Breaking out of the Concrete Tradition

It appears to be a tradition for owners of our house to make their mark by pouring concrete and then actually leaving their mark.  Here are a couple of examples:

June 1949 - A small mystery slab in the middle of the back yard with names and handprints by John and JD Walden.  We speculate the original use was for an outdoor oven or barbecue pit.  Our next door neighbors said that when they bought their house six years ago, the current owners had added a wooden bridge (Perhaps they were trying to make it look like a back yard pond?)

2009 - Rodney the dog left his mark when his owners extended the 1949 mystery slab, surrounded it with chain link fencing, added a wobbly trellis and turned it into a dog kennel with access to the garage.

Our back yard is already pretty small, so I don't think adding more concrete is our way to leave a mark the property, so we're going to break out of the concrete mold and reclaim the yard!

We had no use for a dog kennel, so after a couple of months of trying to come up with some way to make use of the concrete pad, I finally decided that what we really need is a play area for the boys.  Concrete + kid's play area = cracked heads, so I'm giving up on the concrete pad and going with demolition!  I already pulled down the trellis a while back, leaving this view of the yard with the concrete slab marked.  I think it will be great to have a swingset in this shady area.

I like to think that I'm a DIY girl, but I'm not quite up to hauling concrete to the dump and I'm a little nervous about what might be lurking beneath a 62-year old mystery slab, so I've hired someone to come over and take care of it for us.  Next week I should be able to show some lovely photos of my yard sans concrete!