Taking on new roles

There are things that Grover is in charge of around the house. He says that he doesn't do very much around the house. Then every time he leaves for any amount of time it feels like he does a million things around the house because it feels like a million things are added to my "to do" lists. For example, he takes out the trash, feeds the dog and cat, keeps track of the 8 million toys that the boys have, knows how to update my iPhone, etc. With the boys he wrestles, and pretend plays with the little action figures and cars, and just generally gives me a break. With the kids I've already started taking over those things. Of course I also feed the dog and cat and take out the trash. Those things were all immediate. Also they are all things I've done before. This is not...

This is our backyard after a winter of the dogs running around in the snow and tearing it all up. I'm pretty sure that it probably looks like this every year. It's really rocky out there because there used to be a gravel driveway. 

It's hard to see, but to the left of the dog run(which will soon be a vegetable garden, but that's another post) there is a hill, and it has a circular rock pattern on top of it because it used to be a well that was filled in with dirt. These things that used to be there are a "charming" part of living in a house that was built in 1890.

In this awesome picture, you can see where the dirt is rock hard and filled with even more rocks on the opposite side of where the gravel driveway used to be. To be honest with you, I have no idead where all those concrete slabs came from, but we have a ton of them. Grover put those together so the boys would have somewhere to color with chalk and a place for the basketball hoop to go.

This is where the gravel driveway I keep talking about was. Bane of my existence... All those little dots are rocks. I raked for an hour trying to get the rocks up and it just was fruitless.
So now, I've picked up all the random trash that floated into our yard during the winter. I picked up a THOUSAND branches from storms, all the dog toys that were everywhere and raked up as many rocks as I could. Then I sprayed the crap out of it with bug killer. It's lovely living on a treeline that spiders, ants, mosqitos, fleas, ticks... blah blah blah. The bug killer kills all of them, and please please please don't tell me that I shouldn't treat the yard because chemicals are bad for the dog and kids. What's bad for the dog and kids is a million flea and mosquito bites and mommy having a stroke because a huge spider is anywhere near the house. :)
The next day I went out with the kids and Rae and spread grass seed. Except what I bought was not soley seed, it had fertilizer and other stuff mixed in with it. So when I went to put it in the spreader it was too thick to go in through. Spread it by hand... yup, I had to spread it by hand.

The bright green stuff is the grass seed. The boys had such a good time playing out in the yard that when I made them go in so I could water the yard, they had total meltdowns. I had forgotten how much they like playing outside. A good reminder of why I am trying so hard to make the backyard a really nice place for them to play this summer.

Lysander got the tricycle they are both riding around on last year for his third birthday, and at the time, neither of them wanted much to do with it, but it looks like this summer it will get some really good use! Though I'm definately going to have to teach them how to peddle! Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to post pictures of lushiously beautiful grass. I don't have a huge amount of faith in my green thumb, but maybe with a little luck!
The whole goal in doing all this is of course for the boys. The adore the outdoors, they think the backyard is an exciting place to be and explore. I have the worst memory, but I do remember when I was young loving my backyard. I remember thinking it was HUGE, which of course it really wasn't all that big, I was just little. I'd really like to get a sandbox, a water play table, of course we'll probably get a little baby pool as well. It would be really great if they could spend the days out there playing as long as they want, anything to make the summer without daddy just a little more fun!
I know that Grover does this stuff year in and year out and this is only my first time, but I have to say, I really really really hope that it is also my last time! The next time he deploys we will hopefully be living in a new house and one of my dealbreakers for buying a new house will be if the yard is crappy! ;)