first day of summer... mud baths

Woohoo! First day of summer vacation, here we came! And much to the chagrin of Punk and Peanut, it will be another two days of early mornings before they can "sleep in" and enjoy their summer break. Oh well, sometimes, you just need to roll with the punches. And the "punches" around here this weekend is a play date with friends, Sweet Pea's soccer game and our Sunday morning "up and at 'em" biking routine. 

But for today... we ended up turning a fun in the sun/picnic style play date into a no holds barred mud bath play date. And it ROCKED! So many parents nowadays seem to have serious issues with good clean fun. My kids are not being raised to be "indoor" children and so I  see my fair share of dirty faces, muddy hands and feet, scraped knees and elbows, and the like. Its so refreshing when you make friends with someone during your pregnancy (in the colder months) and then find out that they too prefer the outdoor life.

We started off with the kiddie pool filled for the bigger kids (Sweet Pea, A, E and N) and then the water table filled for the littles (Pork Chop and D). But Peanut wanted to play too and thought that it would be more fun to set up the sprinkler, which A and E seemed to enjoy. N and Sweet Pea stuck more to the sand box until they realized that their beloved rocks and sand were getting "hot" and could benefit from a cooling drink from the hose. At this point, all heck pretty much broke loose.


They started a mud pit near the side of the house but it quickly moved to the other side where there was more room. Soon, the pool water was muddy and so was the water table. Pork Chop and D abandoned their play to hide in the shade while the older ones (including Peanut) had a grand time rolling, splashing, stomping, building and bathing in the muddy track.


Five kids that normally let you know when they have missed a snack, let alone a meal, all played happily right through both. It wasn't until I checked the time that I discovered that it was nearing Pork Chop's nap time which meant that we were an hour late for lunch. Whoops! With a muddy yard, it quickly became time to bathe everyone (but Peanut) in the laundry tub, assembly line fashion, sit them at the kitchen table (amid squeals of protest about leaving their beloved wet dirt) and then home for some and naps for others.


All in all, I think that today was a total hit for kicking off  the beginning of summer break 2012!