The Great Leaf Rake

Snow was in the forecast and lots of leaves were on the ground, a perfect recipe for raking leaves! The only down side was that while the kids were enthusiastic about the project they weren't as helpful as they were cute while playing in the leaves. That left me (thirty weeks pregnant)to basically rake all of the leaves, multiple times because as soon as I would rake a large pile of leaves Talmage would run through it and the girls would lay down and make leaf angels. Ellen and Olivia making leaf angels.
Talmage enjoying the leaves, he thought that raking the leaves into piles was a great idea because then he could jump into the pile and throw giant armfuls into the air. (very helpful)

Olivia was too cute! She had a wonderful time playing and helping to fill big bags with leaves.

I can't tell you how cute Talmage was out in the leaves! His complete happiness at being outside playing and "working" in the yard was contagious. His favorite thing to say was, "My turn, help mama rake leaves. I helping mama?"

Ellen really was a big help. She was a great help with putting giant armfuls of leaves into the leaf bags. She also we a big help with running in to get more bags when we ran out. The best part was that she never got tired of it! She was a fantastic help the whole time. And it's a good thing because there was no way I could have bagged all of those leaves alone (at this point in my pregnancy bending down to the ground isn't the easiest task in the world).
All in all it was a wonderful fall afternoon!