The Sandbox

Dear Reader,

My husband and I had a number of goals for our backyard this past summer. We aimed to refinish our deck, find new deck furniture (after selling our old set rather quickly and easily on Craigslist), set up a sandbox and find seat on our patio, buy/build a swingset, and add major landscaping to our flat grassland of a backyard.

The deck refinish turned into a very long path to completion. In the end, the deck was a hired out then diy project. Long story. After MANY shopping trips to check out deck furniture and patio seating, we made choices for both. The swingset didn't happen. Maybe next summer it will. And, thanks to a good landscaping firm, we have some lovely trees (minus the one dead one that needs to be replaced - another long story) and perennials in our backyard now - my favorite addition to the summer.

My son may disagree though. Our first purchase of the season was a sandbox. I can't begin to guess how many hours have been logged in the sandbox this summer. My son followed a progression of just appreciating digging in the sand, to making roads and waterways, and now to building volcanoes that erupt.

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with my son about our time in the sand. I said to him, "I think we're really good at building volcanoes. Maybe we should call ourselves Team Awesome." Without a moment's hesitation, my three year old replies, "No mom, we're experts." Indeed. Becoming sand volcano experts would be a good summation of our summer.

Sincerely,
Abi