Family Fun

I picked the kids up from school yesterday afternoon for Early Release Friday, and they stayed overnight.  It's Jill's Mother's Day gift, and mine, too, actually.


Tom and I have been very busy in the yard this week, and Friday morning we emptied most of the greenhouse, and were able to move stuff out of the shed and get it cleaned in preparation for converting it back into a playhouse.  


Everything was ready when the kids arrived, including letters for them in the playhouse mailbox from their Fairy Godmother.

 After reading their letters, they got to work setting up the playhouse.  Irene washed the windows.  Isaac carried furniture and set up the kitchen.  Then I brought in my free roadside find, which I had cleaned up that morning.  It's that wooden, mirrored piece you can see on the right.  The bottom shelf lifts up for storage.  They moved their dress up accessories into it.   And then it was time for "tea", which included ice cream sandwiches.  

Isaac drifted off to help Tom with a project, and Irene and I made play-doh pies.

 Isaac played with my camera after taking our photo.  It's amazing how fast kids can figure things out.  Here he used the timer for a self portrait.

 He took this photo of the single enormous bloom opening on our tree peony.

 Later Irene and I went around the yard and picked a few flowers for the playhouse, and then Irene turned the playhouse into a flower shop and set her business.  Isaac set up a mechanics shop in the old VW camper bus that Tom has been working on.  


We managed just barely to get them into the house for dinner.  Bedtime was set back by ice cream sundaes when I got back from my exercise walk.  Did I really need that?  The walk, that is. The ice cream, certainly!  And then we watched a session of the Planet Earth video before finally getting them to bed about 9:30.


Tom and I were beat.


This morning Jill was here bright and early and just before 9:00 they all left to get to Isaac's Little League game.  We passed on that so we could get the house work and laundry done, and a few more garden jobs.


Tomorrow morning the immediate family will be here for Mother's Day brunch.  Jill and I are not supposed to be doing the cooking.  I already did the part I like best, picking and arranging flowers and creating a beautiful table.

 The table is set, everything is ready.

 Now I have a few hours to rest up, relax, and read a magazine.  Tonight we'll be heading for the stadium for a BIG Sounders soccer match.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers, past, present, future, or just honoring your own mother.  I hope the sun shines on you as it will be here on us.