Working Weekend

Because of our deck out back, it makes it much easier for our cats to climb onto the roof and Friday morning after getting back from taking Garrett to school, I saw Cocoa poking his little head over the top of the roof. As I parked and opened my door he proceeded to come closer and started meowing. He was so cute and it was the first time I had seen him on the roof.

All of the other kids were off to school by the time I woke Nikki around 10am. Curtis sent a text saying that we should come meet him and go to lunch and then play disc golf. We left around noon to drive over to Richland. We looked around the office and then drove around to find a place to eat. There was a Chinese Restaurant Curtis wanted to try but when we pulled up to it, it looked like it was out of business. Bummer! We opted for Jimmy Johns instead. Then we drove over to Kennewick to the disc golf course at the park by the river. We did 5 holes before Nikki and I were both in need of a restroom and the one in the park was out of order. We drove back to the office, used the restroom and then left Curtis to work. 

I had meant to get a picture with all 3 of us but I forgot.

Nikki and I both crashed for naps after we got back. I was itching to get outside to mow the lawn though because it was starting to get long in areas so I got myself back up and outside. When the girls got home I gave them an incentive to pick up pinecones for me. I told them I would give them 5 cents for every pine cone. They filled a whole 5 gallon bucket just from the front yard. I had to mow carefully around the mess from our water line. After finishing the front yard, I mowed the edges of the area around the pool and then taught Charlotte how to mow because she wanted to learn. She didn't get very far though before the battery died. We only have two batteries and we went through both just on the front yard and a little of the back. We're definitely going to need to upgrade our mower. The rest of the yard was going to have to wait until the next day so the batteries could recharge.

Nikki had brought us a movie called "Inception" and a box of fudge mint cookies so that's what we had for our movie night. The girls watched "Homeward Bound" again downstairs. They love that movie so much and wanted to show Nikki the movie. I told them that she was going to watch a movie with us tonight and that maybe she could watch their movie the next day. They were satisfied with that.

Saturday I was ready to get to work on back yard cleanup and I had the boys help. The girls still needed to count their pine cones from the previous day and played as well. They did pick up some more later though. I wanted to clean out the leaves and garbage against the back fence that has been piling up. It was a bigger job than we thought and took longer than we thought. We finished what we were going to do by lunch time and for the boys to have their Dungeons and Dragons game party. I'm so happy they did have this party and that they had 5 friends over!

We had to pound down the leaves into the garbage can. Jack used the two rakes to grab the leaves.

I had my turn also.

Sage found a nice spot on the rocks in the flower garden. She likes being outside where we are.

She moved around a couple of times. So cute.

I showed Nikki the pictures and she had to come out to see for herself. Then Sage came and climbed in her lap. 

Nikki had been inside trying to work on homework while the rest of us were outside and Curtis was working on the shower. but she was struggling with it. She decided she better cut her trip short because it was finals and she couldn't concentrate unless she was back at her desk in her apartment. She stuck around long enough to wash some clothes and watch part of the movie with the girls but then took off around 2:30pm.  It was nice to see her even if it was a short trip.

We raked up 6 big bags of leaves, garbage, pine needles and pine cones. So glad we got done what we did. There are still some other places around the house that need clean up but that will be another day.

The boys having their game party in the basement. I had taken Jack to the store after lunch to get some snacks and treats for them.

While the boys were having their game party, the girls got back to work with their pine cones and helping me mow. They picked up some from the back yard but they got tired quicker than they had the day before. In the end they picked up 640 pine cones and earned themselves $32. They knew exactly what they wanted to buy with that money and later had me take them to the store.

Sometimes I would hold on with Charlotte and sometimes I would let her go on her own. It's not too difficult since it's self-propelled and I can adjust the speed. She just had to get used to holding down the button while turning around otherwise it would turn off. 

Alice wanted a turn also. I stayed with her the whole time.

Here's all of the pinecones they picked up and the prize they bought with their money, a Pokémon toy called Pikachu that moves it's arms and the cheeks and tail light up along with sounds and talking. They were so happy!

Here are their papers they wrote down their numbers as they counted.

After they were finished with that, I got back to work on the lawn. There were lots of pine needles and little branches and pinecones in the yard that I needed to rake most of them out of the way first. I ended up filling 3 more bags by the end of the night. I made sure that when one battery on the mower died that I took it straight to the charger before using the next one. I was able to keep a charged battery when I needed it that way, especially since I had to stop and rake stuff up. It was starting to get dark by the time I finished, but it looked a lot better and I was happy it got done. I didn't have time or energy to trim the long grass around the edges. That was going to have to wait until Monday.

I'm going to have to clean up under these pine trees another day. And eventually we'll probably hang up our hammocks here.

Curtis stayed busy working on the shower the entire day and made good progress. He nearly finished covering the wall with tile but had to quit at 9:00 so he wouldn't bother the neighbors with the noise of his cutting anymore.

He watched a video online on how to make your own shelves out of the tile. It's definitely not perfect but not bad for his first time doing tile.