) because it was due to rain soon the next day:

The yard is starting to come together, slowly but surely:

We were debating about taking out this entire of row of shrubs out here, but the trimming that was done actually looks pretty good and presentable.

I bought a new organizer for all of our garden tools.  This one seems to work quite well!

Sending back the tree in a different form (mulch) to the base of the tree.  Win win!

It would eventually take us another week or so to finally finish putting away the entire pile of mulch into the rest of the garden.  Phew!  Let's not do that again anytime soon.  Ha ha!!

Another tooth lost for Charlie

Well, that didn't take long.  Charlie lost another tooth while at school last week.  And this time it, was the lower right molar.  The adult tooth is already visible.  I hope he's brushing these new ones!!  I did finally find the little baggy for the Tooth Fairy.  And I guess I better figure out where to get single dollar notes as well. Maybe Graham won't know if I go through his stash of cash :-)

Here's another photo of Charlie. He's such a hoot! He loves my chair and tells me that he is already claiming it when I die. Haha!!

Another lost tooth for Charlie

I'm definitely slacking here with my blog posting.  I think Charlie lost his tooth last week sometime.  Hmmm, I forget... and of course, it took a couple more days for the Tooth Fairy to show up too.  I wondering if Charlie actually still believes in that anymore.

So let's see... bottom left molar if I'm not mistaken.  And looks like it is right on time - 10-12 years old.

It's never a dull moment with Charlie.  The weather has turned all of a sudden and it is cold!  He said that his ears were cold when he was walking home from the bus stop yesterday.  Ha ha!  Well, hopefully this beanie will help for tomorrow. The highs have only been in the low 50s and it's already almost at freezing or below at night.  Brrrr...!!

Ps.  Charlie has finished his antibiotics and all good with that little finger where the fish hook was a couple of weekends ago.  Phew! Although, funny looking back at the scab - it doesn't look as bad as I recall, especially comparing to hearing his screams at that time!

New outdoor furniture

It's been nice shopping for outdoor furniture as we didn't move any of them.  But it's been also very expensive!  But hopefully these will outlive all of us.  Ha ha!

We also picked up some outdoor rugs.  So glad we have this truck but seems that everything barely fits at this point. Ha!

The hotdogs fit perfectly in our bellies though. He he, there's a popular hotdog chain restaurant and it was right next door to where we were shopping.  So of course we had to try it:

So, the hotdog wasn't bad but I'm not sure if it's anything to cry home about.  They did forget Bob's hotdog so Bobby did end up going back to the store anyway to pick up something else and swung back around to pick up his hotdog.

We found a simple round table with 4 chairs - 2 of which are rockers.  And table yet to be assembled:

Graham and Charlie were quick to test out the rockers while playing video games, of course:

Love our new rugs! Although we just ruined on of them the other day when we had the firepit above it.  It's a bit "wavy" now. Oops!

Here's our prized possession - this recycled plastic with aluminum base picnic bench.  Bobby obviously had sticker price shock when the boys and I told him this was the one we wanted. But it's been so good so far!

Charlie couldn't stop talking about these chairs, so we bought them as well.  These are made with marine-grade material.  Looks like Charlie has expensive taste just like his mommy :-D

First meal outside (Sept 9).... YAY!!  

Unfortunately, there won't be too many of these left.  It's starting to get cold and dark very early these days!

But for now, we're obviously trying to squeeze as many nights outdoor as possible.  I mean, there's chipmunks that we need to keep company!  Do you see it?!

I wanted some privacy to the backyard so I decided to move some plants around from the front yard:

Before:

After!

The plants are still not quite tall enough but hopefully as they grow taller, it will do the trick:

Although, as of today - the leaves and flowers have all gone brown!!  I hope they survive and come back in the Spring.  

The tomatoes in front has been slowly producing fruit though.  Yay!

And oh, there's a frog in the front yard too! It's right at against the wall:

So there's something about all toads are frogs but not all frogs are toad.  And didn't realize that toads actually spend most of their adult life on land!

We also hung a bird house that Bobby found during one of his walks by work. Someone was giving them out and left a collection on their stoop.  So cute!

So happy with all our purchases!  And I've added this planter with some grass for some added height:

Those yellow flowers weren't doing so great so I pulled those out from the planter and put it in the ground. I'm not having very much luck with plants these days!

I know this one won't die on me - it's metal.  Ha ha!

I did end up buying a lemon plant - perhaps missing my huge lemon tree in CA.  Funny though, with all those lemons we had in the backyard, we really didn't make that much lemonade!  But it was nice knowing it was there when I needed lemons.  This plant is staying indoors. Let's see how it does:

And I had to get this little guy.  The starfish with eyes was too cute and of course, another airplant :-)

Bobby and Graham are building our outdoor heater:

Wait, how come Mommy and Graham are doing it now?

And how come Charlie is on his iPad and not participating? Hmmm...

It works!!  This will help prolong our nights outside:

Another project - our new firepit!

Ta da!!! I love how this one has a grate on top so we can actually cook on top of it!  

It's also one of those - just in case, the power goes out and we need to cook something. Ha ha!

Covers for everything!

And I busted out the indoor electric fireplace too.  He he!

Okay, that's it for now.  The fireplace indoors was suppose to get fixed but that was delayed until this Monday. Once that's fixed, it will be so nice to have a fire inside.  And hopefully get that TV off the floor too!

Everything is coming into place, except for that credit card bill.  Oops!!