Leave me alone Leaves (And then some FUN)

Little did I know what awaited me when I purchased my home almost four years ago. How could I when the first time I saw the house was in the middle of winter covered under a foot of snow with trees completely barren of leaves. If I had known I highly doubt I would have bought this particular house. Here is a tip: Never ever ever buy a house in the winter time. You can't see what it is truly like or what efforts will have to be made.

I am not a yard person. In Arizona I used to hate the desert landscaping. I used to think it was stupid. Now I am changing my tune. I am not good at taking care of a yard. And I am just plain lazy when it comes to taking care of it. I don't like to spend my Saturday's doing it when I could be watching football. Maybe with more time on my hands, more hands helping from boys who have grown, and a little more money I can one day have a nice yard. Anyways, on to the post.

I have two large trees in my front yard. They are massive. Their branches stretch over onto my roof, onto the neighbor's yard, and across the street. Each fall they lose their leaves. I feel bad for my neighbor. He has no trees in his yard, but he must deal with my leaves. I tried to be neighborly and rake some of them up. He caught me doing it and told me not to bother, but then he left and I continued anyways. I wish I lived in Ann Arbor where people can just sweep the leaves into the street and then the city comes by and sucks them all up. Here in Ypsilanti you have to bag them up. (I despise spending money on these bags!)

Last week I got to work on the yard. I used my blower and made two big piles, one in the middle of the yard, and another I blew the leaves onto the street to form into a big pile. I find it much easier to sweep the leaves then rake them. I then intended to bag the leaves, but it got dark and cold before I could finish. But don't worry one of Ypsilanti's finest in blue saved the day and delivered a notice of violation for my heinous act with the threat of a fine if I did not remove them. (Its funny how its not a problem if the leaves fall into the street and collect on the curb, but if you put them into a pile its a violation.)

OK, I am done griping now. Yesterday me and the boys went outside to work more on the leaves and to play. The boys enjoyed playing in the leaves. They jumped in them, they threw them, they buried themselves in them. For my part I got the leaves up from the street, raked some more of them, and then helped bury the kids under the leaves. (Please indulge one more gripe. Isaac's hair and leaves were not meant to go together.) But they had a lot of fun on a beautiful fall afternoon. It was warm enough that Brigham took off his jacket and played in just a t-shirt.

Every stick becomes a wand for my aspiring wizards. I need an application for Hogwarts for these two.

          They loved to be buried with only their tiny little heads poking out.

                               And I had to get some action shots of them.

I tried to get a shot of them flying through the air as they jumped into the pile but I kept being just a moment late taking the picture. Brigham had the simple solution of doing a video. That proved to be much easier. And the boys do love to make videos on the camera.

Yes I do despise raking up the leaves and bagging them. But as much as I despise that work, the joy of being a dad and hearing my children laugh and play as I spend some quality time with them is well worth the effort. It was a good day.

Halloween 2011

This year it was all about Harry Potter for the boys. There was no question who they wanted to be. The original thought was for Isaac to be Ron Weasley, but I never did get a red wig for him. Brigham recently had to get new glasses. He insisted that they be round like the ones that Harry wears. We got close enough. Isaac insisted that he had to wear glasses too so he got to use an old pair of Brigham's. And even though Brigham's hair had become way too long for my taste I let him keep it long and unmanageable until after Halloween to keep with the Harry Potter resemblance. I even had to practice drawing the scar to get it just right for Brigham's taste.

Because I was in Texas visiting my girl the weekend before Halloween we missed the ward's annual trunk or treat. The boys were a little bit bummed because of that but I tried to make it up to them with an extra long time out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood to make up for the candy they would have received. I feel good as a parent that we still have a little bit of the candy left in the bowl.

Brigham was excited to get to wear his costume to school, and participate in a parade around the school. Here they are prior to going out trick-or-treating.

Showing off their collected loot. I believe in a communal bowl of candy. It relieves some of the fighting between them. And then they can't blame me for sneaking a few pieces out of one bucket and not the other one. And all Reeses peanut butter cups were claimed as mine. I heard friends call it a "dad tax". I liked the idea. Need to teach the boys early on that taxes are just a part of life and they better get used to it.

The boys had a great day. Hopefully the recent increase in candy hasn't hurt their chances at a successful trip to the dentist which is at the end of the month. What was I thinking scheduling it like that? And thankfully the money spent on costumes is not just for a one time event. The boys love to dress up in their costumes. They have been spotted dressed up many times since Halloween. Isaac in fact went to the store the other day dressed up in his robes. Who knows what kind of spells he was casting upon people. And they have had the scar drawn on their foreheads often. They even went to a baptism the other night with the scar drawn on. Dad was running late and didn't get them wiped off.

In addition to dressing up in their actual costumes they continue to love putting underwear on their head (at least it is clean I believe), make guns out of whatever they can, and use a belt as a ammo clip. I wish they wouldn't do such things, but they do crack me up when they look like this.

If I know my boys I am sure they already have many ideas being formulated of who they want to be next year. I think me and Jenny should get in on the fun and we can make it a family theme. Any suggestions?