All in a day's work :)

Thank you very much for all the wonderful comments about Mikayla and her achievements! You've all done a marvelous job in raising her self esteem and it really has made a big difference to how she sees herself. Since she's been reading what everyone has been saying she has been more helpful at home (always a good thing!), she's been smiling more (and her smile is gorgeous!) and she's gone out of her way to be positive and talkative (both of which she needs to do more of!)... so from the bottom of my heart... THANK YOU :)

Krystal is still staying with her Auntie (we'll see her on Christmas Day) and Mikayla and I have both officially finished school... YIPPEE!!! Today we've had the most fantastic day working together in the garden and we're both absolutely exhausted and filthy but very proud of our achievements. I thought it might be cool to do a photo diary of the day so here goes:

8 am - the morning begins

When we got up this morning this is what the entry garden looked like:

We've kept it relatively weed free during the year but I've grown to really dislike the stone chips. I don't really have a reason why... just personal preference I guess LOL. Mikayla and I thought it would be a simple job of pulling out the stone chips, bagging them up (Mum's inheriting them for her garden!) and then replace the weed matting and put down shredded bark... it definitely ended up being much more than we planned! We did the stone chips... no problem there!... pulled up the old weed matting... still no problem!... and then it happened!!! Mikayla felt 'a log' in the garden so I said she could pull it out... which she did and then she felt 'another log'... by 9am this is what we had:It seems that the previous owners created the garden with a house sale in mind so they created the walls of the garden (and I really love the baby corrugated iron!) and then instead of filling it with soil they filled it with off cuts of posts and then added a meagre 5cm of soil on top... slapped on some weedmat and put the chips down! We were completely stunned with how much stuff came out of such a little garden... over 30 post offcuts, lumps of concrete, bits of rock and even an old shoe!

Then I got a text from a friend of mine to have a coffee so Mikayla and I went off for a well earned break... luckily we did because my friend knew where I could get some good topsoil from... AND he had a car with a toe bar!!! They guy at the landscape place loaned us a trailer and we brought home a trailer load of topsoil and 4 bags of shredded bark... by 1pm this is what we ended up with:

Mikayla went off for a well-earned swim while I went down to Bunnings (one of my favourite non-scrapbooking places!) to choose some plants. I knew what I wanted so that helped and I got the most amazing service so I was really pleased.

By 5pm we had finished the weed matting, planting and then we put on the bark and it was such a transformation!

We're so pleased with all our efforts! I really enjoyed working with Mikayla today and she did a great job... the worst part was the clean up but once we were done it was so satisfying! Now it's time to get washed up, grab some chips and dip and blob on the sofa!!!

Before I sign off I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy a much needed break :)