Family pictures from May activities

Front view of the house. You can see the new basketball hoop to the right. The tree I took out was sitting in front of the two windows to the right of the porch.
It is hard to see but all along the fence I put landscape timbers and then filled the space between them and the grass with a thick layer of wood mulch. It runs all the way down to the corner and around to the house. I put the two bird feeders on a hook between the patio area and the fence. The bird feeders have been great viewing because we have the two sliding glass doors we can look out on the feeders from.
Here is where I dug out a strip of grass. I put down a layer of weed blocking screen and then put a thick layer of mulch on top. I plan to put a small decorative fence down the middle and then put a few azalea bushes in front.
Here you can see that I took out the scrubby bushes and replaced them with new azeleas that are just past blooming now. We also got some patio furniture for the porch so we can sit and watch the kids playing in the yard.
A couple of weeks ago we took the boys to the zoo (Anna was at a friends house). We realized that Elijah hadn't been to the zoo. He sure enjoyed seeing many of the animals we talk about in books.