All work and no play?

All work and no play is never the case at our house. Maybe it's because Mom and Dad would rather play than work, too! We took advantage of the 70-80 degree weather to do some yard work. We had some clean up to do after the tree trimming extravaganza and the dead plants and flowers needed to be cleaned out to make room for the new sprouts coming up. The idea was that everyone would help. Riley and Luke were very capable of picking up small twigs (especially since squatting down and standing up 200 times makes Mom dizzy). It seemed like a good opportunity to teach teamwork and responsibility. Unfortunately it lasted about 4 minutes. Riley was taking one stick at a time. Luke insisted on exercising his muscles by taking the big logs instead of little ones. And, of course, it's hard to be that close to the swing set without eventually giving in to the temptation to go and play.

The funniest moment was when Riley decided to remedy her "hat envy". Luke wore his new red United Emirates hat (free give-away from Mom's tennis trip) to shield his eyes from the sun. After a few minutes Riley disappeared up the deck and into the house. She emerged wearing her own work hat, a too-small winter hat adorned with a pom pom. She was so proud of herself and the rest of us enjoyed the humor she provided. Work is always more fun with a little (or a lot) of play mixed in!