Elliott the Builder!

Evan is going great guns, ripping siding off of our house. We can't think of anything to do with our vast cash reserves, so we're residing portions of the house. (It all started with a simple door replacement. It seemed so innocent!) Elliott is loving helping Daddy with his project. Here was his job Saturday.

Grab a (very light) piece of wood.

Haul it up the ladder.

Throw it in the dumpster.

Wait for appropriate praise.

Smirk, and descend the ladder.

That is some smirk.

Then, since Mommy wasn't having enough of a heart attack watching the dumpster routine, climb Daddy's REALLY tall ladder.

This is the outside wall of the kids' room that Evan is working on right now.

I actually love the old cedar shakes that are under the old aluminum siding.

Aren't they a great color? They are old, though, and most of the point of this project is that we could insulate the walls. Ripping the shakes off makes this easier.

Uncovering LOTS of bees' nests. No wonder I spent our first summer in the house freaking out-- we have an exterminator spray every summer now, keeping me sane.

Rilla got in the climbing spirit.

"Look, Daddy is busy thinking about building and is ignoring the fact I've been climbing in and out of the stroller while Mommy was on her walk!"

We had quite a bit of rain Saturday, so Evan didn't get as much done as he would have liked. The kids sure did enjoy "helping" him, though! It's cool here again today, hard to believe it was so hot in April!

I got a lovely foretaste of the next twenty years this evening. Cheyenne was crying while doing her homework, assigned to her on Friday, of tracing her name on a worksheet. Excuse me, FIVE worksheets with several repetitions of her name on each page! I thought it was just a tad much for a weekend homework, considering the child is in preschool (and already prints her name just fine). Of course, I should have stood over her and made her finish it earlier in the weekend, but I think the things she did all weekend (go on scooter rides while I took a walk, help Evan clean up siding, go to library story hour, play imaginative games for hours on end with her brother, take a snuggly nap with me in between meetings today) were more important than busy work. I know it will only get worse! I love the book, "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn. (He wrote an article for Education Week that is a quick overview of his point).

Elliott made Evan and I laugh today in the car (me in a "I love you, Elliott" way, Evan in a "Wow, here's proof of what I have to live with" way!) Evan was fooling around and braked hard when we entered a speed zone. From the back seat we heard, "Evan! Evan! Evan! Pay attention! Drive careful! I mad at you!" (I truly don't know where the "I mad at you" statement came from, but the rest is spot on!)

My goal tomorrow is to do laundry, and put it away, all on the same day. I don't really have a lot of faith in my ability to meet this goal. In fact, if I get the laundry away before the next wash day I feel like Supermom. Who knows, though, tomorrow may be the day I conquer empires! It would probably help if I went to bed now...