Leaf Project

Abby came home and announced that she had a leaf project due.  She handed me the paper with the instructions and we read over it together.  She had 5 days to complete her project and their were 17 different leaves to be found.  We started out on day one and found 4 of the 17 needed.  We felt pretty good about this and quit for the evening.  The next couple of nights our calendar of activities kept us busy and before we knew, it was the night before and we still had a ton to do!!!On the way home from work, I stopped at every tree and stole a leaf!  Now please understand....I know nothing about trees.  So with every leaf I picked, I was just hoping it would be on the list.  Once home, Abby and I got our supplies and instructions and went to work!  To our surprise, we had quite a few, but we were lacking 5 leaves on the list! 

By this time it was 9:00 at nite, and we decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if we could find what was needed.  We drove slowly, shining our flashlight on tree after tree.  Occasionally Abby would think she saw what we needed and would jump out, run into the strangers yard and pick a couple of leaves.  It became funny to us...mostly because we were tired but also because we felt like we were creepers stealing 2 leaf's off people's trees without their knowledge.  Instead of being frustrated that the project was not done and procrastination had won, we wound up laughing and laughing!  We did not finish our project until 10:30p.m. and even then we knew it was not our best effort.    You know what?  I don't care that we procrastinated this time.  And after a speech, we both knew we could have done better.  You know what I did like?  Spending one on one time with my 16 year old daughter.  Driving around neighborhoods looking for the perfect leaf and "creeping" through strangers yards to find them.  We talked, sang with the radio and laughed!  We made a memory.

It was a great nite!  I loved every moment of it!  Thank you Abby for including me....I had fun.  But next time....let's not procrastinate to the last moment.  :)