community {garden}

Some good friends of ours (who also happen to be in our small group) have a very large garden on their property that they graciously chose to make a community garden this year. To kick off the season, they hosted a potluck/garden planting day.

Someone brought monster cookies to the potluck. Wyatt was a big fan. It's possible that his mother was as well. A very big fan.

Elliot got out his little trowel and dug a hole or two. The toy bulldozer also came in quite handy.

It didn't take Elliot long to discover a set of steps leading down to the lake.

He hopped onto the dock...

...and spent some time reflecting on life. Or contemplating jumping in for a swim.

After that it became a game to inspect the gap between the green and the dock...

...and take the leap over to the other side.

There was a kayak sitting near the dock. I thought Wyatt might enjoy sitting in it for a bit.

He didn't. My arms, however, were about ready to fall off from carrying him for so long, so I bribed Elliot with a juice box and got both boys back up the stairs onto solid ground where we checked on the progress of the planting.

Maya was busy digging...

...and Miss I was busy smiling.

Ethan, of course, stopped what he was doing to pose.

G-man made sure the post was solidly in the ground...

...grabbed a bit of dirt...

...and proceeded to put the dirt on top of the post. I'm sure this is a genius new way of planting.

Meanwhile, a (small) city boy received a lesson on hoeing...

...and Ethan got back to the business of planting seeds...

...and covering them with dirt.

There was a fair amount of random digging going on.

There was lots of learning, too.

And what day is complete without a good tantrum?

Brenna and A planted a nice, straight row of lettuce.

After all that digging in the dirt, a bunch of the kids went back down to the lake to hang out in the row boat.

Now, before you get concerned about the fact that none of them are wearing life jackets, let me assure you that the boat was tied to the dock the entire time.

After a hard day of work it was time to relax and enjoy the sunshine. Soon enough it will be time to begin harvesting! Until then, we will enjoy a weeding party or two. And if we're very lucky, perhaps there will be more monster cookies involved.

a big umbrella

We came home from, well, wherever it is we were one evening, and the sun was in just the right place in the sky for taking some great backlit photos. "Wouldn't it be adorable," I thought, "to get some pictures of Elliot with the giant rainbow umbrella?"

Adorable indeed. What I got was this.

A look of consternation (not to be confused with constipation which I can tell you with 100% certainty is NOT a condition he is afflicted with)....

...and annoyance.

After that brief and unsuccessful shoot, the other kids decided they wanted to have THEIR pictures taken with the umbrella.

Which at the very least yielded a smile or two.

And THEN I thought it would be fun to take some jumping pictures with the umbrella. So I grabbed Ethan and proceeded to do just that. Unfortunately, there were no jumping apparatuses in the setting sun so we had to go to the shady side of the yard.

Brenna wanted in on the action, too, so I shot a couple of her. And then I realized that even though it was still light outside, it was, in fact, past bedtime on a school night, so we called it a night and went inside.