Happy Dam Birthday

We began a family project of sorts on my birthday.  Building a dam.  And yes, the day was full of dam jokes.  Those near swears just never get old for my husband.  My contribution was mostly just moral support and photo documentation.  All the heavy work was done by Shaggy and J.

We have a little stream that runs through our property.  The amount of water it holds is completely dependent upon the weather.  Sometimes it's nearly dry.  Shaggy decided he wanted a more dependable secondary water source.  And J was dying for a frog pond.  So they set out to design and build a nice, sturdy dam.  It started out with an island in the middle, but the dam thing worked so well that the island was submerged.  (You shouldn't have gasped, that was not a swear word!  Don't you know how to spell?)

These boys seemed to have entirely too much fun getting muddy.

Thank goodness for mud boots.  Now if we only had a mudroom . . .

J was a pretty good worker, as long as he got to use tools.  Though he probably distracted much more than he helped since he simply WOULD.  NOT.  STOP.  TALKING!

At least he took his sawing seriously.

And he was mighty proud of that deliciously smooth cut.

But I think his favorite part was packing down the dam mud and balancing on the dam sticks

These two make a pretty good dam team, I must say.

And R, as the ultimate tag-along kid, helped a little bit, too.  

Fortunately, she was good at both staying out of the way and entertaining herself.

Before the trio was even done working for the day, they had found a froggie trying to stay warm in the leaves near his remodeled home.

And then J was off searching for more.

This girl kept coming to check on the progress and ask questions.

But she couldn't be persuaded to join the dam project.  She liked keeping her distance from all that dam mud.  Sort of reminds me of this day.

But she totally redeemed herself by making me several homemade desserts for my birthday.

 She has some talent in the kitchen, this girl of mine.  

Baby B was preventing any and all photos of the baker and her cake, so we caved and traded a piece of cake for a moment of calm.  And after the kids and I had scarfed a few bites, we decided that maybe we should take at least one picture of the birthday girl herself.  B invited herself along to help me hold the cake board.

All in all, I think I can chalk this one down as a pretty good dam birthday.  And it's quite likely that it's the only dam birthday I'll ever have.  Which is ok by me.  Because I only like near swears half as much as my dam (building) husband.