Adding Pops of Color with Our Garden

Last week I wrote about some of my February goals, and how working on something one small step at a time will build up into more steps being taken, and eventually, you’re done.  Well, I took that February list and just did the things this past weekend.  Diabolo is running their #SwapSoda2015 campaign to take one thing and switch it up for something different.  For me, it’s getting things done because I have a whole laundry list of stuff to do.

Whenever I think up projects to involve the kids, I get a bit ambitious on what they’ll finish.  I shared this on Instagram two weeks ago and it pretty much sums up what life is at as a parent sometimes.

Worked on a painting project for labeling our fruits & veggies. Except both kids deserted me so I had to finish them lol. #FarmerDells

A photo posted by Melissa Dell (@melissa_dell) on Feb 8, 2015 at 12:01pm PST

Who else has finished their kids’ projects?  So one of the items for February was having them help with our summer garden.  I had 2 big projects to wrap up – planting all our veggies and finishing our front porch area.  I decided to have the kids each work on their own pot of flowers and I was really hoping they’d do the whole thing themselves.

Spoiler alert They Totally Did.

But let’s back up and see how we got there.  I had already sprayed the pots Rust-Oleum Satin Lagoon and Rust-Oleum Satin Eden (affiliate links) and I had leftover annuals from larger pots that are situated on the other side of the door.  I had the dirt for the kids, and some shovels and just gave them basic instructions. Get the dirt in the pot.

Eventually enough dirt made it inside for Aubrey to start planting. I told her to make a small hole and put one of the flowers in. She’s a pretty good listener when it involves getting dirty. Maybe that’s the parenting secret.

It was then Luke’s turn.  He got a lot of help from his big sister to have his pot full of dirt.  He was much more entertained calling out to the airplanes that flew above us.  But he did grab each flower and stick it in the pot.  Forget digging holes. Anyway to have them end up inside was a-ok by me.

After I got his situated and filled up with dirt, the fun part came – watering.  Water + Kids + Mud = too much for this clean freak! But they had a blast. Aubrey helped Luke whether he wanted it or not.

As you can see, he might have needed more lessons from Aubrey. But she did find a way to use the spilled water.

Once they were watered, Aubrey grabbed Luke’s plant and her daddy grabbed hers to carry it up to the front porch.

And you can see a sneak there of more of our front garden work.  I was super proud of the kids for sticking with the whole project this time, and even more proud of me for actually just getting it done instead of procrastinating and pushing off this really fun activity to another weekend, where I might have ended up just doing it since it can always be easier that way.

Thank you Diabolo for sponsoring this post, and encouraging us all to swap and do one thing.