Golf Course in the Backyard

Our fun neighbors and swim team friends bequeathed upon my children a plethora of lovely hand me down toys yesterday. The kids were really excited about it too. They have two cute girls, so most of the toys involved pink which made Ben sad. One of the things though was worth a compromise to him. He's been really into golf for a while now. Brian built a quick jig for one of his building projects by nailing a long board to a stubby short one. It sort of resembled a golf club and Ben has been playing with it for months. So the neighbors gave us a "real" golf club (pink plastic and just his size). He was so excited this morning to go find a golf ball in their toys and head outside. In the process of finding the ball, he and Maddie got in a fight. Maddie hit Ben with a baby doll and her accompanying bathtub. Ben hit Maddie with his pink golf club. Both toys were confiscated until after lunch and kids sent to time out. Even without the cool golf club, Ben decided they should still prepare. They went in the backyard to scope out a great golf course for after lunch. After awhile, Ben came in to tell me he had the holes ready to golf. I asked him how he made holes. "Oh. I just dug them in the dirt area," was his reply. My eyebrows raised. We don't have a "dirt area" in our yard. I asked him to clarify to no avail. So I went outside to see what he was talking about. Sure enough. He had dug two holes in the "dirt area." The dirt area being the place where we have been trying to get our grass to grow for two years plus. The place Brian seeded this year so it would fill in. The place that gets great shade most the day. I saw two little holes and two little mounds of dirt on the sides of the holes. I guess I'm grateful today that our ground is sort of hard so the holes weren't too big. Since they were already there, I let it be. I just asked him to not make anymore holes in the "dirt area" because we were trying to get it to be the "grass area."