Natural Playscape

This is the most awesome playground I have ever been to. I might be partially drawn to it because it is the same concept the playground that my old center follows. Natural elements. No slides, no swings, just places for children to explore and use their imaginations. You can read all about this particular park here.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the natural building blocks made out of tree branches or stumps. Cut down to few inch thickness, sanded down a little. Great building blocks!

This was one of their favorite areas. A little maze of paths through tall grasses. I should have posted a picture of the kids in the grasses. To a 2-5 yrs old the grasses are pretty tall compared to you!

The absolute favorite: the pond. Between splashing, moving rocks around and playing in fountains, they could have played in this little space ALL DAY LONG! Until a fox snake joined the party and scattered everyone!

Fossil dig. Under all that sand there are several "fossils" that have been buried. The last time we were there Aidan was loving digging until he found the fossils. This time, he and his buddy brought their big dump trucks and were busy with the work of just moving the sand. :)

What do you think about this type of playground?


Here are a few more articles about this particular playscape:

http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/jester-park-natural-playscape-granger.html

http://www.kidsplayparks.com/spot_kid_friendly_parks_Jester_Park_Natural_Playscape_Granger_IA_80926.aspx

http://www.recmanagement.com/200905aw1e.php

52 Week Challenge

Week 27 of 52

I think it is going to take me a full two years to finish this one year challenge. Oh well. I am getting in more pictures, which is the whole point, even if most of the time my husband is rolling his eyes and thinking I am silly when I ask him to take a picture.

Here is a picture of me and Ella hanging out. This was taken shortly before we tried to go for a walk for the evening. I can tell because she doesn't have a huge cut and scratches all around her eye in this picture. You can read more about her clumsiness that night on my family blog here if you want. It is one week after she fell off her trike and lost a tooth though. Can you see that little gap in her top teeth that a two year old should not have? Yeah, that's my Ella. You can read more about that adventure here. I swear, I am going to have a full head of gray hair by the end of the month just because of this beautiful, happy, loving and very clumsy child.

Candy Land substitutes

Oh my poor neglected blog. I can't believe I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. Shame on me! Sorry guys.

I have had this idea in my head for a couple of weeks. Ella and I were playing with her dollhouse and I thought of a fun new way to use the people my friend made for the dollhouse. We decided to use them as our markers while we played Candy Land instead of the little red, green, blue or yellow people that come with the game. How much easier is that for my little Ella to remember which one is hers?! She just has to look on the board and see where "Ella" is. We had a lot of fun playing Candy Land tonight. :)



Oh, and not to leave Livi out, she got to sit in her highchair and play with grandma, papa and little Livi.

Addition to our washer fun

The other day I added our magnetic wands to our washer and viewtainer trays. The kids thought it was awesome that the wands picked up the washers.

Aidan in particular thought it was very handy. Much easier and less tedious than picking up each washer individually. ;)

52 Week Challenge

Week 26 of 52

This just feels like a repost of last week's picture to me, even though it isn't. But another shot of my and all my munchkins, as they are almost always all around me. Sometimes it drives me crazy that they are always right on top of me, but someday they will be all grown up and not want to cuddle with mama. So I will try to remember that and enjoy their cuddles while I can. :)

Playing with washers, again

I know I already posted this idea that I stole from my friend Emily. But I finally made it over to Menards and found the little containers she used and picked up a few. They are called Viewtainers. I threw a bunch of washers on some trays for the girls to work on this and Olivia LOVED it!

She is at the perfect age for wanting to dump and fill and that really is her favorite thing to do right now. Getting the washers to go through that little slit is good fine motor work for her and she is happy she can see where they go since the containers are clear.

She just looked so cute doing her work I had to share the project again! Thanks for letting me share my sweet little girls with you!