Leaf Olympics

We have some nice large trees in our yard. They drop lots and lots of leaves. In the fall I got my children excited to help me clean them up by enthusiastically announcing THE LEAF OLYMPICS!! I thought it was a rather clever idea.

Our first event was not captured on film and was also not very successful. We tipped our green trash bin on its side and tried to blow the leaves directly into it using the leaf blower. It didn't really work. It really just made them fly up in the air. Still, everyone got a turn clearing the driveway and the rocks by our sidewalk with the leaf blower. Once they were in the gutter we used rakes and brooms to get them in the bin.

The next event was much more fun: leaf hurdles Really, it just involved raking the leaves into long parallel piles so that the kids could run and jump over them. This was a great success.

And, with only minimal grumbling (compared to some other clean-up-the-yard attempts), everyone stuck around to help when the athletic competition was complete. We got all the leaves into the bin and had a nice clean yard.

Good thinking, Mom.

P.S. Notice the autumn wardrobe. It was the first week of November. Good thing those leaves were falling, or we might have assumed it was still summer.

Photos by the Yard

For our Family Home Evening activity two weeks ago I asked everyone to take a photograph of one thing in the yard. I thought it would be a fun way to see how our yard looked at a specific time, and also what was important or eye-catching to different family members.

(The kids were all in their jammies already and Holly was in bed.)

Here's my photo, with Gunnar included for scale: This is our rhubarb plant. We've had it for 4 years now (I think--maybe it's only 3), and this is the first time it has flowered.  Damon finally pulled them out since people told us the plant would stop producing, but first we wanted to see what they'd look like. They were just tiny white flowers, but they grew in clusters. And, they were TALL! I think they were about 6 feet tall when Damon pulled them. Amazing.

 

Damon's photo of the new grass: He decided to re-seed the front lawn this spring. After thatching the old lawn, bringing in new top soil, spreading seed and fertilizer, and waiting . . . we had this thin, but strong-looking grass coming in.  It's really filling in now. Hopefully Damon will let us step on it soon. : )

 

Maggie's photo of blueberry blossoms: These will turn into berries in about two more months!

 

Adah's photo of one of our birdhouses: The evening light didn't cooperate well and I don't think the camera flashed, so the photo was blurry.  This is a little corner of the yard where we have a holly tree (bush?) and the kids like to create little "bird cities" there with different houses and other paraphernalia.

 

Gunnar's hole: I'm not sure when, but sometime in the spring Gunnar was playing in the backyard and just decided to dig a hole. His sisters helped, but only a little. It was mostly Gunnar. Part of me wanted to stop him--a big hole in the middle of the play area isn't exactly safe--but Damon and I both kind of wanted to see how big it would get.  When Gunnar gets in it, he's in up to his waist!  It's pretty deep.

 

Here's Gunnar, posing with the shovel that did almost all of the digging: (Pajamas and flip-flops were not his usual excavation attire.)

 

And, Adah requested this final photo of her swinging (or preparing to swing--the swing picture was fuzzy) on a rope under the play structure:

 

We have a great yard, and I'm grateful it's a fun place for the kids to play, as well as a place that helps feed us in the summer.