The Devils and the Details

I'm not really sure when it happened, but I believe someone broke into our house and swapped our two little angels (ok, they were never angels, but we can pretend) with a mischievous, sneaky duo. All of the sudden, this band of brothers has decided that making mischief is a lot of fun, especially when they do it together. They are adorable little imps, but imps nonetheless, and when Mom and Dad turn their backs, these imps get into T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

"Push, Adam, push! I bet we can snap this thing in two."

"You listen to me, Mom. I am an expert in this department."

"Hey Adam, bring me that chair. I'll climb up and undo the lock, and we're outta here!"

I'm not sure what they were trying to do here, but I don't think it involved helping me change a lightbulb:

Oh yeah, it involved taking turns pushing each other around the house on a chair.

All kidding aside, these emerging brotherly antics are fun to watch. I'm sure we'll be eating those words in a few years (or months), but for now we'll enjoy watching these two play play play.

And I challenge anyone to find a better cleaner-upper than our Ethan. Check out this sorting:

He must get his "attention to detail" (some might have another word for it) from his father. Take a look at this lawn after Ben's leaf clean-up yesterday. Seriously, there is not ONE LEAF left. Not one.

One of my favorite things about Ben is that when he decides he wants to do something, he DOES it. There is no halfway for my husband. We complement each other very well in this department - if the lawn had been left to me, I would have gotten really sick of gathering leaves about a third of the way through, shrugged, and said "good enough!". You should have seen the one and only time I was allowed to try to mow the lawn. Anyway, Ben's other big project of late has been building this state-of-the-art compost heap:

It may not look that impressive to you, but I assure you - it is. If you come to our house, you will be invited to stick your hand into this heap of rotting produce, leaves, and hen manure to feel that it is piping hot inside - a sure sign that the compost is doing its thing and we will have nutrient-rich compost to make our garden very happy next year.