A Week Outdoors

Indiana is finally starting to thaw out a bit!  We’ve spent the last week outside during most of our waking minutes.  75% of the time the kids have gotten completely soaked.  We are still drying out shoes.  Yesterday I finally broke down and bought Emily and Nathan Tuffo Rain Suits and I am anxiously awaiting their arrival!  I think it will revolutionize our outdoor experience.

We’ve been heading to the Celery Bog multiple times a week lately.  Sometimes we go with friends and other times we go on our own meet really cool people.  It’s always a wonderful boost to our spirits.  On Friday we met friends there and the kids had a blast.  Nathan spent a half hour just stomping back and forth through a big puddle.  Things got really exciting when they discovered a shopping cart to add to their play.

On Monday we checked out Horticulture Park.  We had gone there a fair amount years ago when we lived at Purdue Village but the kids didn’t remember it at all.  They loved climbing all over fallen trees.  We ate lunch there and then the kids decided they wanted to walk to the playground probably .25 miles away along a busy road and through a parking lot.  They enjoyed playing house and it was nice to be out in the sun.

We’ve been going to Luna’s Park (it’s a nearby church playground that my kids call after our neighbor who went to preschool there) lots and lots.  It is a gem containing all sorts of fun: a sand pit full of sand toys, swings, a balance beam, a hippopotamus, a little house, a boat, a castle, and slides.  Every time we go they jump right into imaginative play and can spend hours there.  It is close enough to walk to (probably just under a mile one way) and today Emily scootered along. Today we stopped by the post office on the way and the kids were given suckers so we had a sucker picnic upon arrival.

Our own Richfield playground and surrounding area is getting a lot of use again.  I love watching the huge gang of little kids running around a place that is part of their home completely immersed in playing Mommy, Daddy, Kid, Baby – a game they’ve been playing for years. Today scooters were found by different dumpsters and they took turns riding and running along together. Emily told me during lunch that they had a family counsel about turns.

Nathan barely tolerates being outside in the cold, so today when it hit almost 60 degrees he was in heaven.  He didn’t wear his socks or boots during all of our afternoon adventures and loved feeling the wind in his toes.  On the way home from the playground he said he wanted to run with Emily.  This guy is normally an avid stroller rider and asks to be carried everywhere.  I was skeptical but let him out.  He insisted on not staying barefoot, emphasizing, “Not wear boots or socks! Never ever ever again!!” Nathan normally begs to go inside but today he really wanted to stay out and ride his car bike.  I think this spring/summer is going to be AMAZING for these two older kids.  Laura has been napping like a champ outside in the stroller and I’m hoping she keeps that up so we can live outdoors.