Thanks for your comments, Socks. It will be in the summer in a local park. Our daughter works for the local park district, so we have some inside info on that. There's a couple of different parks to choose from, but the one I saw today has a water slide that I think would be nice for the kids. Also this park is near the area where our minister is so it will be easy for him to mosey on over. And thanks to you too, Lisa, for your info about food. I think we can rent grills. I guess I just have to figure out if cooking ourselves is doable. But then your idea of having someone else do the work sounds VERY enticing!! And I had forgotten about the cleanup work!! I'm getting excited -- but nervous only because of all the twists!!lol Thanks for your great input!! I'll keep you posted!! msfingers2

Thanks guys. The idea of one book will work well for us. Since we will probably be moving, we are trying to aquire less "stuff". It would be nice to do handwritten, but people are all over the country, and I think I'll get more responses through email. There may be duplicates, but I think that's okay. I can space them out once I see all the responses. I like the idea of using pictures. Since his father and grandfather are doctors, I bet there are lots of pictures of him younger at their offices. we also have pictures of our kids playing doctor. And I still have his acceptance letter and other important documents. Good stuff. Thanks everyone.

I had the same situation in my kitchen and what we did was get the absolutely cheapest wood-look laminate I could find at the time--I think it was about $1/SF. The click, floating kind so no glue or permanent adhesives needed. I figured since it would only be for a year or two and it was so cheap I didn't care that it would quickly look battered, being so cheap and all. Surprise! That el cheapo floor has held up amazingly well. We drip water on it, drop stuff, have a couple of cats, four adult size folks tromping through and it still looks great. I seriously advise considering laminate. The stuff today seems a lot sturdier than it used to be. After I did mine I discovered IKEA and they have even cheaper wood-look laminate. It really would bear consideration, especially for a short term solution. We're about to take ours up now that I'm (finally) remodeling my kitchen. But it still looks fine and could easily be left on for ???. Good luck. Ann

I agree about a curving cut from the stairs to the door, and starting small. But also, since you have the boulders to the right of the stairs, I would try to plan for some future expansion of the garden area over to those right-hand boulders or a bit beyond, and have a curving path of flagstone or some pavers that naturalize with the rocks that are already there, going from the stairs to the door, which would make it easier to walk to, etc. and also cut down on grass mowing there (it looks like it might be a little difficult to mow there anyway). Then you could add a (very) small tree in the area to the right near the large boulders to balance the high deck. Something like a laburnum for some spring flowers, or maybe a Japanese maple. A good nursery will have suggestions. There are many kinds of ferns as well as some of the plants that have already been suggested here. I think the area has great potential, and I would use restraint (i.e. no white crushed stone or pink plastic flamingos! :D)