As my friend dropped off her kids here yesterday and started telling me things I need to know. Then she pulled out all the hair stuff. I hadn't thought about doing someone's hair. Our boys have short enough of hair that I don't even comb it! Very bad habit. So Ava and I are going to have a blast. I told her about when I would braid letters into my sisters' hair and their friends, so she wanted an "A" but I talked her into a "P" instead.
Ava and Kaden are 2 days apart in age.
So they made a mud puddle and got dirty the way I intended. Ava's clothese were in a bag labeled "playclothes", but I still winced a little as they got muddier and muddier--We had gone to Kaden's soccer game already earlier, and they were splashing through puddles there and they were already super dirty--I hope I am not fired...
Then it was so fun they started to get more and more muddy than I had originally intended...My funny Noah. He doesn't like to get dirty. When he was in preschool he would politely decline any activity like fingerpainting or things that made ooey-gooey messes. I wonder if it is somehow my fault and I don't want his childhood to be missing things like the mud pies I loved to make as a child. So as he wandered around and looked at his brothers and friends like they were crazy, I told him it was fine to get really dirty when I said so. But at first he said he would rather weed with me. So I let him and kept mentioning how much fun they were having and he should go and get in the mud just a little.
Look at these dirty hands. I think he's starting to like it.
And I already know Kaden likes it...
Here is Ava...
Anderson puts everyone to shame, making sure he is the very dirtiest.
I love this picture. Especially Noah.
And then with lots of encouragement....
Noah has finally let go of all restraints! I'm so proud of him.
So this was all while Micah was napping. Being the only adult supervisor, I didn't really plan the clean up route before letting this happen. So I went out and asked Ammon if he was ready to go in and take a bath and suddenly they all wanted to clean up and go in. What to do now? I could have used a few extra adults to get them all hosed down and stripped and carried into the bath/shower/tub and cleaned. But we managed somehow--it wasn't very warm today so they didn't enjoy the hosing down and standing and waiting their turns before making it to warm water somewhere. But they were all great sports, and we don't have mud on our carpets. So all in all a great day!
As I got lunch for everyone afterwards, our wonderful neighbor came over to mow the lawn. He has insisted that I just let him mow the lawn every Friday. At first I just felt bad. I can totally mow the lawn. But even as I did it the first couple of times it is tricky with all the kids. Has to be during naps, finding some activity for the other kids and there are so many other things to be doing. So when he came over one day and begged me not to do it again, I felt a big weight lift off of my shoulders. It was such a strong feeling that I felt liking crying for a couple of hours afterwards. There are so many truly good people in the world. That always makes me happy. Anyway, my whole point is that he didn't come yesterday and it didn't occur to me he would show up on a Saturday afternoon. So I had been cleaning kids and getting them fed and hadn't cleaned up the mess outside, when I saw him in the back yard, picking up toys and moving them to mow the lawn. So I ran out there and he said he noticed someone had been having lots of fun. He was very amused. I waited for him to finish before trying to spray everything down. I rinsed all the clothes a few times outside, and ran them through the washer. One the THIRD time through the water was still really muddy. I think it took 5 times through the wash to feel like they were fairly clean. Should have done swimsuits! Next time (in a couple of years).... 
Breakfast
Everyone loves popsicles.
Harper and Kaden so proud of their lincoln log creations.
Oh, and our pretty watermelon that I had no hopes for planting in front of the house, is so pretty and getting it's first blossom. I knew this one wouldn't survive and made sure to plant the other in the garden where of course vegetable would all do better. So that shows how much I know what plants really like....JPG)
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Here's the garden a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it really needed a good weeding, but if I waited for that I may never get a good pictures. So of the 2 row of beans plants, 2 PLANTs came up, a few cucumber plants never made it out of the ground, but 3 transplants did. The zucchini is growing the best (everyone says that's because you can't kill it, but I certainly CAN and HAVE killed zucchini both times I have tried. So I am very excited). There are some jalepeno plants that haven't died but aren't growing much, and the squash doesn't seem to be growing either. The watermelon finally started to grow a little, but I just am not holding out a lot of hope. Oh, and the pumpkin plant behind the zucchini.
I get too excited about tomatoes and this year didn't factor in that Travis wouldn't even be here to help us eat them. Hopefully we'll have more than we can handle. We also did cucumbers, peppers, and basil in the pots.
My first time trying lettuce and I think it's so beautiful. Nevermind that we tasted it and it is very bitter so we may never eat it. I still love it.
Little grape tomatoes starting to grow...
See the little jalepenos? I LOVE seeing the actual vegetables one day appear!
I was lucky enough, however to catch Kaden scoring on camera. He was so proud of himself.
