Out of Doors

We’ve been playing outside again. Our back yard has really turned into an area we love to hang out. We’ve got enough to do that the kids never seem to get bored and their imaginations seem to soar when playing in that space.

Whoever lived here previously left behind large pieces of rock. They were just scattered around the backyard and I thought we might be able to do something with them. Tony brought them up under the deck and while Dakota napped, Harper and I arranged them into a “hopscotch”; what he’s decided to call it.

He loved arranging and rearranging each stone and then he played hop scotch until it was time to get Dakota up from her nap.

Don’t you love his outfit!? He chose it all by himself. It is so perfect! From the rain boots right up to the too small hat. Cutie pie.

Once we’d had enough hop scotching, it was time to play with some small rocks. Harper and Dakota both enjoyed gathering the rocks up in their buckets and then dumping them out to show me what they had.

Dakota found a water gun in the outdoor bin and asked me to put some water in it. I obliged her…and she took it straight over to where her brother was playing and tried to shoot him in the head with it. Too bad she was holding the wrong way and ended up squirting herself in the face!

So, you know how in the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, how one thing inevitably leads to the next…well, that’s what happened here. Once Harper discovered that Dakota was playing with a water gun, he too needed one. Then, when I filled the water guns up for them, it made them think of the water table we have on  the deck…

Of course both of them ended up soaked from head to toe with nothing more than their underwear/diaper on, but it was nearly 2 hours of happy play. No fighting, just two little kids having an amazing time playing in water. It’s funny how many hours kids can happily play in water. Harper was playing with the little people most of the time. He was making up all kinds of stories and using them to act out his ideas. It was awesome to watch. Dakota did what all toddlers her age do. She poured and dumped and splashed and experimented; it was great.

While they were busy I got started planting some of the flowers I’d picked up earlier that morning. I got my usual deck flowers: purslane, portulaca and bracteata. I bought several of each and I still need many, many more! I’m hoping to get back to the farm this weekend to pick up some more stuff to plant…I love this time of year for this reason alone!