This week was a combination of sunny and rainy. So we worked in the yard while we could. And our yard needs lots of work. See, it’s mostly violets:

And we prefer grass. So we asked the landlords to do something about it. And they sprinkled grass seed. Without removing any of the many weeds. So now the grass is growing, but the weeds are growing faster. It’s a race against time to save the poor grasslings!

And being The Natural Mommy, I won’t go out and buy weed killer, oh no.

And I can’t just spray vinegar (I’ve been told it’s a good weed killer) because since the weeds outnumber the grass, I have a feeling all grass would suffer great casualties in the process.

So I got out my little spade-thing (I do not have the green thumb) and got to work.

Behold, half the yard is done (the huge, overgrown shrub is the dividing mark between our yard and our neighbors):

And my mad yard work skillz got Josh all inspired and so he decided to prune the oak tree. Because the lower half of it is dead. And less dead branches equal more sun.

Only we don’t have a ladder. And rather than go ask the neighbors, who have a ladder leaning up against their garage, and were outside doing yard work themselves, he decided to do a little X-treme tree trimming:

This is how high up he was:

When one stubborn branch refused to come down, he got creative:

It didn’t work. Luckily the car survived unscathed as well.

So he had fun with it:

And what were the kids doing while Josh was risking his life and I was killing my pregnant ankles?

Well, the first part of the week, Olivia filled her time with activities such as these:

Then her new bike came in on Saturday:

And she no longer had to resort to such primitive methods of self-entertainment.

Benjamin’s activities remained the same. He loves drawing with chalk. Drawing lines with chalk. Over and over. Lines with chalk. With different colors. But always lines. Lines with chalk.

Oh, and he got a helmet. Fair trade, right? Olivia gets a bike; he gets a helmet. (She already had one; he did not.)

Anyway, that’s what we did this week. You?