one

if you are in the sacramento area, you know our weather has been strange. lots of rain and more rain and storms. yuck!

we are nearing mid-june and this has been the first really nice weekend in a long time. when i heard it was going to be nice, i started making a to do list. here are some of the things that were on that list.

before you see the photos, you should know that i didn't do much weeding or cleaning or sprucing last year. i was hugely pregnant. while it's always a chore to do these things, it was especially bad this year.


weeding


planting


cleaning & sprucing

my list was long and lofty. they usually are. what made me happy about all of these chores is that i didn't have to do them alone!


zach helping weed and clean out planters. he's showing me the bark is in a heart shape.


working hard


don't be fooled. ben is not napping, he's weeding. and rescuing "sludges" (slugs).


i was so thankful i didn't have to clean our second driveway. what a mess. thanks babe!!


is it a weed or a slug? i don't know, but he sure is cute!


pulling weeds next to the sidewalk. this is hard work, because the dirt is solid right there.


helping dad


taking a break to play hide-n-seek. and yes, half of us were wearing our pajamas to do yard work!

you might be wondering if i did any of the work on my to do list and i assure you i did. nattie and i were taking a photo break for a bit, which is code for i couldn't put her down without her screaming. so nat got a little tlc and i got to document the boys' hard work.

the boys were done working by lunch time, but i kept at it. it took all day to finish some of the tasks, but i did get to check some things off the list.


i love having plants in that right planter again. hopefully these last a while!


you can see that there are still lots of weeds next to the planters, but what you can't see in the before shot, is that these planters were FULL of weeds. this was a time-intensive project.

i didn't get that many after shots of the front yard. it was dark outside. while i was spraying the front walkway i kept seeing this image out of the corner of my eye. i thought it was a big dog in our yard.


nope, it wasn't marmaduke after all! joe had pruned the tree and because our green waste can was overflowing, the trimmings stayed on the grass. even knowing this, it freaked me out at least half a dozen times.

since you already know what a scaredy cat i am, you probably aren't surprised.

so that's it--my boys helped me out. it may seem like a small thing, but i love that they will help out with family chores like this. today i overheard taylor and zachary talking. taylor suggested they play a game and zach said "are you sure that's a good idea? don't you think we should help mom?"

any guesses as to how that turned out?