Labor Day weekend re-cap

Our Labor Day weekend started off a day early since J decided to take an extra vacation day off of work.  We had had a meeting at church on Thursday evening and Lollie was watching the girls, so since our meeting finished early, we snuck out for a quick date to a local Irish pub.  A great way to kick off the weekend!

Friday bright and early we were up, dodging raindrops, to tackle the formidable task of widening the driveway.  All summer long the brick pavers had sat on the side of the house, waiting for a cool weekend, when they could be nestled next to the driveway.  We decided to wait, however, until there was a string of 90 degree days with 80% humidity to tackle the project.  #perfect timing.  Tots cray-cray.

J had originally planned on doing it himself and I was completely fine with that, but then I started to feel reeeealllly guilty about the fact that Mei Mei and I would be sitting inside the nice, cool, 73 degree house watching, while he would be outside, sweating away at least 10 pounds if not more. My conscious finally got the better part of me and so, long story short, "the couple that DIYs together, stays together".  Or something like that!

Saturday we took a break from our pro-jay and went out to be with Grandma and Grandpa and splash in the Lake.  A much more enjoyable way to spend a hot, humid day I might add!

Sunday, after church, we were back at it, but this time we recruited two little helpers.  Child labor laws?!  Nah--ha ha ha!!

I always feel these types of activities are a great "teachable moment" (insert the Noodle rolling her eyes, again, about all my "teachable moments").  These aren't fun or easy jobs, but it is a great opportunity to impress upon kiddos about the importance of sticking with a job until it is completed (what ever that is, as determined by the "supervisor") and how to go about doing something with grace (not complaining, whining, etc.).  Let me be the first to say that I had to remind myself of this, because I was pretty close (multiple times) to commenting about the heaviness of the bricks, the icky-sticky sweatiness factor or the sore muscles from digging/pounding/lifting/carrying.  Oy.

But.  They were troopers (obvs. the big one more than the little one, but still).  They were focused. They were agreeable.  They stuck to it for two hours.  In the end, J ended up paying them for their hard work and that made it all the more sweeter for them;)

When we had finally finished, we celebrated by going to swim at Lollie and Papa's.  It also happened to be LaLa's birthday so we gorged on Greek Food (straight from the take-out boxes, on the table I will have you note--Nana, just avert your eyes) and Boston cream-pie poke cake.  Mei Mei was only too happy to help LaLa open her presents, even informing her before everything was unwrapped, what was hidden in the tissue paper.

Monday, three out of the four of us made the conscious decision NOT to sweat or get dirty.  The fourth one was like a pig in the mud--he's just drawn to it and can't help himself.  Ha!  Actually there was still a pile of gravel to be dealt with and it was preventing him from pulling his car into the garage, so there was that.

While Daddy was busy tackling the left over gravel, the girls decided to do some science experiments.  Grandma had gotten a bunch of books and one of them was all about science, so the girls decided to break out the equipment and head outside to make goop.

By mid-afternoon the Lake was calling, so we met our neighbors down at the dock and paddled around.

Monday night, there were 4 pretty tired people, who hadn't had quite a labor-free Labor Day, but were all very happy to tumble into bed!