Summertime Work

We've been out of school for a little over a week and have slipped into our summertime routine. Everyone does "homework" for about 2 hours in the morning, then it's playtime or chore time until after lunch. We have some reading time and then head outside for more play time. Have to love summer! I've added onto the boys' chore lists by having them take turns making lunch. They think they are big stuff making the meals for everyone. I think it's great as I no longer have to do it :)

We're still knee-deep in yard work. We've gone through 5 dump truck loads of dirt and 1 load of gravel. We need about 4 more loads before we are done.. We're adding about a 1/2 acre of grass and building a nice landscape block wall the whole way around. It's great having older kids as they pitch in and help do the work. Sometimes I add a little bribery. Today we were moving the load of gravel...
They could earn $1 for each wheel barrow load moved. Sammy claimed that quickly and racked up $9 before he had to take a break... The little dump truck load was worth a penny, but for some reason Alex really wanted to move it that way. He probably worked harder with lots of loads back and forth but he earned $4.54. That's 454 trips with that little truck!

Katie's dump truck was worth a dime a load, but she didn't care she just wanted to play in the dirt!

I'll try to post more now that there is downtime in life again! Heading to the East coast next week, hoping the humidity, heat and tornados are gone by then!