Toddler + Gardening = A lot of dirt

At least it's organic...

And good thing we use rain barrels (to make up for all the water we use hosing down dirty kids)


It's spring in Texas and that means gardening. Gardening with a toddler, well, that means dirt. And laundry. and more dirt. I honestly can't complain though, I am glad my kids aren't afraid to get a little dirty. Or a lot.





Wednesday Follow-up:
Today I was clearing out another garden bed, and I dumped a bunch of the dirt into a big pile. Lenaïc thought he discovered Heaven and immediately DOVE in. Big Time. Seriously. You have never seen a kid so happy. I laughed, and went back to raking the garden bed. Then I saw them. Ants. FIRE ANTS. LOADS OF THEM. Inititally my thought was about how to deal with them in the garden (I've already got them in one of my compost bins). And then "Holy Crap! If they're here, they're in the dirt Lenaïc is now half-buried in."

I rushed over to pull him away, screaming. Not because he had ant bites, because he was mad to be denied his dirt heaven. I moved a bunch of dirt looking for ants. Didn't see any at first, almost let him keep playing, thinking I must have just skimmed the top. Then I saw them. Tons of them. So I had to distract a screaming Lenaïc fighting to get back to his dirt pile. We opted instead to wash the new (to us) trampoline. bouncing on that made him forget the dirt. More on the trampoline later.

Playtime

I think I'm going to get rid of all toys in the house.
All we really need is -
*boxes - all kinds, great for sleeping, hiding, using as a house for animals...
*tupperware/plastic containers - great for stacking, throwing, discovering (what's hidden in the cupboard?)
*metal lids for pots - great for making noise, er, music
*trash cans with lids - great for opening and hiding toys
*large plastic bins - great for sitting in while your friend pulls you across the yard
*rocks - many many uses
*buckets - great for filling with water (from the rain barrels) and all Mommy's landscaping rocks
*sticks - uses too numerous to count
*recycle bin with lots of newspaper and carboard - great for taking out and throwing around the room

furniture, blankets, and pillows...

And Friends


Kids' imaginations are endless

When there's a will to play, there's always a way....

Ok, so we did put a stop to it and said she couldn't play with the furniture like this, but I confess to being rather impressed with her creativity!

SNOW DAY!!!!

You Northerners and Swiss will laugh, but yes indeed, San Antonio had a Snow Day yesterday! It doesn't happen often, and it was really little more than a dusting of snow. Mostly the problem is the ice. This city has zero equipment to deal with snow/ice, and 99% of the drivers have no clue how to drive in it. Not to mention many kids don't really have appropriate clothing (so waiting for a school bus in 20F is not really safe). So it's easier just to shut down the city for a day.


As it turned out, the 2 days leading up to it were colder than the actual snow day. While it never got much above freezing, it was a glorious sunny day. Knowing many of Angelina's friends would be stuck at home, we decided to have an Open House - most could walk here, so no driving required. Over the course of the day we had about 12 kids beginning at 8:30 until 5pm.


They tried "skating" on the street using plastic bags, and were hoping to sled but given the only slope was the edge of the driveway, that didn't go anywhere.



Mostly, they just played with the ice and snow.


And this being San Antonio, just a few days before we were wearing shorts, riding our bikes to the park.