First Week of Summer Break or what katie and like to refer to as "Facil de Assemblar"

School is out and Lucy spent a day helping me organize my classroom...

We joke about how she will give her teachers a run for their money but she did great work while in the desk...

I will miss seeing her so excited at Tiny Tigers and then falling asleep the second I start the car to go home...

Then the fun started. I thought summer would include a lot of pajama wearing but Mike went out of town for work and I had the crazy idea of painting the house and finishing the yard and planting a garden while he was gone as a surprise. I recruited the generously eager Katie and we started taping to paint...

We did one window and broke down in laughter because it was very clear we had overestimated our capabilities. We couldn't even move the ladder to the full upright position. But as we were laughing on the front porch after spending a good hour taping one window, a friend of Mike's friend drove by and offered to paint for us at a very generous price. Done. Sold. We were so happy...

Then my wonderful mother-in-law flew in to help me plant a garden. It was a lot of fun dreaming of actually eating something I grow.

And we pruned and pulled roots (thanks Scott) and tilled and planted grass...

And where was Lucy during all the fun, you ask...

Naked in the water or the mud or the rocks...

Or getting over her mother-imposed fear of worms (I jumped while holding her when a friend pulled a worm from her garden and now lucy won't touch or even look at the things)

Katie bought her plastic bugs to cure her...

And relaxing with us when we finished all the work...

Mike came home last night and we celebrated his birthday outside in our new yard with wings and pizza. Mike works so hard all the time that it was fun to be able to lighten his load a little by taking care of the painting and yard. We love you mike.