Fall Yard Work
Greeting to all.
With Rebecca in Virginia for the next few weeks, we men decided to do some fall clean up of the yard. To be honest, the leaves littering the lawn had lost their luster, and Dad wanted them cleaned up; Rebecca being out of town had nothing to do with it.
We hired out the really difficult work of getting the leaves and debris out of the rocks and roof, but they are coming a few weeks from now. I could not abide the leaves there that long. So, that left us with rakes to drag leaves from the planting beds, the lawn mower suck the leaves from the lawn and our new toy to get the leaves out of everywhere else.
The day was warm and sunny. Xavier had stayed in the house all day. The idea of raking leaves got him excited to go outdoors. Nothing else did, and I tried on several occasions to get him to go outside, or to a park.
Xavier decided the sound of the leaf blower motor and its blown air were no longer scary. He wanted to blow leaves with it.
I let him blow leaves and pine needles, excited he had gotten over his fear of the machine. He found me a few minutes later to tell me the leaf blower was smoking. He was sensible enough to turn off the blower before coming to find me.
The two of us headed down to Home Depot and found a new blower (that device is too useful to be without). The new one is lighter, and Xavier can handle it better.
Xavier helped rake and move the piles of leaves into Mama's garden. He finished the work by blowing the remaining leaves from the sidewalks and patio. He left the work of rolling up the 100 foot cord to Dad.
A Grocery Store Rite of Passage
Greetings to everyone.
Day two of Rebecca's three weeks away, and what to two untethered guys do? That's right, we head for the supermarket!
We needed a few items for dinner, plus any stop at King Soopers means (in Xavier's world): Doughnuts! We chose our two donuts, then headed down the cookie aisle and placed a sleeve of chocolate double-stuffed sandwich cookies next to our doughnut bag. We then walked the aisles like two men who didn't know the store very well looking for the items we needed for dinner.
At the checkout, Xavier noted another little boy riding the penny rocking horse. He wanted to try it out!
I purchased our hand basket of items. Four pennies made up part of the change. After securing the grocery bag, we headed over to wait our turn on the penny pony.
Prior to today, Xavier has been wary of such rides. He intended to ride the pony this time, however.
And ride he did! Xavier had two rides, then we went home, leaving two pennies on the ride for other kids to use.
Halloween 2017
Greetings to all, and Happy Halloween!
Xavier's garden this year produced so many pumpkins, we were giving them away! Even so, we kept the bigger ones for ourselves.
Three of his pumpkins weighed in over 20 pounds, the largest being 24.5 pounds the smallest (of the 20+ pound club) 22.5 pounds.
We did not get all the carving out of the way last Monday after Rebecca got back from drill. Rebecca also needed to carve her pumpkin (she only hollowed it out last week). Once again, a family project the night before Rebecca flies out to Andrews AFB.
It's well we had a week to wait. Xavier's first choice (last week) for a carving was the newly added emoji Smiling Poop Emoji. I quietly hid that stencil away and he forgot about it.
We carved five pumpkins this year. An owl, a kitty face, a mermaid, a traditional triangle face, and a giant ant.
As Xavier has taken to watching the 1954 Black and White classic "THEM!", the pumpkin he carved last week was a "giant ant." (shortly after carving the ant, he decided to take the plastic awl and go Norman Bates with it)
It's hard to make out (I should have added another candle to it), but the shape is an ant. We took to calling the the Frankenstein Pumpkin because Xavier affixed a bunch of masking tape and what remained of his ant stencil to the pumpkin.
Xavier worked hard on the kitty. However, other amusements beckoned him. I would like to claim he carved the whiskers, one eye and nose, but he did not.
"Dad, will you finish it?" as he ran off to build another weapon to fight giant ants. The ears and one eye he can claim.