Favorite Outdoor Spaces at Home

I love our yard.

It's one of main reasons we bought our house a few years ago.  And after living here for awhile now, we've come to see that there is so much more to the outside of our house than just our backyard.  

We have so many wonderful places to have fun and enjoy the outdoors at home!

Swing Set

Last Fourth of July, we put in a swing set for the kids.  The kids play on it nearly everyday from spring through fall.  It's the best "home improvement" we've made so far ;)  I wish we would've built it sooner - they love it so much!

Backyard

Like I said earlier - it's one of the main reasons we bought this house a few years ago: it's private, large, flat, and has tons of mature trees for shade.  Perfection. 

It's the best backyard for family time!

Lots of mature trees = lots of piles of leaves!

Garden

It's so satisfying to grow your own veggies!  We grown lots of veggies (and 1 fruit!) the past 4 summers at this house, but our favorites have been the strawberries, green beans, banana peppers, and cherry tomatoes.

And my fave garden recipes?  Homemade garden salsa and strawberry shortcake.  What are yours?

Landscaping

This house came with humongous and mostly barren landscaping beds.  But over the past 4 springs/summers, we've slowly been improving them...one free "hey-we're-splitting-our-perennials-would-you-like-some" plant at a time.

Last summer's dining room window garden

We're not completely done yet, but I love how they are turning out!  We just need to add a little ground cover in some spots and let everything grow larger to fill in.

Our Mary Garden this Spring

Driveway

What weirdos love their driveway?  We do!

We have a pretty large and flat driveway which is perfect for sidewalk chalk and riding bikes - or both!

The only downfall is...

Training starts early at our house ;)

Upstairs Patio

This is my new favorite space because we finally got patio furniture for it this summer!  Now, we can finally use it!  Jim and I love reading out there, having a snack, or chatting - just the two of us.

Walking Trails and Lakes

Now this is my favorite part about our area - the fabulous lakes.  We have 2 we can access easily from our house - the Little Lake and the Big Lake.  (Very clever names we came up with!)

Just a little mommy taking her baby for a walk ;)

They have sidewalks all the way around, wooded islands, fountains, and tons of wildlife like swans, turtles, ducks, frogs, and more.  They are just so beautiful...and fun to walk around and enjoy!

We love watching the swans raise their little one(s) every year!

When we bought this house, I would've never dreamed how much we would love and enjoy every aspect of our yard.  It has the perfect outdoor spaces for our family.  We can never move now ;)

So what are your favorite outdoor spaces at home?  I'd love to hear about what you and your family enjoy the most!

Hope you're having a beautiful summer!

               

I'm linking up with these awesome parties!

The first rose of this summer...St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!