Put 'em to work young

Ben loves being outside. And if he can be outside and either really dirty or really wet, then he's in heaven! Here he is helping me water the garden. He couldn't figure out where that water was coming from and would occasionally drop the hose and run away when he was getting really drenched. But he would come right back to it and do it again.

Earlier that week we were out in the garden again. I was picking some lemons while I allowed the kids one bucket of water to play with in the dirt. I thought that might keep the mud level down. Ben kept reaching in and splashing in the water. I was supervising, don't get worried(I could just see the flash of "don't let the kid fall in the bucket!" go across your brain-screen), but I admit I didn't totally notice when the kids started mudding Ben up. Lucy started with his hair. They stretched his mohawk of blond hair straight in the air, his thin hairs suspended in a claylike combination of dirt and water. Then, since I had taken his shirt off, they painted his whole upped body with mud. At first he didn't mind, but I think some water splashed in his eyes and then it was off to the hosing station to get cleaned up. The kids know that if they get covered in mud, they must face mom with the hose. And I'm not always nice. I felt bad for Ben, though, because it wasn't his fault he had dirt in his nostrils! He forgot all about my high-pressure water torture quickly. And he would do it all over again if you asked him about it.