Fire Pit

The Stewarts are all about some outdoor fun in the spring, summer, and fall.  As a result, we've taken many steps to make our backyard living space as entertaining as possible.  When we first moved in, we added a screened porch and back patio.  Last summer, we cleared a portion of our woods and added a sandbox and swingset area.  This summer, we've taken the final steps to our backyard home improvement ~ a fire pit!  We hired the same man who did our patio to come do our fire pit, and he did an awesome job!  It's beautiful!  We spent our Memorial Day weekend putting the final touches on the structure with the landscaping.

Our daylilies along the side of the house have exploded, so we split them and made a bed in front of the fire pit, and to separate the grass from the woodsy area, we planted fragrant tea olives (a row to the right of the daylilies and fire pit area).  The final touch was planting hydrangeas around the fire pit to finish off the bed.  It turned out perfectly.

 A little closer...

 Looking at our house from the fire pit.

Our backyard has now come full circle to "our vision" when we first purchased the lot almost 3 years ago.

We Feel Festive!

This post is mainly for Nana, so that she can see our new living room furniture! It arrived the day before Thanksgiving, and we couldn't be more pleased with our front living room. Now, of course, we are ready for a rug, lamps, wall hangings, etc., but baby steps! We went for sophisticated which is Stewart code for comfy, but fancier than the den.
This nativity scene was always in my house growing up, so I'm happy my mom passed it onto me. It also happens to be sitting on a piece of furniture that belonged to my mother's parents. I love that I can mix antiques with my own style.

This Santa was a huge hit with the girls. He shakes his booty to the tune of "Jingle Bell Rock". When I was a kid, my Dad always took me Christmas shopping for my Mom. This was one of her presents from me, and now I have it in my house for my girls to enjoy. Love it!

A new tradition for our family this year --- Advent Calendar. I spent an afternoon exploring blogs for ideas when I couldn't come up with anymore of my own. We have a mixture of simple to more involved, and not all of them are set in stone, so I have flexibility to change them around before Madeline pulls the tag out depending on our schedule for that day. The activities are mainly for Madeline since Amelia is so young. Really, this will be the only year that she'll have it all to herself, so I don't mind making her feel like a "big girl" this time around. When I had it all fixed up after Madeline's nap the other day, she was stoked up about the concept. Hopefully her excitement will continue with each day's activities. I know I am excited about doing this with her, and it gives us a chance to be together doing something fun in the afternoons.

Every activity is probably not "blog worthy", but for memory's sake, I'll most likely update our progress on the Advent Calendar.

The Stewart household is decorated, listening to Christmas music regularly, and enjoying the season!

Football Party

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we have formed some really great friendships with some of our neighbors, so Eric and I decided to throw a little football party this past Saturday. We had a blast.

Eric and I completed our last backyard project of this season when we planted fragrant tea olives along the back of our grass line to make a nice transition to the wooded area. Our back porch and backyard is one of our favorite areas in our house especially in the fall and spring.
We set up a cornhole area and had lots of yard toys for all the kids.
I kept the food simple --- meatball (homemade using my Italian uncle's recipe!) sub sandwiches, chips, and snackies.

The porch was all set up with a screen & projector for the "big games" (the Clemson game, Eric's Wolfpack game, and the Bama game.) We had two other TVs going with other games to accommodate all of our guests and their loyalties.
At the end of the night, all the big kids were cuddled up with their technologies. Of course, the beauty of hosting the party is that our children were able to go to bed at their regular times! :) Madeline and Amelia are by far the youngest in the crowd, and they just can't hang with the big kids yet.
Eric was loving his big screen TV on the porch, the fall coolness, football, and being surrounded by his buddies.
By the end of the night, some of the Dad's were having fun with the projector & the screen:
Of course, the gals were chatting it up.
And, last but not least, my nearest and dearest friend of 25 years was able to join us for the fun. I was extra happy about my Clemson Tigers and their WIN!
Eric and I are pretty sure the Stewart Football Extravaganza will be an annual event!

Backyard Makeover Part II

Our backyard project continues! The playset has been set up, and needless to say, Madeline LOVES it! It's perfect for her now, and there are certainly features on it that she will enjoy as she gets older. The wooded area is coming along nicely. We still have lots of work to do, but in the end, it will be exactly what we've envisioned!
Two men put this up for us in a matter of a few hours! We are so glad we had someone assemble it for us!

Madeline's favorite part --- the swings!

Daddy is creating a sandbox for the area too. Madeline probably enjoys playing in the sand just as much as she does swinging!