Our backyard oasis

I decided at the beginning of the summer that I wanted to hang out on the back deck with Carter but the deck is too splintery and hot for that.  So, with a few quick fixes - Jeff and I made out back deck the most relaxing space ever.  We already had a giant rectangular umbrella for the table from last summer that he bought at Ace Hardware.  We just added 2 new ones to the sides of the deck (with a little hanging handy-work from Jeff) from IKEA that are really nice and pretty reasonably priced.  C'mon-it's IKEA after all.  Oh-and they tilt so wherever the sun is-we can pretty much block it out.

 With and without Kippers.  :)

 Then I went to Costco and found these fantastic outdoor carpets for $20 each!  I bought 2 and they cover the entire deck except for under the grills.  We have flame retardant rugs under them.

And-I already had these nylon doggy exercise pens that were just taking up space in the shed and they block the stairs so Carter can't fall down and also the rails because they are too far apart and he could fit through those too.  But they have little windows so that he can still see out and enjoy the view.

It's actually a nice fairly large space to relax and build blocks and read books.

Our table.

Also a really nice bonus is that we don't have any neighbors behind us.  So our view is just our yard and their backyards.  You can't even see their houses.  It's awesome back here!