Best laid plans

Today was a beautiful day so the boys and I took advantage of it and we all worked on some outdoor chores.  I started out giving each one their own assignment. 

O was sweeping the front porch, removing the cobwebs and picking the leaves out of the flower beds.

R was assigned the front yard.

And C and I were to tackle the side yard together.

Well crap. Where's C?

He ended up in the front. 

And then there were several fights.

And then everyone ended up everywhere and no one ended up doing anything. A cute chore list and tiny child-sized rakes didn't prevent this great idea from failing. 

So I scrapped the assignment and we all did all the areas together. We raked every inch of the yard and bagged it all up, ending up with five big bags.  They hated every second of it and protested the whole way. Until the last 20 minutes or so, when they accepted it and started making it into a fun game.

The kids ended up doing such great work that after our fantastic dinner of leftovers we all played a family game of Mario Party after showers and pjs and they all went to bed with no issue and on time. All's well that ends well :)