"Penny of Time" Adventure: Happy Chalk Message for Dad & Helping a Neighbor

I am encouraging the boys to plan their own "penny of time" adventures.  They've always had an active voice in what they do for our daily service acts.  At the same time, I think that they are ready now to plan it from beginning to end.  I mean, they are 6 and 4 years old, already.  :)  (I am actually hoping to help them recognize their own moments of inspiration and good thoughts in helping others and be able to act on them when those moments happen.)

On Saturday, my 6 year old decided that his dad needed a special note of appreciation.  His dad never hesitates to: work hard, play with his boys, read books, play another game, and read another book, um, and play another game (you get the idea).

We are IN LOVE with leaving messages in chalk on the sidewalk.  We did for the first time when we celebrated my husband's birthday:  A Guy's 42 Acts of Service on His 42nd Birthday  (we had a great day of fun as a family celebrating our favorite guy like that).

We grabbed our sidewalk chalk, waited until he wasn't looking, and went to work writing on the end of our driveway.

This only took a couple of minutes (and we were especially proud of thinking up the lawnmower graphic).  And, his dad was so pleased, and his grin was so BIG!  (BTW, if you love the idea of happy messages in chalk, check out Sidewalk Revolution on Facebook  I was delighted to come across it today!)

 

 And, the chalk comes right off wth the first rizzle of rain or rotation of the lawn sprinklers.

 

Do you see this picture below?  This is a picture of my boys helping our neighbor unload grass from his truck.  And, then, do you know what they did?  They swept up all the debris, dirt, and dead grass after our neighbor was done transplanting the grass.  They filled up 3 bags with all that yard debris.  And, they did all of that WITHOUT being asked!  These boys are learning to recognize when work needs to be done and have the stamina and motivation to finish it.  (Wish I had pictures of the boys in action here but didn't want to be too weird with taking pictures of my neighbor!)