6/52: Spring Preview

We had a spell of gorgeous days last week, so warm the kids were begging to get out the swimsuits! I refused, telling them it was only a "sneak preview" of spring, plus I'm not getting swimsuits out when the snow clothes still haven't been packed away... It's back to our normal February weather now, but they had a BLAST getting outside without coats (and sometimes without shoes...) during those days! Of course, it reminded me of how mud season will be here soon enough - that time when they have to change clothes multiple times a day because, yet again, they've made a poor decision and are covered head to toe with mud. Part of me wants to buy them waterproof rain pants to help with this problem, but I guarantee they'd strip them off and complain of being too hot, so I think constant laundry and eventually building an outdoor shower is probably a better bet!

They headed down to the "clay mines" to gather clay for sculpture-making. Obviously it's just mud, but it's clay-like mud so it works well enough, although it doesn't stick together for long. Cecilia was VERY pleased with her owl, and then devastated when she found her "bowl" smashed to pieces. The twins worked hard making a Calico Critter scene, only to find their creations smashed to pieces later, as well. Perhaps because they just look like lumps of dirt...

On one day, John Paul came inside devastated because none of the other kids wanted to play football with him. I promised to invite some friends over, and the next day we had 20 other kids over to play football (or their version, which sort of resembled football), throw food to the chickens, and generally run amok in the yard, enjoying the weather. Next time I think we need to stress more firmly that they should NOT go in the pond (the ice was just starting to break up and they tried to help it along, which ended in full-body immersion for a few. The pond is NOT deep, so I'm not concerned about anyone drowning, but that water is DIRTY!), but I'm considering just opening up our land for a free-for-all once or twice a month when the weather warms up, because these kids really thrive off of outdoor space and a lot of them are getting old enough where just a playground isn't interesting enough - they want to be able to build stick forts, and cut down trees, and climb the fallen ones, and just generally get messy!