Sticks, mud and rain!

I've recently been really inspired by blogs like famiglia&seoul and Miss Courtney meets Bobo where they are trying to make sure they have time outside everyday.  I've realised that whilst I'm happy being a couch potato, maybe I shouldn't instill the love of indoors on my kids!  So, this is my new committment to have time outdoors everyday, proper playtime not just walking to and from pre-school.  Easier said than done given that it seems to have rained non stop here in the UK for the past month, so I've dug out the wellies and we're giving it a go!  Here's the results of week one......

Monday 7th May - starting small as Pa and Hubby took the boys to the park, so I actually got to stay inside for this one - yey!

Tuesday - I've been on the old pinboards and come up with a list of rainy day outdoors activities, stuck it on the wall and told the boys we're working down the list.  Whilst Bud was at pre-school Champ and I built a lovely stick den for fairies and then he spent a lot of time putting rocks in rows all very nice, controlled and not too messy!

Then Bud came home, we showed him our lovely fairy home and he suggested maybe dinosaurs should live there - fair enough - I go upstairs to get said dinosaurs and come back to find.....

... two little boys pouring water on their sun hats - I was not impressed!  After seriously considering calling a holt there and then on day two of our play outdoors, I decided that given they had already created a load of washing they may as well continue which ended up in Bud looking like this....

Wednesday - Determined not to be put off by the previous days antics I set up a few more explicit rules!  The point of going outside was to play not get wet!  I kitted them out a lot better in wellies etc and stayed with them!  It was raining so we got onto the first of our rainy day list - mud painting (the idea for this is from Let the Children Play).  We literally scooped up some mud, added some rain water and painted the toy car with brushes - why not!  There was some elaborate play going on here, apparently it was the Kings car and he needed it for a parade!  Their idea not mine.  Nobody got soaked and I felt very smug at a more successful activity and the rain even washed our efforts away making for a slightly tidier garden!

Thursday - After a bit of splashing in puddles we did some rain painting (the idea for this is from Sun Hats & Wellie Boots).  This is food colouring basically mixed with rain!  We painted on kitchen paper, which made for a soggy if pretty mess.

When we tried to pick up the pictures they fell apart so couldn't be kept.  Then the remaining 'paint' was mixed up and poured into puddles.  Another successful time outdoors even though it was raining pretty hard Bud then stayed out on his own for ages!

Friday - Weather was a bit better today and the boys enjoyed gathering sticks on the walk back from pre-school then making 'dens' out of them for toys in the squidgy soil.

Saturday - Weather was ok again so we had an improptu picnic in the park as a family.  I chased the boys round the trees, more picking up sticks, lots of games of tag and then an unexpected tennis lesson as there was a community event at the town tennis courts trying to introduce kids to tennis - free lesson, yes please!

Sunday - A visit to Granny and Granddads and a run about in their garden and a quick inspection of all the wildlife in the pond.

So I was pleased with week one outdoors, not all successful, but what play is!  More adventures to come!