A weekend with mini-me

This weekend, Paige took the older kids to LegoLand again with her friend Denese and her kids.

Thankfully she let me avoid the road trip with 6 kids and stay home with mini-me... aka Luke.

I picked him up from Grandma's on Thursday after work.  When I told him we were headed home, he asked if Mom, Ella, and "my boys" were going to be there.  I told him they went on an adventure to California.  He got the ol' quivering bottom lip and burst into tears.  When he had calmed down in the car, he asked what 'ventures we were going to have.

Since his mother instructed me to actually do something fun with him, I told him we would have plenty of 'ventures working around the house.  Probably not what his mother meant, but as the manly men of the household, we have a Biblical calling to yardwork and vehicle maintainance and other groanings of creation.  Plus child labor laws don't apply when it is your own kid.  So I put him to work.

He fixed up the ol' Bronco in preparation for emissions testing (it passed!)

Then we went for breakfast at the Farmhouse in downtown Gilbert, where Luke tried not to smile for a picture.

I don't know where the kid gets his grumpy looks from.  It think it must be his mother.

Then Luke had some grass to mow.

I sent him to fill up the car with gas.

As many warning labels as they have around gas pumps, I found it odd that there were none telling you not to let your 3 year old pump the gas for you.  He did an excellent job though.

Then it was time for him to tackle the weeds taller than he was.

Then he tended the garden so that we have something to eat in the long hot summer months.

And aside... that garden is growing like crazy!  It's amazing.  We have radishes coming out of our ears.  And we don't even like radishes!

After all that hard work, I sent him to the grocery store so we could have dinner.

He came back with only the bare essentials.

Since he had accomplished so much in two days, I let him relax and eat his Spaghettios while watching Bear Grylls eat catfish (raw of course) and scorpions (cooked.)  Mmmmmmmm.

Then this morning, he called me on his spoon... errrrrrrrr, phone.... at breakfast to tell me what a great weekend he had.

All in all, a successfully weekend of making manly noises, scratching manly places, and cultivating manly smells through skipped showering!

Postscript:  Just after I hit publish on this post, he woke up from his nap.  And promptly pulled out the vaccum, to clean up "dowrt and stuff."  Without pants.

I've trained him well...