Pooches: The Extra Summer Room Updates

Being Chicagoans, we spend a lot of time holed up in the winter which make our summers that much more important. During the summer there are multiple street fests every weekend, people flooding the parks and beaches, and outdoor dining on every block.
We wrote before about how we're lucky enough to have a deck that we make into an "extra room" in the summer. Somehow every magazine reads better, and all food tastes better, when outside.
Since we last posted about how we set up our outdoor space we have added some new additions. Here are the before pictures:
And the afters where we actually have plants and nature:
Adding flower boxes makes a huge difference. All the outdoor dining areas have them, as required by law in Chicago, but it does make everything look so much nicer.
We're also growing some herbs: mint, chives, basil, cilantro, rosemary, and thyme; as a result, we've been enjoying many mojitos and caprese salads.
E was brave enough to add some string lights to the top of our deck so we can feel like every night is a European vacation (note the unlit photo):
The pooches love to be outside:Especially Mr. B. He is actually from Michigan, and he used to live in the country. He likes to be outside so much that he will brave rain, heat, and even fireworks just to lie on the deck.
And because this is the city, even though we do live in a high gated area, we always make sure to supervise our dogs at all times.