Day: May 16, 2018

Green Time: Go to the Park

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Sometimes the simplest moments with our kids can be the most beautiful, and this “Green Time” suggestion from our May issue of Ranger Rick Jr. was a reminder in just that!

The task? Simply to go to the park. This might sound like something you do with your kids anyway, but this time we made things different.

I deliberately chose a park without any facilities – no playground, no swings, nothing built up. Instead, we showed up with a blanket to sit on and only a few other goodies.

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Based on Ranger Rick’s suggestions, we brought along Travis’s tricycle to ride through the grass:

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A kite for flying:

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And a mitt and soft balls to practice playing catch.

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Nothing makes the afternoon better than an iced tea snack with mama. And reading a few Ranger Rick Jr. stories of course.

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We easily spent an hour in this park, just the two of us (and a new ladybug friend!).

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What’s your favorite (non-playground) park activity with your kids? Please share in the comments!

Wooden Spoon Garden Stakes

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Several weeks back, we got ambitious and planted a shoebox vegetable garden. I had little hope that our garden would yield real results, without deeper soil to transplant into, but that hasn’t stopped Travis from loving the vegetable stalks and leaves that managed to sprout!

We started to forgot what was what, so decided to make these cute garden stakes to label the veggies. If you have a real vegetable garden, make as many as you need to label all your plants!

I encouraged Travis to think about what each veggie really looked like, so he proudly painted up and down with orange for carrots:

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And with green for zucchini.

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On the other side of each spoon, I painted a slightly more recognizable version of each veggie. We had no red paint, or I would have added tomatoes as well.

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Travis very proudly planted the stakes in our small “garden”, which we continue to water. As always, it’s great to teach kids where their food comes from!

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