Raking In the Fun

I have never enjoyed raking as much as I did this Fall!  I'll give you one guess why.  That's right, it's because I've got the cutest little yard hand around.  John Thomas LOVED helping me rake the leaves and cart them to the garden.  

Kids must be born with the innate ability to know what to do with a huge pile of leaves, because this guy needed no coaching at all.  He was tossing them, pouncing in them and having a big time before I could finish raking the first pile.  

By the end of the job, we had the process down like clockwork.  I raked the leaves into a pile, John Thomas rolled in them and walked through them while I loaded them in the wheel barrel, then I loaded JT into the wheel barrel to escort the leaves to the garden.  En route, he tossed the loot overboard, "leaving" a trail so that we could find our way the next time. 

Chester even tried to get in on the action.  I guess all the Kirkpatricks love to play in the leaves. 

John Thomas is a regular Renaissance boy; yard hand, cutie pie, and sous chef extraordinaire.  He had to help me cook dinner one night this week.  He definitely knows his way around the kitchen, including tracking down a mixing bowl and whisk so he could help whip something up. 

I'm not sure this will be impressive to anyone else, but I have to be a proud Momma for a minute.  John Thomas is really starting to get good at stacking blocks and then karate chopping them down (thanks to his Daddy).  This week, I noticed he was stacking the skinny cylinders on top of one another. 

As you can tell, even he was impressed with himself after he managed to balance four tall cylindrical blocks on top of one another. 

I captured this shot about five seconds before he chopped it down.  Oh the joy of destruction that our little boy has.   John Thomas and I had a nice weekend.  My mom came in on Friday night, so he got to spend a little quality time with Gramma.  And, my college girl friends, Jen and Katie, came in to spend Saturday with us.  He was in hog heaven.  Our little boy knows how to work his cute around the ladies.   

He had so much fun, he even woke up with a smile on his face.  Notice his eyes aren't even open, but with a great night sleep and a furry yellow dog by his side, what else could a kid need?