What Did I Forget

All week I have been trying to figure out where this "what did I forget" feeling. It dawned on me this afternoon that we forgot free zoo day. I'm hoping that is all it was. I feel like a slacker when I drop the ball. I don't do it often, but once is enough right?.
And my question of the hour, why is it, that when you let you kids have friends over to play, they end up doing something they wouldn't do other wise. Every time my kids, no, boys, have a Friend come play, they end up building a fort out of yard scraps at the front of the yard. What is wrong with the back end of our yard, where every car that drives past our home doesn't look at our house and say, "wow, what a dump" Can you build your forts on the side yard, or in the back?Their forts consist of card board pulled out of the recycle can, sticks from the tree we cut down, pavers left over from the patio we pulled up the first year we lived here (we were going to use those to make a path through the herb garden I want to put in, but now they are broken because the kids have hauled them all over the yard. Or they are lost and scattered) and the Tera cotta pots and other planters from our patio. All hauled out to the front of our house and heaped into a big ugly pile. Why also, does it take them 1 hr to do this, then they are bored. And 6 hrs of nagging begging and threatening, then finally doing the rest myself, for it to get cleaned up. Why do you ask them to not do that, then the next time their friends come over, and they feel like doing it again, out everything comes again.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not mad. I let them do it because it keeps them busy, and I like that the neighbors think our yard is fun. I would rather kids here than my kids out running the neighborhood. But could you please not dig in the one spot of lawn we have, or in the dirt I am getting ready to put grass into this year. We have .5 and acre, pick someplace that i haven't put hrs into getting ready for plants or seeds. Or if you do go out and play in the mud, DO NOT COME INSIDE!. I will hose you off outside. That is the price for playing in the mud. Fun stuff always has a downside. If you don't want your children coming home muddy, let them know or me know before you send them. I usually will let them go roll in the mud. In my opinion, it's still too cold to even want to, but a 7 year doesn't seem to notice.
Will all of that change when we don't have mud and yard rubbish to scatter and play in? Maybe. Is mud ever a bad thing? Only when tracked into the house. Are sticks and cardboard really that bad? I guess not, it just looks like we have a few kids living here. Someday, we won't have those things, and I will miss it. I am grateful for a yard, and the dirty kids who enjoy it.
Now, I'm done complaining.