Back to School!!

I call it "school" but everyone else calls it Mother's Day Out.  Kenwood has been in MDO for a little over a year, and I'm thrilled by how much he has learned not only intellectually but socially.  Like sharing, hugging, etc.  Which we do alot of at our house anyway, but I've always thought it was important for kids to be socially inclined from a young age.  Summer MDO has been really fun, today he got to wear his swimsuit to school for their "waterplay day".  But, starting in the fall, my little angel will no longer be in the kiddie class with cribs and he'll have to have a "napmat" like a toddler (which he is, even though I still like him as my baby). So, I had a hard time finding a napmat that wasn't real character-y but was still soft and cushy.  I ended up finding one on Etsy (my guilty pleasure) and ordered it today.  So I got this napmat, in the boy pattern below:

The argyle is a fleece, so it'll be nice and soft attached as a blanket and it comes with a pillow...I think he'll like it.....I just hope he'll actually nap on it!

I also got pretty excited and went ahead and ordered Kenwood a new backpack and lunchbox from Pottery Barn kids with his name on both. How cool is it that they hook together?! I got him the brown with red.  I'm totally pumped for the easy packing.

Backyard..UGH

Ok! So I'm trying desperately to convince Dillon that we need a backyard makeover. So, he at least agreed to let me have a landscape designer come by to bid out an estimated cost of "remodeling" our backyard.  This included, tearing down the fence/planters; putting up a new fence, re-sodding, firepit, graveling the side of the house for a golf cart "driveway" and building pergola-type roof for our golf-cart "garage" next to the shed.  Needless to say, apparently backyards are even more expensive than living rooms!!! So, the landscape designer came today...I got the bid and then I proceeded to look at the price...my dreams were immediately shot to hell.  Here is what I'm working with--I sent these oh-so-intriguing pictures to several landscape TV shows in hopes one of them would have pity on us.  But, apparently people don't film shows in good 'ol Oklahoma City.  Whatever.

In the midst of this I am now trying to talk Dillon into the following:

Demo-ing the fence/beds ourselves and hiring a fence company to put up a new 3ft cedar/capped fence--same height as our current fence but it will look tons better.

Hiring someone to come re-sod our yard

Then furnishing our covered patio with this inspiration I got from the oh-so-my-style Pottery Barn catalog but on our minimized budget that doesn't include affording Pottery Barn:

*Rustic table, bench, and chairs...the lanterns are hanging from a rustic ladder by rope. I'm in love. BUT I am not however, in love with what this little dreamscape would set us back dollar-wise. YIKES.  Instead...I will go to our favorite store.. El Paso Imports for the same look at HALF the price. Literally.

The lanterns would still be bought from Pottery Barn...same sizes as shown in the picture--8 lanterns.

The rustic ladder the lanterns are hanging from--I found an antique store online that has 5ft wooden ladders (same as PB) for $29.95---pretty appealing versus the $199 tag on the PB ladder.

Table:

*in a darker wood--see chair below-- or in an ivory antique similar to the color of the chair covers in the PB inspiration picture.  The great thing about El Paso is they will custom the color for FREE.  I love them.

Chairs:

Bench:

*in whatever color the table choice is.