Backyard!

Spring in Boston has been pretty cool and a little wet, but that hasn't stopped us from getting outside every chance we get! As you may have seen in previous posts, we've been enjoying a lot of time at the various playgrounds in our neighborhood. We have a "tot lot" 15 minutes in one direction, a beautiful big kid playground 15 minutes in another direction, and a park with lots of green open spaces that we frequented last summer with Vanessa & Oliver about 10 minutes away. When the weather cooperates, Derek takes S&Z to one of these outdoor spots in the morning and Julia also takes them out in the afternoon. If it's rainy or cool, Derek, Silas & Zoe go to "open toddler gym" at the Roslindale Community Center, or they stay close to home and play on the back deck or in the backyard. All this fresh air and activity makes for a couple of very happy kids these days!

Our landlord re-built our back deck last summer. The backyard is need of some TLC, but Derek got it cleaned up when my mom was here in April and we have been busy putting it to good use. The terrain isn't very flat, and at first the kids were unsure about getting back up once they had fallen.

But with all this time outside lately they're much more confident & keen to explore! We live on a very busy street so getting two toddlers out the front door and herded into the backyard can be a challenge. I decided to put our sheep & monkey "backpacks" to use for this purpose. The animals have a "tail" that I can hang on to in order to ensure no small children end up in the street. You can see that the yard is partially fenced in so once we get them back there they are pretty well contained (the pile in the back corner is compost that we've been working on the last few years).

 We're hoping to get a little slide, etc but for now they have fun just throwing balls around.

At a certain point they decide to make an escape, however, and that's when the backpacks come in handy! There is a huge step that slows them down before they make their getaway back up the driveway... This gives me just enough time to wrangle them and grab the tails!

Tomorrow we are going to a nursery to buy some annuals to plant in hanging baskets in order to spruce up the deck! We are soooo happy that winter is over and we are enjoying every minute of it!!!!

PS: I came home this morning from getting a pedicure and both kids were wandering around the house wearing their backpacks. Apparently they brought them to Derek in order to indicate they wanted to go outside! So glad they like them :)