Clean up!

Every year we set aside an entire Saturday to do our "fall clean up and get ready for winter" chores.  Good times.  For real.  We love this day.  It's a great day of working together for the purpose of removing all evidence of summer and fall living.  We clean out our flowerbeds, throw out the pumpkins and mums, cut the grass one last time and then pack the shed full to the rafters with all our patio furniture, planters, bikes, fishing rods (always a little sad to pack those away), scooters etc...making sure the snow shovels and sleds are within easy reach for the coming winter.  Then, if you're me you take a moment to think about how amazingly awesome it will be to open those shed doors in a mere 6 months and unpack all that goodness again :)  I do enjoy the winter months and all of its own coziness, but spring really gets me going and I always look forward to UNpacking that shed more than I do packing it.

This years clean up day was a beauty.  Sunny blue skies, warm but cool enough temps to give a rosy glow to those kids' charming faces :)  Quite sure those kids fell into bed that night.

Yup.  That giant mess is(was) the back yard.  We took the trampoline down and it went to be enjoyed by some of our friends.  The topper on our playfort (which is now on the ground, on the right) had a nice canvas top on it that blew apart this year.  Considering we bought it in 2003, we couldn't complain.  It's been in direct weather for 10 years and has had a lot of children playing under it.  Now that our own kids are older and my daycare summers are numbered, we've decided to do away with the playfort and replace it with a ...... pool!  Perhaps next summer, although more likely the summer after.  Fun, fun!

 

 And see those curling shingles on that roof?  Yup, those need to be replaced next spring.  Our spring list is growing quickly!

 

Tanner decided to get comfy while trimming down the grasses :)  Henry laid some bricks for a pad of sorts under the water tap in an effort to keep it from turning into the muddy mess it was the past few summers.

 

Cuties :)  They worked hard, collected their well deserved hot chocolate at the end of the day and chatted about when we would be needing our sleds and snow shovels.  Turns out they didn't have long to wait.  3 short weeks later, and we're under at least 30" of snow!!