Boys Outside & The Great Yard Project

A day outside is a day well-spent as far as Joel's concerned.  Now that we are having a few nice days, mixed in with rainy, cold and dreary days, he can be outside a little more.  That is, until it starts raining too hard to be outside...which is just about every day right now.  I am glad he's so happy outside.  He loves to play in the dirt, and filling any object with water is very satisfying to him.  Toys are not necessary.  A bucket, dirt, and some rocks make him happy for a very long time.  He is at the age now where I can send him out to play, keep an eye on him, but still get stuff done indoors. 

The only real problem right now is our yard.  We knew when we bought the house, the builder (a.k.a. "my dad"), was not going to have the yard done, and it would be our project when we moved in.  Knowing this we still signed the papers....thinking back we should have requested it to be finished first.  :)  Dave has been working out back every free moment he has, to get the yard in good shape.  He's been digging out rocks...on the plus side he found 14 nice stepping stones burried in our yard.  He's been removing brush, pulling out trees and shrubs I don't want, and he was finally able to mow last Saturday.  The ground dried up enough to mow.  Our next step is to paint the foundation around our house, paint the front door, front steps and a wall that lines our back patio which is presently an ugly powder blue.  Once that is done, we will mulch, and start landscaping.  There's also some fence to repair, a patio to tear up and replace, a deck to lower, weeds to kill in our lawn, grass seed to spread, and hopefully a swing set to purchase.  The goal is to accomplish all of these things this summer. For the past several months I have been having a lot of trouble with tendonitis in my wrists.  The pain in my left thumb prevents me from using that hand for anything that requires lifting.  It's been very frustrating, but my doctor is insistent that I take it easy so it will heal.  So, I haven't been much help to Dave, at this point, but hopefully I will have strength enough to get to work, too.

Rain water, a watering can, and a sidewalk chalk bucket...what more does he need?

"Mom, you don't mind if I play in this giant puddle in our yard, do you?"

By the way - he played in that puddle for over an hour.  At one point he fell backwards.  I had one happy, dirty little boy, who went straight to the tub.