Mulch!

Long on our list of outdoor to-do projects was to replace the increasingly spotty mulch in the front yard.




Yesterday we rented the trusty Home Depot truck and went and got a yard of gorilla hair. Dana & I started early today about 8:30 clearing the old stuff out.




The kids sadly spent most of the beautiful late fall day inside, but we coaxed them out to help spread some of the new mulch.




And here's the final result:




We also blew out the leaves and pruned the bushes.

Oh and strung up the trusty Kirkland Christmas garland!





And I rearranged the garden shed to pack away the mower and summertime stuff, and put the sleds and shovels up front.

Election Night fun

Instead of watching what would end up being an historic electoral upset, we did something fun.

Alex's Cub Scout pack built pop sickle stick and hot glue buildings, to see who could make the strongest structure.

First Alex collected a couple of new Webelos achievements :



Alex opted for a very straightforward, very sturdy design, building a triangular tower of flat sticks




Alex's held up extremely well.








It ended up supporting 175 pounds, before the glue joints gave, and the structure slid apart under the weight.




And then, of course, this happened:

Ali & Mom's Birthday

We spent the weekend in Utah to celebrate Ali's birthday, along with the Aunties and Grandpa Gene.

Our chauffeurs for the weekend. This may be Uncle Eric's VW Cabriolet's last stand. It is up for sale.



The aunties



Epsilon made a new BFF in Grandpa Gene






We didn't really celebrate what would have been Mom's 65th birthday. But I'm also glad that nobody seemed to brood over it too much either. We are slowly adjusting to life without Mom. It's not what any of us planned or expected, but life does go on.

We did have a very nice seafood dinner (yes, seafood in Utah) on Saturday with the family to celebrate Ali's birthday.

Then we had to catch a 6:30 am flight home. Alas, that was the compromise for getting super cheap airfares for the weekend.