A Patio Weekend

We have amazing friends. They are fun, they are creative, they are super talented and they are giving. Very giving.

Chris has wanted a patio since we moved into our little bungalow. I believe at one point he told me, "Katie, this is my dream". So even though it was the worst time to be working outside (the middle of a drought in Houston, in the August heat) I couldn't very well stand between my husband and his dream now could I?

You might remember our "Shed Weekend"where Big Case, PD, my dad and even Gma helped build us a wonderful shed for our backyard (by the way, in an update... it now has power and lights!).

Well this was deemed the "Patio Weekend" and Big Case came back... along with Justin, K-Dog, Andrew (and Laura who helped me as the "support team").

The weekend started with a bunch of dirt being delivered to our house:

Ok, actually it was delivered a few weeks before the shed weekend. I'd like to apologize to my neighbors now.

Sorry. Really. Please don't egg our house.

First order of business, get that mound of dirt to the backyard.

Andrew helped with that:

Then they did a bunch of other stuff which resulted in some of this:

And this:

Laura and I were the support team, and that was an adventure in itself!

These boys were working hard and they needed a steady flow of food, water and electrolytes. So we cooked, got ice, made gator-aide... pretty much all day.

I call this "Three Hungry Boys":

 I call this "Two more Hungry Boys":

And I call this, "High-larious"

Casey labeled his plate with, "BIG CASE, THE GREATEST THERE EVER WAS". Love that guy...

After some a lot more of this:

The boys heard a wonderful sound... the ice cream truck!!

Chris got everyone treats and just like that, the tired boys were happy:

Since that weekend, I've heard the ice cream truck a lot more than I used to. And I'm pretty sure he lingers in the front of our house hoping for a repeat order. Again, sorry to my neighbors.

After the boys left on Sunday, Chris laid down some more bricks:

And finally... we have a patio!

Chris has since bought plants and placed chairs and is still "staging" the area... but the hard work is d-o-n-e!!

So obviously a HUGE thank you to our amazing friends who helped Chris realize his dream. But there's another hero in this patio adventure. My cousin, Adam:

He came up the weekend before the patio weekend and helped shovel dirt (which also helped us not get a mean letter from the Home Owners Association about our mound 'o dirt in the front driveway), put down bricks and sweated... a lot. So not only do we have amazing friends... but we have amazing family too!