Growing Grays: A little dirt...

A little dirt never hurt. That was the theme for today as we worked long and hard in the yard. We've done very little work in our yard besides the normal maintenance since we originally planted all of our landscaping in 2005. We've taken on a big yard makeover this year which includes clearing trees, leveling and landscaping our backyard, and doing some updating to the front. Today we hauled and spread 25 bags of topsoil in one corner that we're going to plant with shade shrubs and plants, split and replanted hydrangea (we're crossing our fingers they come back next spring), cut down buck thorn and cleared brush, dug out all of our day lilies and planted lots and lots of spring blooming bulbs. Miles was running around barefoot either waving a stick in the air or with a shovel in his hands wanting to help. Hadley tried to eat the bulbs and topsoil and was literally covered from head to toe in dirt and boogers. It was a gorgeous day but we're all a little tired tonight - and everyone is clean except mommy who still needs to jump in the shower.

What seems like ages ago but was only last Monday Hadley wasn't feeling well and I just had a bad feeling that something was seriously wrong with her. I took her into the doctor and she had a virus which caused her a sore throat, stomach and head aches. Luckily it lasted only a couple of days and she's back to her normal, spunky self now.

The kids had their first swimming lessons this week at the Chaska Community Center. Hadley's class is first and it's with a parent for babies 6-24 months. We splashed and sang songs, had our babies jump into the pool, and dunked their little heads in the water briefly. Hadley didn't mind the lesson although she was scared of the teacher (a bearded man) and would cry when he came near her. I think she'll have more fun this week now that she's feeling better. I was worried about Miles because he's never been that much of a water kid and doesn't like to get splashed in the tub. He totally surprised me and loved swimming lessons. He literally smiled the whole time and was squealing loudly in delight for the first 10 minutes. He's also in a class with me and other 2-4 year olds. He practiced the back and front floats, kicking, blowing bubbles and jumping into the pool. At the end he even went down the water slide twice by himself! I'll post pictures of my little swimmers in the coming weeks.

Saturday morning we went with Matt, Janelle and Bradyn to Sever's Corn Maze. The kids loved it - we jumped on a big bounce pillow, swam in a pool of corn (corn was everywhere !), rode a train, fed exotic animals like a giraffe, camel and goats, pet some parakeets, ran through hay bales and got lost amongst the corn stalks of the maze. Following the theme for the week we all left with kernels in our clothes and dirt on our feet.

That evening we had a special guest spend the night - Bradyn! Mike and I got to experience briefly what having three kids would be like. It was a little hectic but Bradyn just fell in line with everything Miles and Hadley did. We made a cake and homemade pizza on the grill to celebrate and everyone enjoyed playing with our little guest.