Backyardigans

My kids love to play outside. They, mostly Emma, will plant gardens with apple seeds, paint rocks, build bird feeders, and climb Aspen trees. Many a mess has been made outside (and inside) the only difference is that I might not know what the kids are up to until days later.

I'll admit to having a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to the kids and playing outside, except when it comes to cleaning up the messes. I'm not sure who showed Emma how to turn on the hose, but that was never a good idea. Water and Emma have a mud hate relationship. She walks outside and *poof* she is covered in dirt/mud.

I can remember Mom yelling at us kids to "Go Outside and Play!" This is perhaps where my attitude for playing outside comes from. We would disappear outside and find endless ways to entertain ourselves. I made it through my childhood alive, maybe my children can too. I remember playing for hours in the empty field next to our house. We tried to dig a pit big enough to make a swimming hole. The pit was probably three feet deep before we got tired and distracted.

The Cherry tree by the house had the best climbing limbs and the best cherries. There was a branch near the top the was the shuttle command when the tree became a rocketship or the crow's nest if the tree was a pirate ship for the day. When the cherries were finally ripe, spitting cherries was a talent that had to be practiced. Those seeds can go pretty far.

It's almost summer, at least it felt like it today. I'm looking forward to the fruits of summer.