Fall Weather Fun

It's December in the Midwest, but the weather outside last week seemed more like spring with temperatures in the 70's.  I was planning on decorating the Christmas tree but instead Doug roped me into helping him and the boys rake the leaves outside.  Knowing that the nice weather couldn't possibly last it seemed like the logical chore to cross off our to do list first.  After all, Christmas tree decorating is an indoor, climate controlled activity.

We decided to give the little kids an early Christmas / St. Nicholas Day present in honor of the beautiful weather...new scooters!  Princess was absolutely thrilled with hers and spent the rest of the afternoon going up and down the hill practicing her skills...

A pink scooter for Princess!

Practicing scooter skills

Game Boy got one too, in blue

Happy that he no longer has to borrow Soccer Boy's scooter!

It was so cute watching the older boys teaching Princess how to ride, balancing on one foot.  She went up and down that hill countless times trying to master that skill alone.  Sadly, my camera battery died before I got a shot of them giving her scooter lessons.  Two early Christmas gifts with good timing, it kept them busy while Doug and I finished bagging the leaves the older boys raked up for us...

Our idea of how to spend a nice weather day!
Ahh, the joys of home ownership...

The one chore I am so happy we no longer have is picking up crab apples.  See the beautiful tree at the top of this post?  Yeah, those blooms are gorgeous and last for about a week, so not worth the hassle of picking up ornamental crab apples all...fall...long.  If we didn't pick them up quick enough they get smashed in the driveway and then tracked into the house on people's shoes.  Not to mention the ripe fruit draws flies and insects to the yard.  I don't know whose bright idea it was to plant not one but TWO of those terrible trees in front of our house.  It was impossible to rake the crab apples up because of their small size.  The solution was taking a shop vac out and sucking them up.  My neighbors use this little trick too (thrown in to validate the strange idea, you know, so I seem less crazy).  Yes, I did look somewhat ridiculous "vacuuming" my yard, but it seemed to be the best alternative.

Dora & Diego have excellent upper
body strength!

A few years back we had an early frost during spring that devastated the peach crop.  All the blooms on my crab apple trees fell off early too...which meant no fruit that year!  It was so nice not dealing with them we decided to cut those two trees down earlier this year.  The boys were upset because they do make great climbing trees, but we reminded them they have trees they can climb at grandma's house.  I think Doug may have ended up promising to rig up a zipline somewhere to compensate for their lost trees.  My memory is a bit fuzzy on the details, although I'm sure the kids will set me straight.

To review, boys helped with the lawn chores, little kids got to ride new scooters and the adults managed to get all the leaves raked and bagged without having to deal with crab apples during the process, which all adds up to fall weather fun at our house.