Rake, rake, raking........

The fallen leaves in our yard have provided hours and hours of autumn entertainment. There were the early fall bouquets gathered, when the leaves were still their fiery colors, there was the inevitable jumping and burrowing in piles, and there was the occasional leaf "fight" with armfuls of leaves thrown at one another and stuffed in jacket hoods. I have been raking leaves for weeks now, and also sweeping off the floor the ones that highjacked their way inside. I've loved watching the kids play in and with them, and am grateful for the reminder that nature provides entertainment longer lasting than any toy, but the frost this morning confirmed that some

actual yard work, and leaf removal was necessary before.... well we all know before what. So with the help of my little friends, we raked and gathered and lugged the first half of our yards' leaves to the street side of our lawn, where they will be picked up by the "leaf vacuum truck" as Simon calls it, and turned into mulch. There is much fretting by the truck loving one year old in my life, that we will miss the truck in action, but I convinced him that it wouldn't possibly come after bed time.