The Deck

Since the weather has warmed up and the sun is shining (well, ok, for only one day this week, but I'll take it...) I got out all of our outside toys and reestablished the deck as our primary play space. In the span of several months, I had kind of forgotten how nice it is for the kids to be able to play in the sandbox, slide, and just mill around the backyard. I also did a little shopping. WalMart is not my favorite place ever, but they have some CHEAP toys. And by cheap, I mean inexpensive (well, and probably of low quality, but who cares!) We ran into a little snag with our bubbles. The kids are really past the point where they like for me to blow bubbles for them to chase around. They want in on the bubble action. The main problem here is, they don't quite get how to blow the bubbles. Drew has a hard time understanding that you don't put the bubble wand IN your mouth (or your tongue through it, or bite it...) So, the whole bubble thing was pretty much on my nerves. UNTIL. Until I found the bubble fun pack at WalMart for a whopping $5. In this fabulous fun pack are several little tools that make bubble blowing easy for the 2 year old set. You just dip one end in the bubble mixture, ("miracle" bubbles they are called. This week I'm sort of inclined to believe it...), put the other end in your mouth and blow-voila-little bubbles everywhere, with the added bonus of ecstatic two year olds. I swear we played bubbles for a total of an hour and a half the other day. That may not sound like much, but for two kids who rarely do anything for more than 7 minutes-it was amazing.







We also had a little fun with some shaving cream. It has been about a year since I have done this activity. I think it takes about that long to forget what a hassle it is!! The kids liked the idea of doing it, but didn't like having it on their hands. Hmmmm....Once I got my hands in there they were a little more inclined to get messy, but too much glop on them, and they were whining for me to clean it off. Since we were outside it was super easy to clean up. The only downside is that we all smelled like cheap men's cologne!!






And check this out!! Lovely decorations, huh? It's just a good thing it was on the screen door and not my newly scrubbed glass one!!


You might notice in the shaving cream pics that things are looking a little damp. It's because it had been raining-a lot-just before we went out. But, I figured as long as it wasn't actually raining...

It has been heaven for the kids to be outside. And Drew will actually play out there by himself in the evenings (with me VERY close by-never fear!!) Yes, you heard that right-I said the words "Drew" and "play by himself" in the same sentence. It's a miracle of nature.