Today Ava Was a Huge Help

When you're inside you can be a "girly girl" in the sense that if you get even the slightest speck of dirt on your hands you need us to brush it off or wash your hands. 

Outside, though, it's a whole different ball game. You'd roll in the dirt if we let you. 

when we planted the garden you were getting right in there and getting your hands dirty and today we began to re-landscape the front flower bed. 

When we moved in the front bed was more of a rock bed than flower bed with large stones forming the base instead of mulch. This morning we finally began to tear out those stones so we can build a proper flower bed with a small retaining wall. 

You didn't hesitate to dive right in and help as best you could. 

We never could figure out what to do with the side set of steps and how to dress up the underside of them. Cue the rocks. Rather than try to find somewhere to dispose of them we thought it best to place them under the stairs.

We are lucky to have an extra set of willing hands.

One-by-one you brought me a stone to place under the stairs. 

A lot of them were too large for you to carry and we heard "big rock, too heavy."

We actually heard that with nearly every rock you carried which helped lighten the mood of working under the hot sun. 

Mom caught the telltale sound of the ice cream man coming up the street and the timing couldn't have been better. We were all baking under the sun and could use  a cool treat. 

Mom flagged him down as I ran in to get my wallet. 

With cash in hand we made our selections and headed back the the shade of the garage and the tailgate of the truck. 

You enjoyed using the bed of the truck as your personal play pen while mom and I cooled off. 

When it was time to get back to work you insisted on stealing mom's work gloves. They were obviously too big for your tiny hands but you didn't let that stop you from bringing me stones. 

I sat on the steps and placed the stones underneath when I heard "here daddy, daddy." 

We had a good system going. Mom handed you the rocks that she pulled from the bed and you ran them over to me to place underneath the stairs. 

An early lesson on teamwork.