Spring Clean-Up Turns Into a Party

As Michelle walked out the door for Stake Women's Conference she blithely said, "Oh, and you could take care of the tree in the front yard. I wouldn't mind." I have learned that such suggestions and casual comments have much deeper significance than a simple off-the-wall comment. So I decided it would be a good idea to remove the splintered remains of our tree (that was run over this winter).


"Oh, and if you wanted to clean off the back patio that would be nice too," was another comment Michelle made as she finished her preparations to leave. What other reason could I have for cleaning the patio except to have a fire and invite some friends over? Besides, there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Of course the temperature wasn't exactly psaltery but why should that stop us? I couldn't think of a good reason. And so it began. What started out as a simple yard clean-up had sown the seeds of jubilation and rejoicing.

While the boys were distracted I slipped out the back door to begin extracting the sad remains of our once proud tree from the front yard. Once I had pulled the trunk free of the ground I dragged it to the backyard gate. But when I slipped into the house to get the key for the gate I couldn't get back outside unnoticed. Before I knew it all the boys were geared up for outside and wanted to help. And let me tell you, I have some big helpers.

The boys loved it. Chopping and sawing the wood kept them busy for hours! As they began to weary from the strain their interested changed to other fun outside activities. While I finished cleaning up the tree shrapnel and started sweeping off the patio the boys pulled out their toys that had been in storage for the winter.

Our patio was prepped for the fire and one thing lead to another. We ended up with 3 additional families joining us for dinner: the Johnsons, the Simmons, and the Andersons. We got the fire started and the grill hot but once the sun went down we definitely noticed that it was quite a bit cooler than we would have preferred.

In the end, the kids decided that inside the warm house was preferable to playing outside in the cold. It was so fun to see the little kids inside playing and having such a good time.

Eventually we would get all the kids to bed except for Eleanor who would stay up while the adults played games. We certainly had a great time. It wasn't until 11:00 pm that we finally had to call it a night. We are grateful to everyone who was able to participate with us in this family fun filled evening.