WV picnic

One of my favorite things about summer is the quantity of time that I can spend outdoors with my boys. I've never really been the "sit indoors" kind of girl and I highly doubt any of my children will be either. Thus, winter is rough. Extra rough. Coming from Florida, where outdoors is uncomfortably cold maybe one month a year, it's difficult to get cooped up for 4-5 months at a time.

The summer's constant outdoor activity causes two major things: dirty boys and a dirty house. I clean. I really do. But when all of us constantly come in and out, my floors become a disaster in no time flat. I mind, yes, but not enough to stop the fun that is causing the mess. 

One way of limiting muddy footprints and sand from covering my entire kitchen is to eat lunch outside. Now, I don't mean I find a cute quilt, wooden picnic basket, and red gingham napkins before frolicking off the the perfect shade tree. I grab the closest grubby blanket and toss it under the oak next to our house. This way, the boys can go outside and stay there from 10:00 until 1:00 when they come in, take a bath, and go down for quiet time/naps. Less traffic = less nasty. 

One "Picnic" last week.

 Menu:
-Whole wheat bread with strawberry cream cheese

-Yellow pepper with ranch dip

-raspberries

-water

Do you see the amount of sand on his tummy? It so nicely mixed with the slobber.
Don't mind the scratch on the side of his face. He bit the pavement when his legs wouldn't go as fast as his head.

 Peppers are so temptingly shaped like swords.

"Look, mommy, no hands." That's Graham's current philosophy on life. The more things he can do with "no hands" the better...in his opinion.

He got more water on himself than in himself, but he really needed to be a big boy like his brother and not use a sippy cup.

Graham was over his lunch and his water was gone. Next logical thing for him? Smash all the rest of the food into the green cup. That will be fun. Brother tattles.

 

Oops, mommy. 

I sorry.

Big brother enjoys someone else getting into trouble for once.

He didn't want to hear his mommy scorn him. He got it anyway.

Life is good. And so was the quiet time that followed our nice West Virginia picnic.