Play Houses & Mud Making

It's the end of a very busy first week back from Half Term, so we've had a very chilled out day today.  No formal work, the kids have played and been best mates all day - which has been lovely.  I really love how they spend hours chatting to each other now, and playing together. They still have their arguments of course but they are not at each others throats all the time and, nine times out of ten, they tend to resolve their difficulties between themselves. Great life skills! 

They played outside for so long I thought I would go and see how things were looking in their play house.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find it was not only decorated with flowers on the outside (cute :-) ) -

but that it was actually tidy on the inside too!! A miracle :-)

I am glad they are loving and taking care of this space we created for them.    We bought the play house when they were tiny. It had an upstairs as well then, which we have since removed as they got too big for it.  The ladder now goes up in to the apple tree and the platform has been made in to wheeled boards on casters that they slide around on, like body skate boards.  Waste not want not ;-)    We then bought a cheap off-cut of carpet for £10 and painted the inside and out with wood preservative paint last summer.  I love the 'beach house' look and they love having a new, more grown up club house.  They even have a little radio out there. It's so cute :-)

Thanks to this, it also means they spent over 4 hours just outside today - so I was able to crack on with lots of admin jobs while keeping half an eye out the window to make sure they were ok.  Of course they were fine, working co-operatively to dig a big hole they filled with water. They then used to clay they had dug out to make these - 

coasters and cups, apparently :-)   They absolutely having a 'rough area' in the garden they can dig, build and get messy and creative in.  It's a bit of an eye sore but it's their favourite bit of the garden :-)

What do your kids like to play in the garden? x