This glorious fall weather means that we’ve been spending every possible minute in the fresh air and sunshine. Last weekend was all about the swinging bridge. This weekend we planted flowers. 
Took out the last straggling remnants of the marigolds from summer. Vivi chose flats of pansies in pumpkin orange and a purple so dark it looks black…for Halloween, of course. I bought blues and yellows, with just a touch of white to make it pop (another one of Big Gay’s lessons).
This whole family loves piddling in the dirt. Vivi busted up the dirt and mixed in some compost. Carlos was in charge of generalized cuteness. My six year old knows how to tear open the plant containers, cup the tender plants by the base, and spread the roots around before planting. I taught her how to arrange the snapdragons in the back because they grow the tallest, the pansies in the center to fill in and some bright gold Creeping Jenny along the edge of the box so it can trail over the edge.
She’s clever, but she’s also six, so the attention span lasts about fifteen minutes. After a while she left me to finish up planting the boxes. She wandered off to play with her newest toy–a LEGO Chima figure that she’s been wanting for two months. 
It’s Cragger, the crocodile king who has turned bad after his best friend Laval, heir to the Lion Tribe throne…oh, I can’t remember what happened but the crocodile is mean and the lion is good. Here’s Cragger and Laval. Laval has attached his Chi sword to Cragger’s tail in a strange Dr. Frankenstein move. I love that it’s never dawned on her that Chima is a “boy” toy. It’s in the fierce warrior aisle at Target, not the little mama aisle. We’ve got stuff from both aisles.
So when your daughter ends up playing with warrior action figures and flowers, this is what you get: a Crocodile King who is probably a vegetarian so he chooses marigolds and chrysanthemums for dinner. Doesn’t he look vicious?
Carlos opted for the traditional gender-neutral pastime: dumping a giant bucket of dirt on his head.
I think I like Carlos’s pastimes the best, he’s really getting into it.. Never did like those ‘figure’ toys, Barbie or the super heroes, but Wes had me fix a handkerchief parachute on one so he could drop it over the deck rail. Also had an eye screw at the top of the basement steps. He put a string on it and Spiderman could slide down – I guess he had one of the first zip lines. (That eyescrew is in my jewelry box, couldn’t just leave it at the old house. They probably wouldn’t know what to do with it.)
I liked it that the macho good guy with a past in ‘Under the Dome’ was named Barbie.
I wish I could do the planting, but when I get down it’s too hard to get up, so my daughter has to come and change plants for me. It’s fun though, I can still do the walking around stuff, and we get to spend time together. I just satisfy my need for growing plants on the porch and in windows. There’s always a way.
Great post!
Thanks! Looks like you know A LOT about gardening!