Pile of dirt

A few weeks ago, Jason made boxes for my raised garden beds and last Friday a large dump truck came and delivered a large pile of dirt to be used to fill those boxes. I hurt my back early last week, so when the dirt arrived and the kids happily wanted to play in it, I really didn't care too much as at least they were happily occupied and I could just sit and watch them make a mess of themselves.

And make a mess of themselves they certainly did. The boys loved the dirt! They gleefully climbed up the pile and slid down, feet first, head first, rolling, stumbling, etc. They would climb up and fill their hands with dirt then throw it as far as they could (fortunately not at each other!). They would grab our shovels and try to get some dirt then dump it in the nearest bed. Usually only a quarter or half cup of the dirt actually made it to the bed, but the kids tried so hard and really enjoyed it. Some of the dirt was in large clumps (maybe 6 inches or so?) and were rather heavy, so Sam would load those onto the seat of his scooter and push them over to the beds. He's such a hard worker.

We went through three clothing changes that day. I finally realized yesterday after days of playing in the dirt that I should have a set of "outdoor" clothes for the kids to wear when they wanted to play in the dirt. Anyway, whenever we went inside I would strip the kids, have them shake out their boots and clothes and they'd deposit their dirty clothes in the washing machine. Then we'd get a good scrub down of their hands and feet and go on with our day. Finally it was time to clean up for the day. It was 4:30 and I had to give all the kids a bath, feed Abby and shower and prep myself for a wedding which we had to leave for at 5:45 (the kids did not come with). So I stripped the kids on the deck. And I mean stripped. They were completely naked--no clothes, no diaper, no underwear. Although it appeared they were wearing socks as their feet were mostly white and their little legs were very dirty. Yuck. Then since there was so much dirt on the deck and it was supposed to rain on Saturday, I wanted to quickly sweep it off. I told the naked boys to wait inside while I took probably 3 minutes to sweep the deck off.

Then I picked up Abby who was waiting by the sliding door, and we ran upstairs. At the top of the stairs were the dirty little boys. While I was sweeping, the boys grabbed all the pillows and decorative pillows off of Jason and my bed, piled them at the top of the stairs and were sitting on the pile. My naked, dirty little boys, sitting on my bed pillows. I think there were some shrieks and screams coming from me by that time. Eventually, everything "calmed down" and I was able to get Abby, Matthew and Sam bathed as well as myself.

Jason filled the beds with the dirt on Saturday, but there was some left over as Jason wants to "top dress" the yard (which means spreading new dirt on top of our grass...yes, a muddy mess I suppose), so we still have a pile of dirt which is still getting a lot of playtime.