‘Tis the season for sore backs and sunburns!  We started hot and heavy into yard work this weekend.  By “we” I mean Brian mostly.  Brian is putting in a stone border around the mulched areas in the front yard, and we are also planting some new bushes and annual flowers.  It will of course look stellar when it is completed, but a lot of work goes into it.  Hopefully by the grace of God these bushes and plants will survive, since most of our plantings last spring died a slow horrific death.  Apparently they require water…and fertilizer…and no deer or bunnies eating the crap out of them.

It is hard for yard work to be a combined effort when you have kids.  Kai is pretty good and occasionally helps until he realizes how much effort goes into it.  He will then toddle off to his bike or “help” by running off with all the garden tools.  Anya requires constant attention to make sure she doesn’t eat the mulch, grass and poisonous berries.

Generally I will glance over to look at her and she is either sucking on a giant piece of mulch (choking hazard), eating some grass (extra fiber – she didn’t like so much) or grasping a berry in each hand (Poison Control 1-800-222-1222).  It is a miracle second children survive.  Kai was rarely left to his own devices and was watched like a hawk, and Anya is quite used roaming the prairie free as a bird with little to no supervision.  We do watch to make sure she doesn’t go play in the street, though.  There are limits.

Another big difference:  The Dirt Factor.  Kai does not like to get dirt on his hands.  Example:  I took the tarp off of their sandbox, which apparently got pretty wet regardless of the cover.  If you dug down into the wet sand, the water would pool.  I dug into it and was trying to show Kai how to build a sand castle.  Anya was gleefully playing in the sandy water — getting all wet and dirty.  Kai decided to try to do the same and got this distasteful look on his face and proceeded to tell me that we had to go inside to clean off his hands.  Hopefully he gets over this aversion soon or he may be getting teased quite a bit.

We also managed to run to Eau Claire to celebrate our 8th Anniversary at the Otter Creek Inn.  Kai and Anya got to spend some quality time at the farm and we got to spend some quality time together.  Here’s a picture of us at Mona Lisa’s where we had some good food and good wine: