Beautiful Day

   It was a beautiful day here today.  Mid 70's and sunny with a bit of wind.  Ahhhhh...  The boys and I took a walk around the block this afternoon then stayed outside until Da got home.  I got the little garden around the tree in the front weeded and J got some vitamin D while C took a nice nap.  I love playing outside, always have.  I remember spending the majority of my time outdoors when I was a kid and thanks to my mom's ever present camera I have pictures to look back on from my many adventures.  Making mud pies, leaf pom-poms and flower soup was my favorite!  I can't wait till we own a house again and I can make the kind of garden that I grew up with.  There was something blooming in every season and enough flowers that we could pick and pick and pick and there were still plenty left for the yard to look beautiful.
    I'm not sure what to do with J when we play outside.  I seem to have forgotten how to play.  I guess my mentality is to always be doing something engaging where J seems to be perfectly happy walking up and down the hill.  Maybe I can learn something from him.  We have some big chalk and Da put some stepping stones down to use as his canvas but J hasn't been too interested in that yet.  I think I'll introduce him to frying pan bubbles.  We didn't have fancy pre-made bubbles with a plastic blower when we were growing up, we had a frying pan full of water & dish soap and a wire coat hanger bent into a circle.  Can't beat those bubbles!  It's supposed to be in the 70's-80's through next week, I think it will be perfect weather to make them!
   I think J would really enjoy making mud pies, I wish we had some better mud.  Anyone know where I can find some of the old mini pie tins?  I seem to remember having them once upon a time.  Speaking of mud, they have little kits for making mud food at the toy store.  I think it's a pretty cool idea.  I really like the icing piper.  I've got so many icing tips I could just make one for J to use, just need the tip and a ziploc.  Oh, and mud.  We really don't have good mud at this house.

What was your favorite thing to do outside when you were a kid?