golden springtime: yard work?

I've mentioned our gorgeous May weather that made it easy to be working outside. Low humidity, temps in the high 70s, and just a little breezy. Perfect. Over Memorial Day weekend we were able to accomplish a lot in the backyard. My mom has been working for weeks, with the kids right along side of her, at edging, weeding and fortifying our flower beds while we are working. Of course we don't ask her to do this, but she says she doesn't want to just sit around watching the kids, she'd much rather have them working right along side of her. T especially loves it, and he's learning a lot. Being outside continues to be his favorite thing to do, and he's quite content to have a shovel in his hands digging for worms, or burying treasures, or throwing dirt at K. K likes to have a kid pair of scissors in her hand cutting long grass pieces, or planting seeds. Swinging is her very favorite thing to do outside.

On this particular day, we were outside all morning, and our neighbors Jon & Teresa were too. They were working on their fence on our shared side of the yard, so we had lots of interaction with them. They are such good people, and so friendly. They offer popsicles like they are going out of style, which makes them some of K & T's favorite people too. Teresa, who is also a teacher, is adopted herself, and has been so supportive of us & the kids. It's neat to have people in our lives who have positive views of adoption.

Andy & T digging up soil for me to plant flowers in.

K planting sunflower seeds by our window. Watching the yellow finches come in late summer to eat seeds is another favorite thing of the kids.

Happy helper.

T watering the seeds under supervision from K.

Daddy & his crew planting in our garden beds. We are looking forward to peas, lettuce, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, carrots and lots of tomatoes. While it warmed up, we promised the kids some time to run in the sprinkler to cool off as a reward for their hard work.

I worked on flowers while they worked on veggies.

Finishing up. While they were working here, T invited Jon & Teresa to our sprinkler party, which is so very T. He's friendly, and he thinks everyone should be doing what he's doing.

Water time!

Squirting his sister. He's such a tease!

Playing tag.

Getting directly hit, which he found hilarous.

Thirsty much? Just after this, we heard our fence open, and who should come through but....

Teresa & Jon! Those two ran through our sprinkler like it was their job. How cool are they? K & T thought it was fabulous. Jon quickly grabbed a bucket to fill and dump on the kids.