Matthew, our mowing machine

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Matthew. I wish I could reach into the picture and hold this ball of energy one more time!

Who would have thought that this picture would be a sign of things to come?

Here is Matthew with Bryon right after Matthew's 1st grade year. It was his first opportunity to "mow" with Bryon's close supervision!
Last year, Matthew started taking over responsibilities with the yard, but this year, it is HIS responsibility! This is not because Bryon is a slave driver, rather, that Matthew adores the work. This makes perfect sense to us, since Matthew is the hardest working kid we know, plus Matthew absolutely loves the exercise and being outdoors. He mows the yard several times a week while Bryon is at work.
One day, Matthew, our budding entrepreneur, saw a terrible looking yard that had a for sale sign in the front yard. Matthew told me later that he had taken down the realtor's email address and had written her, "a very professional email". I was very curious what that email said, so I found it:

Dear Ms. ***,

My name is Matthew Barnhill. I am very good at mowing yards. I live at ***. That is just across the street of the house that you are representing. I am about to be 12 years old in a few months. I mow my yard once or twice a week. Just this last week, I mowed and weed whacked three yards in two days. One of them was mine, one of them was my uncle's, and the last one was a widow's overgrown yard. I also weedwhack with string trimmers, and edge the yard. After that is all done, I blow off the sidewalk with my Stihl Big 5000. As you can see, I am very devoted to my work. I am also very different from a lot of other people in that I enjoy doing it. I went to your website to find your e-mail address, and I happened to see that you are a very experienced relator. It would be an honor to work for you. I work for $15 each time a mow. $10 of it goes to me, while $5 of it goes toward the gas that powers all of my tools. My number is****, and my email address is**** Please contact me to see if you are available tomorrow.

I'm so proud of my hard working son, and look forward to years of pretty lawns! ;)