Backyard Fun

Have I said yet that I love spring? We've been outside so much, and the kids love it. I've been trying to do fun stuff to keep them amused. We've been playing a lot with water. The water table is filled up every day. They love to play with it, and it keeps them cool.

And they've been playing with the water ball. Samuel mostly just stands next to it trying to catch the water in his mouth.

 

And we've been playing with ice lately, too. I froze a bunch of "treasures" in a container. I made one for each of the kids, but it kept Elena busy for a lot longer. Samuel wandered off after awhile, and then he came back occasionally. Here's Elena trying to dig out some treasure. There were buttons, beads, bracelets, gold coins, etc. 

I gave them salt and squirt bottles with water. We've done a few ice projects since this time, and we've learned that ice cream salt works better than table salt and is a lot more fun. 

Elena was so excited every time she got something out of the ice, and she's been carrying all the trinkets around for days now. Her jewelry box is now her treasure box.

One day I put mud in containers for them to play with.

 

The table looks pretty messy here, but the kids stayed surprisingly clean. Elena had no mud on her, and Samuel just had some smeared on his clothes, but I just stripped him down before going inside.

 And they play on the wiggle car. Elena loves it.

 

Our outdoor space has been great for them this year. Not long ago we had no lawn back there, and I can't imagine going back to that.