I almost finished mulching the yard today--almost, but not quite.   I realized, not soon enough, that my kids were undermining all of my efforts to beautify the yard, and so I packed up all of my garden tools and headed back into the house.

Man, I was furious with those rats when I realized what they'd done.  I'm still pretty annoyed with them, but in retrospect I'm also impressed by the amount of damage they did in such a short time.  They jumped in mulch and covered themselves with black soot.  Jude tore up the lawn and showered grass all over the beds I had just mulched.  Virginia made a "pool" of mud for her and Jude to paint themselves with.  And then they both snuck into the house to clean off.   All of this in under an hour.

And so, the garden is again left unfinished (I've been working on it for a week), but my house is sufficiently covered in mud and soot.  Aaaaaaahhhhhh.  I don't even know where to begin cleaning.  Perhaps that's why I'm typing instead of mopping.

Here they are shortly before they perpetrated their crimes.

For all of you parents of young kids, I advise against dark mulch.  Way, way too much work in the long run.