We started out this week on Monday with a 2 mile walk in the sun. After sweating thru that, Noah declared he needed a haircut. So out came the clippers and he went from this...
...to this. I think it makes him look even older (gulp!).
For the summer, the boys have behavior charts with skills they need to work on. If they earn the expected number of stickers, they can get rewards. This week it was a trip to the Oberweis in Schaumburg with a splash pad.
Isaac has really settled into a nice schedule. He is sleeping through the night consistently now and takes great naps too. He loves being out in the shade so long as it's not too hot (the fat rolls get sweaty) or too windy (he holds his breath when the wind blows too hard, ha!).
We've been having our fantastic nanny, Laura, come over once a week so that I can get some errands run and do fun things with the older boys. This week we hit our local pool and of course had to get some Spiderman ice cream.
The pool is the perfect place to make such a sticky mess. Easy clean up!
So then on Friday, we did it... We hosted the MUD PARTY! As my good friends, Michelle and Philie and I have descended into the darkness that is Pinterest, we decided we needed to plan out some of the bigger kid projects together. So we picked 3 dates in 3 months (June, July, August) and decided we would each host 1 event. We have very basic themes June - Mud/bugs/messy play; July - Bubbles; August - water. The idea is that we would try all the big projects together that you would never be brave enough to do on your own. We invited some other friends and suddenly it became 120 pounds of dirt and 13 children under the age of 6. Whoa baby!
We started out with snack, ants on a log...
There were 4 pools. The dragon pool with water, one blue pool with wet mud, one blue pool with dry dirt, and one baby pool with water. Things quickly went from this...
... to this where all the mud was just combined everywhere. IT WAS AWESOME!
I think Hugo (who is around 18 mos) takes the award for MVP of the mud. He was the official taste tester, good stuff!
Leo (who just turned 1) secretly crawled off and was in the pool in his clothes and sandals before anyone stopped him. Hilarious!
The 6 mommies just let them play. We had great aspirations of structured play and lessons (literacy plans, science plans, art plans). But when you get into it, the kids do the best when they just play! And that's what they did.
Sam was very into the wet mud play!
Ari and Evie were into the worm area, finding worms and chatting with them as they carried them around the yard.
You know you are doing it right when this is what the "clean" pool looks like. Connor rocks it!
We had a "mud kitchen" set up where the kids could use utensils to make things. But mostly they enjoyed carrying water from the pool to add to the dirt.
The girls (who were highly outnumbered) preferred to try out the art area. We had tire track painting, and egg carton bug making.
Erin W wins the award for coolest mom as she created the impromptu water slide. I'm sure this will be a steady fixture in the backyard now!
We managed to feed all 13 kids (10 big kids and 3 infants) on the deck. It was surprisingly not too chaotic. The kids all got along pretty well, considering they didn't all know each other. We finished up lunch just in time before some storms rolled in.
How do you clean up after an epic dirty playdate? Why, a 4 boy shower of course. And mother nature did a number in the yard washing away most of the dirt/mud!
We played inside for awhile before folks headed home. Leo spoiled Ellie by sharing some veggie sticks. Look at his "I got away with it!" grin!
Isaac did very well too! He slept most of the morning when we were playing and then hung out with all the gals after lunch. Piper did a great job holding him, especially since he's more than half her size the buddha boy!
So we survived our big playdate. I think we'll definitely considering hosting another one next year. It was a blast. This weekend we just hung out and did the usual stuff around the house....
Yep, I'm pretty sure I'm raising 4 boys. But what can I say, I LOVE IT!
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