For mother's day this year Steve's mom requested help on her property in place of a gift. Each family would spend a couple of hours working from a list of projects. We went over on Saturday afternoon to work on her strawberry and potato beds. Nana shares her strawberries and potatoes so this gift of work for her also gives back to us later in the summer.
The kids worked with us but we also gave them lots of time to run around and play. A favorite past time at Nana's house is to look for snakes. And look for snakes they did. (Harmless ones of course.)
They formed a small snake pit out of a pile of sand to keep the snakes in. It was much larger than the beginning of one you see above. Unfortunately, however, the snakes had other ideas and wouldn't stay put for observation for very long.
The kids would be weeding or doing other jobs and suddenly one would cry out, "Snakes out!" They would all come running to catch the snake and place it back into the pit.
Fun was had by all. The kids came home tired and fell right to sleep. That is until a small knock was heard during the night on our bedroom door. A little boy came to my side of the bed scrambling to climb in saying, "I'm panicing. I'm trying not to but I am just so panicy! I keep seeing snakes and sand and it's creeping me out!"
When dinner was ready I went to find this little boy who had conked out on the couch. Sometimes life gets to be too much and you need a little siesta. We figured since he had his pj's on he decided it was as good a time as any to give in to the exhaustion.
The kids worked with us but we also gave them lots of time to run around and play. A favorite past time at Nana's house is to look for snakes. And look for snakes they did. (Harmless ones of course.)
They formed a small snake pit out of a pile of sand to keep the snakes in. It was much larger than the beginning of one you see above. Unfortunately, however, the snakes had other ideas and wouldn't stay put for observation for very long.
The kids would be weeding or doing other jobs and suddenly one would cry out, "Snakes out!" They would all come running to catch the snake and place it back into the pit.
The garden is an empty slate. I have all kinds of ideas for this year. 
We spent four hours cleaning up, edging, blowing off and weeding out front.
and the older kids were hanging out...
the younger three were doing this.
I'm glad they had a great time. On one hand, I am all for times of creative, unstructured play.
Laundry, on the other hand, could be a challenge this week. ;-)
There was lots of time to play and enjoy the weather. A very good thing for us because rain is predicted for the week.
It was one of those days where everything was at peace.
Steve, on the other hand, loves games. He tries to play games with them more often. 
Nice way to spend a rainy Friday evening, eh? (Phase 10 is our favorite card game.)
