Looong Weekend!

We finally broke down and did some MAJOR yard work this past weekend. Darren took a day off work on Monday - I'm so glad he did or it wouldn't have been finished. We put sod down in the backyard, mulched around the entire playset, aerated the yard, put down fertilizer and grass seed and straw on top of that. My neighbor gave me some plants - 4 peonies that I really hope do well (I've always wanted Peonies!) and some Columbine and Stella D'Oro as well. Our front yard, where we put the seed, looks like "Green Acres" but hopefully it will soon be nice and green. Thankfully we did put down the straw otherwise the major storms we've had this week would have washed it all away! The kids helped out all weekend long. Josh did most of the heavy work. He helped his dad fill and empty the pickup and trailer with mulch (we got it from the city for free - just have to load it yourself!), he hauled sod and mulch to the backyard with the wheelbarrow, he helped dig the trenches in the backyard that are supposed to help redirect the water away from the foundation and help keep it from just standing in deep puddles in the yard. He worked really hard!!!

Ellie helped too - she was dragged along to get the pick up and trailer and sod since I was working. She helped with the wheelbarrow (taking the empty one back to the front to be filled), she helped scatter grass seed and helped cover with the straw. She also got water for all of us without being asked and generally kept us all going ;-).

Rylie spent most of the weekend with the nasty stuff Ellie had last week, but she did manage to get out one day and help with the straw. Otherwise she had "dog duty" - keeping the dogs company and making sure they weren't destroying the inside of the house while we were all outside!

We've been big fans of Oprah's Big Give this spring. Sunday night was the final and Rylie got to see it then, the rest of us had to catch up later on in the week. We also caught up on some Oprah daytime talk shows as well - one of which was the day after the Big Give Final with the three finalists plus others who had been inspired by the show. One place they went was an animal shelter in Chicago that has no cages. There are rooms for the dogs with houses, dog beds, and toys. Rylie was very inspired by this and has started collecting items for two shelters here locally. These are the shelters where we got our two dogs - Animal Haven (where Kellie was) and Animal's Best Friend (where we got Toby). She's telling all her friends about what she's doing and hoping to get quite a collection of donated items.

We had a scare with Toby last night - he chewed up an ink pen and a pencil yesterday, as well as who knows what he ate outside. He vomited 4 times in 5 hours yesterday evening and night and at 10:30 we thought we were going to have to take him to the emergency vet. We called and talked with them and decided to watch him for awhile longer. He finally went to sleep and Josh and I sat up with him. Josh went to bed about 11:30 and I stayed awake til a little after midnight. I got up every hour to check on him and he's doing fine now. I made him some rice this morning and by this afternoon he was looking for treats when he came inside. Crazy dog! You'd think he'd learn not to eat this stuff, but no... he was sniffing around the garbage can container in the kitchen this morning!

Ellie and Rylie are off making a movie, inspired by Rylie's newspaper she wrote this morning. She wrote two articles - one about the animal shelter donations she's collecting and one about the band she and 3 friends have created. I think she's planning on sending them off to the P&P Newsletter that some other homeschooled friends have created. She spent a good amount of time this morning checking her spelling and printing neatly, then photocopying and stapling the paper together. I'm not sure what the movie is about but I was just asked to go help with the camera. Guess I'll see shortly!