We had such a nice last day of spring break. Well, Ethan did have to go back to school today, but Johnny didn't and since Ethan's school day is only about 2 hours long, I still consider today to be spring break.
I woke up early with Corey at 6. I know that seems insane, but with him gone so often between work and school, I take what I can get. And I tend to be a bit of a morning person anyway, so I get up at 6 with him about half of the time. I usually get the bed made and then read my scriptures while he eats breakfast and gets his ipod ready to go and we chat a little bit.
Once he was gone and the kids were up and dressed and through with breakfast, we all headed outside to the front yard. Next Monday is our spring clean up pick up day for green waste. So since the sun was out, I decided that today was a good day for yard work. We've had a few wind storms recently that had blown some garbage into our yard, so I quickly got the kids to work picking up garbage and putting outside toys where they belong. After that, we piled into the van for a trip to Lowe's. I needed a new trowel, and some new garden gloves. They also had a pair of kid gloves that were Johnny's size so I got those for him. Ethan was disappointed because he loves to help me in the garden. But he isn't as much help to me as his brother because he's still a little too young to really understand the difference between a plant that is considered a weed, and a plant that isn't considered a weed. I like to let him help me plant new plants and water. He's good at that. But it's still a bit early to be planting any new flowers so I needed someone who could help me weed. We left with the promise that next week we could come back to see if they had anymore gloves that size in. Elizabeth, who is NO help in the garden at all yet, saw a pair of Dora gloves that she wanted and cried all the way out to the car when I said no. I might surprise her with them next week too.
By the time we left Lowe's it was getting close to when I needed to be getting Ethan his lunch before he had to go to school, so we went through the drive thru at Del Taco for tacos and quesadillas. After lunch, we all walked to the preschool and just enjoyed being out on such a nice day.
When we got back, I put Johnathan to work cleaning up the front porch and sweeping the porch and driveway. Have you ever given an 8 year old boy the job of sweeping outdoors before? You should try it sometime. There is nothing that they have to worry about breaking so they can be as aggressive as they want. There were lots of "Hiyah!"s coming from our house! While he was doing that, I went to work, pruning back my snap dragons and bushes and while at work doing that found the one thing that I hate about gardening. A spider. And not just any spider, either. I found this spider:
I am not the type of person who can bring herself to stomp on a spider, or swat at one with a shoe or something like that. The little ones maybe, but black widows aren't little and the anticipation of the squish just grosses me out. So, I went and got a can of ant poison and sprayed the heck out of it.
Johnathan and I got most of the front flower garden weeded by the time we had to go get Ethan. We found a couple other surprises in our gardening adventures. The first was a caterpillar. I got a couple good pictures of it under one of my snap dragons, which I will show just as soon as my husband ever gets iphoto fixed. We also found a ladybug.
After we got Ethan, I got Elizabeth down for a nap and Johnathan and I finished the front yard. My arms were trembling and my shirt must have come up in back a bit, because I have a nice sunburned stripe along my lower back. It's supposed to be kind of yucky weather the next few days so I won't be able to do anymore until Friday, but at least the front is done and now I just have to concentrate on the back yard. It will be more work. I have a Virginia creeper back there that has taken over everything and I plan to cut that way back, and prune my lilac bush a little bit. I need to get the weeds out of the beds and get my little corner bed ready for strawberries.
Last year, Ethan and I decided that for a project he and I would grow some strawberries and make homemade jam. Well, the birds ate a lot of them, we had a hard time keeping Buddy out of the bed, and they just didn't do very well because of all this. There were just a handful left and one day they were nice and red. I decided that I would let Ethan go out and pick the few that were left and we'd buy some more to go with them to make our jam. Later that day before we had a chance to pick them, Libby went out to play. I went out to check on her to find her sitting innocently by the strawberry patch with red juice running down her chin and hands. There wasn't a single strawberry left in the patch. This year, I'm going to see about getting some chicken wire or something to help keep birds, dogs, and cute little girls out of them.
It's been such a nice end to our spring break. When 6:30 rolled around Libby could barely keep her eyes open, and Ethan was yawning. Johnathan wasn't quite ready for bed, but was acting subdued. I got the younger kids to bed and had a quiet evening with Johnny before I sent him off to take a bath before going to bed. And now the house is quiet and peaceful and you wouldn't for a moment think it is supposed to rain tomorrow.
For my before bed project, I plan to make some greeting cards.
Good night. I hope your day was just as beautiful and fun, and productive as ours.
