Parenting Under the Stars

All the children are coming out of the woodwork around here and so are the bikes, skateboards and basketballs. Most of them are not even wearing sweaters. My kids don’t want to stop long enough to eat. I guess it’s been a long winter.

Muddy Messy Kids

With everything melting, it’s also very muddy so the mop is now near the front door ready for damage control. We’re not carpet people and I truly don’t understand how anyone keeps them clean. We have a couple mats by the door but they’re washable.

I was pleased to see Arianne keeping it real by bravely posting a pic of her home as it normally looks. I do run around like a mad woman cleaning up before someone arrives. This is part of the reason that I prefer people let me know they’re coming.

We have an extremely tidy family next door and I guess I just wasn’t on the ball fast enough for spring cleaning because one of the girls was raking our yard and consulting me on who owns what. I guess I was supposed to feel guilty because my upside down lawn chair and folded shopping cart reflected poorly on their pristine lawn.

Making the lawn chairs stand out

I swear I saw the neighbours scrubbing their plastic chairs for over an hour. Last year I painted mine all different colors. People have a habit of stealing those white plastic lawn chairs around here but this time they couldn’t do it without being caught because mine were bright yellow, green and blue.

They did get smashed up by the end of the year from our kids and their crazy picnics but they weren’t stolen. Our children love giving food away in the summer but we now have designated cheap picnic food figured out like popcorn and crackers.

This year I might make a couple of these seatbelt lawn chairs since those old aluminum ones are around and broken all over the place. They seem sturdy and easy to clean and you can fold them, stash them and still hose them down after the kids are done with them. See Wastelands of Suburbia for more on the sea belt lawn chair.