Playground Weather

 The first week of January brought some unseasonably warm weather around 50degrees! So we made the most of a couple days and hit the playgrounds.

This is one of my favorite playgrounds, it's just a few blocks from Aunt Jean and Uncle ben's house and is great because it has the padded playground surface. It's like rubber padding, and so it's never muddy and you never have sand or pebbles or wood chips in your shoes.

See the nice surface, when you walk on it, it's like walking on puffy slippers!

He's so cute! Love that dimple smile!

Two days of play! WOW!

This is Kent Park, which is closer to home, but it has the wood chips. Still an excellent playground. 

Snowpants are a must at any winter playground, not only because it's chilly, but the slides always have dew or melted snow on them!

Nice to look back on these days since tomorrow the high is supposed to be 3 degrees.

Yard Sale, Patio and Dirty Work

 So the 13,14,15th was the city wide yard sale in North Liberty. I'm not sure who had the bright idea to yard sale for three days, but........

There were 260 yard sales listed on the group's social media. 

Dilly had the right idea I think. We spent 3 days moving stuff in and out of the garage as the weather changed. Andrew's Gramma had so much stuff! It was amazing. We'd get one tote emptied out and she'd magically appear with another one! 

Dilly and Drew made their own fun with the ball of string. 

So cute...and Dirty! Speaking of dirt....I hired an outfit to come and landscape a little bit of our back yard. American Outdoor Services came and got started on a new patio for us!

This is the backside of the house, the East side.

They'll be bringing in cement tomorrow. 

And they will be doing a drainage improvement in the front yard. Adding dirt and re routing the downspout drain so it goes away from the house better. 

But that means that the daylilies and other bulbs out front need to be dug up or they will be buried and die. DD came over and dug for two days to get them out to safety. It was so HOT, she worked so hard, now I hope they will survive until we get them back in!

Here's a before look at the side with the A/C all overgrown and weedy. 

And here it is ready for more work.

Here's the cement!

And here are Dilly's hand prints forever in the cement. He wanted to grab it, so they are a little claw-like, but WE all know who they belong to!

I'm loving this cement!

Look here the back is finished-they need to bring in a little bit of dirt, but it's too muddy after a lot of rain last night, so they will try to bring it on Monday. The guys started the work on the South side, and it's shaping up well. It's so HOT, these guys are really earning their money this week!

Doesn't that look nice? So much better than the weeds! American Outdoor Services propertymaintenance.com/# Has done a great job so far.

Now just to get the front done, hopefully on Monday!

Out and About to New Aldi and MCR

So, I was noticing that the new Aldi in North Liberty is coming right along!

I popped over to Bella Sala Event Center for the Makers market a couple weeks ago, it was disappointing. Mostly boutique clothing folks. 

Have you noticed the trend towards boutique clothing? Small shops with high priced clothing of , to me at least, dubious quality.  You know it must have been a bust, if I came out without buying anything for Dilly!
 

Low and behold the New Aldi opened on the 2nd! It was pouring rain so I didn't go for the line to win a gift card.

The store is nice-I did get a free bag and a quarter keeper!

Pretty much a basic Aldi, with a slightly different arrangement. The floors are pretty!

And I drove over to visit with my cousin Robin (MCR). She's moving into a new apartment! The area her building is in is really nice, all new area of homes and businesses-restaurants, a bowling alley, Hy Vee and just about everything you could need is within a few blocks.

She just had a few things to move in, at this time, but more is coming! 

Here's the Kitchen area,

And the living room area adjoining. There's a nice little balcony out the door to the right.

The building she's in is really pretty-all new! This is the front foyer. There's a library and gathering places for residents to hang out or meet. It also has a pool!