By the time I woke up today, dh was playing Uno with Julia and Sam at the kitchen table. We had a liesurely morning, made brunch and then went outside. Julia stayed inside to work on a Super Heroes book she was making. She colored pages from a coloring book and cut them out, then combined them into her own book that we stapled. She really likes making her own books this way.

We spent most of the afternoon playing and working in the yard. Emily and Sam helped dh finish painting the shed we built--it still needs one more coat of paint. Then dh took down a couple of scrub trees at the borders of the yard. Once they were down, the kids and I helped clean up the branches as dh began cutting the trunk down to burnable size logs to be chopped and seasoned. We cleaned up a bunch of sticks and leaves still left all around the shed and the pond. We got a lot of spring clean-up done, which felt great; all the while Sam and Emily were alternately helping or playing with the tetherball, rings and swings. Julia came out to play for a while after she finished her book.

The weather was so beautiful; it was glorious just to be outside. I sat down by the pond for a while, just enjoying the sound of the waterfall. Looks like we have at least 7 out of 10 fish. I know one died, but I don't know about the other two. Haven't found them yet. We bought 4 koi last year, all of which survived, but all the other fish were either original from when we moved in 2.5 years ago or their spawn. Not too bad! The pond was really iced up this winter. I kept air holes open, and the upper waterfall continued to flow, so I know the fish had plenty of oxygen. I'll see if I can link to a picture here. The string algae is getting bad with all the leaves off the trees; we need to check the ph levels tomorrow.

Once dh was all done with the trees, he took out Sam's remote control monster truck. Sam had a blast driving it around the yard while the puppy chased it and barked. Loads of fun for everyone to watch and play! The puppy gets some great exercise chasing the truck all around the yard, and Sam thinks it's the coolest thing in the world. He likes being in control! *g*

As the sun started going down, the temperatures began to fall. We went back inside for a late lunch after a nice shower. I pulled out some nice cheeses and crackers; dh put on some music and popped open a nice bottle of wine. We all enjoyed a great spread, sitting in the living room and basking in the last of the day's sun. We talked about all kinds of things, but one of the most interesting conversations is what everyone would do if they had lots of money. The girls both said that when they made lots of money they would share it with the rest of us so we could all do fun things together. I fantasized about being able to visit all the different places we read about. How cool would it be to bop off to visit a real medieval castle or check out the Great Pyramids of Giza? While I don't go in much for materialism, that would be pretty cool!

So, now I'll breathe a sigh of contentment and say goodnight.