outside houses

We're spending so much time outside these days our neighbors must think we've permanently relocated.  Our crisp dry winter is quickly becoming a warm dry spring. [I talked to a guy on Sunday who told me how much the farmers are worried about the dry weather affecting their crops and gulped... oops, I'm enjoying all this out-of-doors time with my littles but those farmers need rain.]

The big three have carved pieces out of the green space and created their own outside houses.  Kitchens, bedrooms, parking (for their bikes)... each little hillock and overhanging branch marking off some sort of boundary.  They even have sleepovers, moving from one house to another.  Its pretty awesome. 

(during a sleepover... good thing clothes are washable.  so are children, for that matter.)

In the course of a day we manage to pull every outside toy we own from our courtyard and leave them littered over a wide swath of the 'driveway' in front of our building.  

Even Luke has his own set of wheels these days... I spent about fifteen dollars on a cheap baby walker and thought he might enjoy some time out of the stroller (but restrained from crawling). 

Ohmyword, this is the best money I've spent in quite a while.  He's a good bit faster than I was anticipating, and covers more ground than I imagined, but he's just so very happy in it.  Even if he is a hundred feet down the path and quickly headed out of sight.  I can still run faster than he can move that walker :) 

Tonight Matt got home from work and took over watching the outside kids while Julianna and I headed in to cook dinner.  This semester Julianna is responsible for dinner on Tuesday nights.  Of course she still needs quite a bit of support from me, but she chooses the menu, writes down what we need to buy at the market, and works hard getting it on the table.  It won't be too many more years before she's doing it totally on her own.  I'll have to take pictures one week and write about some of the meals she's made.  She loves to work in the kitchen and it's a fun way for me to get some time alone with her.