Shelly found an exercise bike

At least it's good for pictures, if not much else...

Now to fix Jim's lawn...

Once the driveway was in, it was time to fix the lawn from that huge pile of, well, lawn.  Dirt was removed and surprisingly underneath the pile of dirt and grass, was dead grass and more dirt...

Jason loves helping Grandpa!

They took grass from the edge of the lawn by the garden

and used it to patch the dead stuff in the middle of the lawn

I'm not sure flip flops are the best shoes to be wearing when working with shovels,

but that doesn't seem to stop Jason.

Shelly loves to help too.

Emily loves to help, but she ends up being more of an observer.

Some day she'll be able to actually be helpful!

But until then, it's still Grandpa doing most of the work.

Jim's New and Improved Driveway

Uncle Jim has had a hard time walking recently, and he's needed to park close to his house.  There's not really anywhere for him to park near the house except on the lawn, so it was decided that he needed a bigger cement area to park his car, both for the sake of his walking, and for the sake of the lawn and the sprinkler system (he ran over a sprinkler head and there was a constant puddle of mud where he regularly parked).  So, this weekend the plan came to fruition.   The grass got cut away, the frame in place and the gravel down.  All that was left was the cement.  And some 'help'...

 I'm not sure there was supposed to be a stake there...  :)

 Last minute leveling of the frame

 And, the peanut gallery

 We're here to watch

 and observe

 and otherwise mock

 Playing in the big pile of dirt and grass that was removed up to make room for more cement

 Cousin It and dirt are good friends...

 Some last minute work before the pouring begins

 Annie looks like she found something worth staring at on the blanket - probably a bug

 Emily loves helping with Annie

 It's actually really fun to watch

 Here - I'll show you!

 Giving Annie her pacifier

 We're pretending that didn't just hit her in the face...

 And that Annie actually wanted the pacifier

 Head pat!

 Look!  Emily has a face!

 Ok, this is a lot of these pictures...

 tucking Annie in...

 Where's the baby?

 She's so proud of herself for making the baby disappear - this might be a clue as to why she loves to 'help'...

 And let the cement pouring commence!

 From this point, everyone who could operate a camera was covered in cement, so there's little pictures of the process, but we got some fun ones of the end result

 Apparently Grandma wanted handprints of her grandkids on the cement - just ask her.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that there were already handprints in the cement from kids playing where they weren't supposed to...  Nope, definitely not that...

 Ethan's hand done and on to Shelly

 And Jason

 Emily took some work

 and some pressure

 but with help, she finally got it

 the cement was drying and needed a bit more moisture so it wouldn't set before we were ready

 The poor men were working so hard, but seemed a bit overwhelmed.  All I had were sandals, so I kicked them off and jumped in to help

 The kids had fun with the water (who's surprised?)

Watching the workers finishing up

 Final touches

 Annie got to put her feet in the cement

 She was excited.  

That's her excited face.  

Just trust me on this one.

 All the grandkids!  Really, if you think about it, this is all of Grandma's family who didn't grow up in her house (yet)

The cute part of the final product!