Texas just can't make up it's mind what season it is right now. We've been enjoying a variety of balmy 65-70* days, the flowers are up and blooming, and I got some peas and lettuce planted outside. Sadly, today it went from spring to fall today as the weather took a dip into chilly. I will be perfectly OK if we never see winter this year though-and so far we haven't. It is February though, so I figured it was time to get out and rake our leaves. OK, in the interest of full disclosure we paid a kid to rake them for us, but she had to leave before they were all gathered up so we got to play in the last pile before we put it away. The kids had such a good time jumping in the leaves and then were actually a big help gathering them into the lawn bags.
Raking leaves with the kids reminded me of when I was a kid. I grew up in a tiny town in central Illinois. We lived in a big house on a double lot covered with trees. There were three pines in the back, three huge oak trees on one side, a whole row of maples in front, and two crab apple trees and another maple in the other side yard. In the fall it was a lot of work to get all the leaves raked up from all those trees. My dad used to say that he would give us $10 if we could get every leaf off the lawn before he got home from work. We would rake all day and then of course more would constantly be falling so I don't ever remember getting paid for our work. My dad doesn't remember this but it happened. Oh, it happened. Anyway, we didn't get paid, but we did get to burn the leaves. We loved burning the leaves! We would make huge piles in the gutter of the street them light them on fire. We loved to watch them burn, light sticks on fire, maybe even roast marshmallows over the flames while our eyebrows frizzled and half-burnt leaves flew around in the breeze. When the flames died down a little we were ready with a tarp full of more leaves that we would tip on top to keep the flames roaring. My kids don't know what they're missing out on.
Ellie loves to pose
Ellie really loves to pose
Someone's always watching
I think she's missing a leaf
cute pictures (especially the last one)!! and great stories from your childhood. I can't believe you are still raking leaves......(of course it's been mild here in Utah, too, so I can't be in too much disbelief.....)
ReplyDeleteThose pictures are awesome. :) We look forward to seeing you in March!
ReplyDeleteSoCal seems backwards from everywhere else we've lived. Our lawn didn't start growing until winter brought the rains, so I've been having to mow the lawn every weekend through January. On the other hand, we hit up the beach yesterday while Kla did some tanning and Ash and I played in the surf. It evens out.