Happy Columbus Day!

I think the idea for this sprung from a walk we'd taken on Sunday after church.  As we walked by the pond, we all noticed the trash that had been stirred up from more storms we'd had.  The pond and the surrounding area was looking pretty gross.  So, Monday, Columbus Day, since no one had school, and it was a cool, wet morning, we suited up in rain gear and gardening gloves, grabbed ourselves some plastic bags and set out to clean up the pond some.  Who would have thought my kiddos would have thought this the best thing in the world?  Not me.  But they did!  And we managed to fill 6 plastic bags and a red plastic tub we'd found in the pond with trash.  The trash ranged from gatorade bottles and soda cans, to dog food bags and little toy balls.  It was crazy.  It took us only about 15-20 minutes to fill our bags, so we headed home to dump it, grab some more bags and head back out again. 

On our second round, we weren't quite as effective as the first time, because this time we got out to the "jetty" of our pond and got distracted with the mud as we were trying to grab some bottles out of it.  Well, us Lofgrens like to try to make work fun (though I'm generally not very good at it - but today we were great at it!)  So, they played and played in the mud.  

At first, Levi was fixated on finding sticks and playing with them a bit.  But then he noticed the mess and the fun the kiddos were having "down below him" in the mud.  He decided to join them for a bit.

Here is what the kiddos looked like after the mud fun (Mommy was now holding all the bags of garbage).

 

Yuck, but way fun!  And great job on cleaning up our neighborhood kiddos.  As we walked back to the house to clean up we talked about littering, and if you ever want to get a Lofgren (any of us 5 anyways) on a soap box... just mention littering.  You will get a big kick out of the conversation that ensues.  

After getting all cleaned up, Trey went to play at his great friend, Wyatt's house.  The rest of us started on a craft I'd wanted to do - a frog.  Jada and Seth were the only ones that did it, and Seth used way to much water on the painting part of it to dry that day.  He finished his the next day.  But Jada got hers done and look how cute!

 

 

Then, Mommy won the "Best Mommy Ever" award, according to Jada, by allowing them to get the play kitchen and food out of the attic to play with.   We traded the puppet theatre for the kitchen.  We will see how long this lasts out in the playroom.  It'll depend on how long they are willing to clean up all the food and dishes every day. 

I only have Jada and Trey (who came home because he still had football practice that evening) in the pictures, but do not be deceived, Seth and Levi were loving this as much as anyone - except maybe Jada. 

So, while I was a little nervous about what exactly we were going to do for the holiday - we ended up having one of the best days ever!  Not to bad.  I sure am going to miss the days when these very simple things are the best things ever to the kiddos.  Oh, how I relish that they asked me if they could clean up the pond every week - Jada even added "every day!"  Oh, I love you kiddos.  I can't believe how wonderful you are.  I hope we all remember this day when we are having bad days; because we are a great family that loves and enjoys each other! How could I ask for anything more?!?!?!

Happy Columbus Day to everyone. Hope yours was as good as ours was.