Spring into Summer!

It has been hot, hot, hot here this week! With the temperature in the 90's for 3 days in a row what else do you do with a house full of kids but have a water play day of course! The kiddos loved it. I have a little pond with sprinklers that fills with about 2 inches of water and a water play table. I put the kiddy slide going straight into the water and they splashed around for hours.

They put on swimsuits I had asked their parents to bring and were slathered with sun screen. They wore sun hats as well and since we were outside from about 9:30 am to 11:30 am the sun isn't that harsh yet and we didn't have any problems with sun burn.

They had so much fun we did it again the next day! I had to move our play area around to try and have equal flooding throughout the yard. Here are some pictures of our little set up:
















And the next day too:

My failed garden

I was so excited to attempt a garden this year. I started seedlings with the kids in February and went on to plant them in March. I finally talked my husband into giving me some room in our raised planter for the garden. We made nice rows with labels and everything. But...All of my seedlings have shriveled up and disappeared. Definitely bummed! I guess I will give it another go either by planting the seeds directly in the ground or I'll buy some plants at the store and see how they do. I never said I had a green thumb, but I still wanted to try. I remember growing strawberries and tomatoes as a kid. Yum. Hopefully I'll have better news in this area in the future.

Here's a picture of my nice, neat rows 10 days ago:

When naps go away...

I'm currently in a huge transition. My almost-3-year-old is giving up his nap and my 15-month-old is going down to one nap all at the same time. Wow!

My older son has never been a great sleeper and fighting him to take a nap hasn't been much fun. I'm hoping this change of schedule will help him fall asleep more easily at night and give him a longer period of rest. It worked last night. He slept for 11 hours which is amazing! Of course he fell asleep in the car on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa's house. It may need to be one of those 'hop in the car to go to sleep' kind of things until this schedule is firmly on the books. I don't feel like the best mother when I plunk him down in front of the TV for an hour and a half in the afternoon to give him something quiet and still to do when the other kids are sleeping. He's not one to sit and do anything for an extended time and for now this is his rest time.

As for the baby, yesterday he was able to stay up until my other day care kids took their nap at 1pm and he slept for 2 and 1/2 hours. Very good. He has been sleeping about 1 and 1/2 hours in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. This will be better. He still sleeps 12 hours at night! What a life saver!