Thursday, November 18, 2010

When Life Gives You Leaves...

...Rake them into a pile and jump in them!
Last week when we got home from Story Time the weather was chilly but not cold and not raining. I had lots of goodies to make for a Mommy Group Retreat the following day, so I suggested to Ezra and Caroline that it might be fun to take their kid rake out back and rake the leaves into a big pile. They jumped out of the van and ran to the back yard, collecting the rake as they ran. The next 3 1/2 hours were spent playing away, coming inside only long enough to grab lunch items and take them out to the back deck.
I apologize for the very poor quality of these photos. I was playing with the camera and not using "auto focus" for once in my life. Now you see why I always use auto : ) Anyhow, the option is to delete the photos from life and not post them. However, I think that the fun of the day shows through all the blurriness, and I'm sick of the last post, so here goes nothing...
If you are the one without the rake, kicking the leaves into the pile works.








After lots of raking and jumping the kids found a piece of rope, took it back into the trees and played boat. Where does the rope come in you might ask? Simple, when the rope is tied to the tree limb, the boat is docked and it is safe to jump on and off. When the rope is untied, the boat is at sea and if you jump it's at your own risk. And this game lasted with only 2 small fights for hours. That's a day for the history books!
As for the Mommy Group Retreat, I had grand visions of beautiful photo documentaries...uh huh, the below picture of an amazing quiche is all I got. Suffice it to say that a lot of fabulous food was consumed and a lot of ground was covered in a very long heart to heart. This group of gals is quite the blessing from the Lord.

4 comments:

NaomiG said...

That leaf business looks like a BLAST! Love it! And, the rope/boat thing sounds like my kids. Love kids with imaginations! Getting together with other moms is SO important, every mom needs a good group of mommy friends she can get together with.

Mike, Alice, and Hank the DOG said...

Oh I miss your kids...that would have been fun to join them. I still remember the fun of jumping into a pile leaves! Never did play with a boat, though...!

Unknown said...

Wow. Three hours of mostly uninterupted time, amazing! Why wasn't Nora out there rolling around in the leaves too? ;)

Kirsten said...

This reminds me that I forgot to bring my camera to the retreat!!!! Although every single pic I took last year caught someone either putting food in their mouth, talking, or rolling their eyes.

So glad you had that much time to bake:), and so glad you got to come! Maybe we should try for once every 3 months, whaddaya think?? :D