My Favorite Spaces: Our Front Yard

Finally, I am writing another "My Favorite Spaces" post.  Goodness-this may be only my 2nd "my favorite spaces" post--or perhaps the 3rd, I'm not sure.  Anyway, I felt it was about time I wrote a post about one of my favorite spaces at which we spend a lot of time together as a family.  This space is our front yard.

We came from a house where we didn't have much of a front yard, it sloped down and it was on a busy street.  Now, we have a big front yard, with large trees, a long driveway for the kids to play on and we are on a cul de sac off a street that is not busy at all (only about 10 houses in our whole neighborhood).   So, it is quite a big change--and we really didn't know what we were missing until we moved here. We are hoping too by spending so much time out in the front yard, we can get to know our neighbors better.

I am thankful the previous owners left the two white Adirondack chairs.  They are sort of falling apart, but we can repair them.  If they wouldn't have left them, we wouldn't have known how nice it is to have them there. 

In the spring and earlier in the summer, one of my favorite things to do was sit in one of the chairs after the kids were in bed, while the sun was setting.   I drank my glass of kombucha and loved watching the swarm of lightning bugs light up the sky like sparkles.  Lightning bug mating season is over now, so we will have to wait for the next mating season to experience this special treat again.

I sit in these chairs a lot and watch the kids play.  Last night, as I sat in one of the chairs, sweet Abbey joined me in the other chair for some precious chats.

Silly girl!

And then there is, of course, the tree swing which we all love.

 

Swinging into the sunset.  :-)

We also have a large tree in our front yard that Luke yearns to climb.  He has hooked ropes and other tools around one of the large branches to aid him in climbing.  Yet, he has not been able to climb it unassisted yet.  Here, he is planning how he is going to climb it.

He is on....but didn't get there by himself.  ;-)

It still feels pretty good to be up there.

Last night we took a fun bike ride together along the trail and then came back home to spend some quality time together in the front yard.  There was soccer playing, swinging, tree climbing, Adirondack chair sitting, giggling, and just so much fun!  It is fun to have a space that the kids can just play and "be kids" freely without having to be concerned about running into traffic, etc.  My mind can rest and I can completely relax and join them in the fun.  I have a pretty big feeling that this will always be one of my favorite spaces!