My Third Summer as a Popsicle Pusher

So begins another summer.  Last week I went to the store and bought a giant box of otter pops, and I know it isn't the last box I'll buy this summer.  What started out as a great way to get a certain little boy to leave my house, has morphed into a summer tradition.  And the kids all know it.  I am, for better or worse, The Popsicle Lady.

This year, the popsicles came with rules.  First rule is that they can't come up and bug me incesantly about getting a popsicle.  I'm hoping that the kids respect this rule, but I'm not certain they will.  The second rule is that I will no longer hand out popsicles to any of the kids if I find any of my flowers picked.  I'm hoping the lure of the popsicle mixed with kid peer pressure will save my blossoms.

Back story on the flowers:  I've been getting home from work each night to find my flowers picked and then abandoned in my driveway to wither and die.  It's one thing if you are picking my flowers to take home to your mom, but to pick them and just let them die?  Anger.

Anywho, there are two new little kids in our circle that moved in over the winter.  They didn't know about the popsicles, and we so excited to get them.  So excited in fact, that they took out my trash cans and helped me weed the front yard.

All this time I've been going about it the wrong way.  I was using the popsicles as a way to get the kids to leave, when I could have been using them to get yardwork done!  What have I been thinking?