Making a MESS is the BEST!

 Graham and Parker had a lot of fun this afternoon in our outdoor play environment. When we were on our way inside to get cleaned up, They said to me "this was the best day ever!" I love when I hear that! They say this pretty often, but it still counts each and every time!! I am glad that almost every day is the best day ever to them!! The focus today was on our water play cove. We love every part of our outdoor play environment but today we mainly used the water play cove. They also played in the sand table and sandbox, and on the trampoline.



I cooked a $1 package of pasta from the dollar tree, then I separated it into several bowls to color it all. I used rubbing alcohol and food coloring to dye the pasta. Then I stored it in the fridge in several gallon ziploc bags so it would be fresh and ready to play with today. I bought $1 bags of brown rice cereal from wal mart as well as canning funnels. We already had the other funnels, measuring cups, etc.  I also had scented body wash from the dollar tree there for them to make scented soapy water in the water tables. One water table had water beads and silly squares in it. I like to keep mirrors at the water tables, they enjoy them outdoors as much as they do indoors. The mirrors used here are acrylic mirror trays from Discount school supply.

A few days ago, I cut up a few of the fun noodles for our water play area, they are ones we used over Summer of 2012. They were sun faded and this was a great way to re-purpose them! I save a lot of various water bottles, soap bottles, face wash bottles, pasta sauce jars, etc for outdoor play too!

I do have to wash everything every well 1-3 times per month. I try to keep everything they use, including the water tables very clean.

They had a lot of fun playing with the water ramp that I recently made for them, I had an extra piece of acrylic and we used that in the large water table as kind of a see through mountain. They love it! We also have a lot of fun accessories out there like tongs, scoops, measuring cups of various types and sizes, water pitchers with spouts and a brita, We also have a lot of fun Science and Kitchen play items in our water play cove too!

Our foam mats have become very weathered looking over the past 4 years but they are still in very sturdy shape. You will find lots of dirt, paint stains, leaves, and mud all over our backyard play environment but I think you will find that in most backyards. If I spent time bagging up leaves that blow around every day and scrubbing all the pain and dirt off the mats, it would not leave much time for all of the fun stuff I set up for my twins. So hopefully the natural state of our backyard does not offend anyone.

I am really glad I keep the outdoor toys and accessories very clean because they kept eating the cereal that was for playing with!  LOL

Oh and if you were wondering, are those bubbles?  Yes they are bubbles! I had our bubble machine going!  ;)

Be sure to check out the captions under each photo for descriptions!!

brown rice cereal, measuring cups, scoops, and canning funnels

dyed pasta, tongs, bowl, rake, and canning funnel

scoops, funnel, plate, colander, recycled water bottles-filled, water beads and silly squares

water ramp, sliced pool noodles, water containers with spout, bowls, funnels,
bottles with colored water, tongs, shaving cream

brita, clear tube, measuring cups, recycled pasta jars, bottles with water, waterway pipe builders from Lakeshore

soapy water, big sponge, people and animal toys, and a piece of acrylic

Science stuff, test tubes, pipettes, funnl, tiny funnels, cocktail stirrers, recycled bottles with colored water in them, shot glasses and shooter glasses in a recycled paint set container from sargent brand florescent paints