Vera's First Birthday Party

Vera turned one year old last week and we celebrated with family and friends at our home. I chose flowers for the theme and a turquoise, peach, and gold color scheme.

I made tissue paper tassels and hung them over the table along with a paper star I picked up on clearance at my local craft store

Vera's monthly photos were displayed inside the panes of two old windows and decorated with felt flowers.

I made felt flower hair clips for the kids and a bee finger puppet for Vera's only "boy friend" at the party (poor guy was way outnumbered).

I also made my first fondant covered cake using this cake recipe and homemade marshmallow fondant. It's pretty tricky to get the fondant to look smooth and I ended up with quite a few imperfections. I hide most of the flaws with a few strategically placed flowers and think it turned out pretty cute. I also made cupcakes and decorated them with fondant flowers.

I couldn't find a large package of gold polka dot balloons anywhere so I cut circles out of label paper (using my circle cutter) and stuck them onto the balloons.

Vera's #1 corsage...I didn't get any close-up photos of her actually wearing it.

Time for cake!

The best part of the party...

We adapted these plans for the Deluxe Kid Wash and made Vera her very own walk through sprinkler out of PVC pipe! We also had a sprinkle mat out. Both were a big hit with the kids.

Vera's great grandparents (far right) traveled all the way from Kansas to celebrate with her!

You run, you slide...

you hit the bump and take a dive! (If you have no idea what you just read, click the video below and be transported back to 1991.)

So why the reference to backyard summer fun in the middle of March? This is why:

The sprinkler system is finally done! But I'm getting ahead of myself...let's recap the final stage of the project (Read the rest of the story here).

We dug up and replaced all of the valves and valve boxes and did a little rewiring.

And since we're now experts at replacing sprinker heads, here's a brief how-to:

What You'll Need:
Riser
Teflon tape
PVC pipe cutter
Sprinkler head

First, dig around the old sprinkler head until you reach the white PVC pipe at its base. Take care while digging so you don't break the underground line. Unscrew the old head and throw away. You may need to clean out the PVC pipe if it has a bunch of gunk in it. Wrap the end of the riser with teflon tape and screw in to the sprinkler line. Screw on the sprinkler head to determine the right height. You want the top of the head to be level with the ground so it doesn't get damaged by the lawnmower or foot traffic. Unscrew the sprinkler head and cut the riser at one of the unthreaded sections, using a PVC pipe cutter. One you've cut your riser to the correct height, wrap the top with more teflon tape and screw on the sprinkler head. Fill in the hole and your done! Repeat 30 times.

We also installed micro-drip lines in some of the flower beds. Adapters are available that can be easily screwed onto a riser where you would normally install a sprinkler head. From this adapter you can run flexible rubber hosing that connects to a variety of drip irrigation heads, like the one below.

Sprinkler System: Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

Determined to find the backflow box, we dug up most of the yard, from the water line at the street all the way to the house.

Notice the oak tree in the picture above? This oak tree was undoubtedly much smaller 25 years ago, and some shortsighted individual decided to install the backflow box right next to the tree. Over the course of time, the tree had grown over the box and crushed it with its roots, so it was a small miracle that we found it. The old box was in such bad condition that we abandoned it and installed a new box, a safe distance from the tree, and rerouted the main water line.

We turned the water on and crossed our fingers. A few sprinkler heads popped up but there was hardly any water pressure. It turned out that all the water was leaking from a busted pipe...which was under our deck. So, of course, we had to remove half of the boards from our deck.

Fast forward a few days. The broken pipe is replaced and we're ready to test the system again. We knew the sprinkler system had four zones because they were labeled in the control box, but water was only running to the first zone. We were left scratching our heads as to how to find the valve boxes, 4 in all, that controlled the water flow to each of the zones. First we thought a metal detector might do the trick, but after some online research, we decided to rent a wire and valve locator. You can find these at irrigation supply or tool rental stores. 

Image source

In about an hour, Zach had found all four of the valve boxes! They were buried under a few inches of dirt and all needed replaced...

Sprinkler System: Part 1

Remember way back in September when we shared this lovely photo?

What was supposed to be a weekend project to put in a stone walkway turned into a 4 month (and counting) long campaign to fix our old, abused, and nonworking sprinkler system.

Our house was built in 1984, and judging by the rotary dial in the sprinkler control box, we assume the sprinkler system was installed that year or shortly after. We learned from the former owners that the sprinkler system was broken when they moved in, and our next door neighbor, who has lived there for over 25 years, says he has never known our house to have a working sprinkler system. Needless to say, we had given up on it like all the previous homeowners. Until the day we began working on the stone walkway.

We started by clearing out a pathway along the side of the house, digging out a few inches of dirt and putting in a border.

Then we rented a truck from Home Depot, drove to a local stone supply yard, and filled up with several tons of gravel and flagstone. Once back at home, we shoveled the gravel from the bed of the truck into the driveway. With half our driveway filled with gravel, and half our yard excavated, Zach looks at me and says something like, "You know, if we ever want to try and fix the sprinkler system, now is the time, before we lay all the stone..."

I should mention that about a year before, we had an irrigation company come out and give us a quote as to how much it would cost to fix the sprinkler system. He walked around our yard for about 45 minutes then delivered the news that he could not find the backflow box (where the main water line ties into the sprinkler system). Essentially, he couldn't turn the water on.

Cut back to me standing there, covered in sweat and dirt, as Zach proposes we fix the sprinkler system. I knew he was right. That it was now or never. For a second I pictured a lush green lawn, without the effort of dragging a sprinkler around the yard. But then I snapped back to reality, and the giant pile of gravel at my feet. I tried to talk Zach out of it, but his logic prevailed, and we spent the rest of the weekend digging...