For those Mietus family aficionados, you know that Joel's birthday was May 2. And, since it was the big 4-0 for him, I really wanted it to be a lot of fun and filled with surprises. The first part of his pre-birthday weekend actually held a surprise for me as well. For Joel's birthday, my family had come into town from Austin (and Keller) and not only purchased plants from our landscape plan, but also generously donated back-breaking labor to help us turn our weed-filled, neglected front beds into, well, you'll have to see for yourself. I wish I had a true
before picture of the beds so all the effort could be truly appreciated, but you'll just have to take my word for it. Thanks to Kasey, Michael, Matt, Melinda, Mom, and Autumn for a birthday present for Joel that is really for our whole family!
This first picture is after the beds had been weeded and before the tilling.
Far right side view after weeding
How many guys does it take to work a roto-tiller?
Cousins hard at work making and jumping in puddles
Everyone took turns with baby duty
Are we having fun yet?
A work in progress
Can you tell which side we had already done? Note the pile of dead branches we'd also cleared--we had 2 other piles as well!
Isn't it beautiful?
We plan on putting a bench at the end of the flagstone path so we can enjoy all the hard work and newfound curb appeal.
Left side
after picture
Right side
after picture
grew into this happy, chubby, grinning, drooling, crawling baby...
and then became this clapping, walking, sword-wielding,
