Plastic Garden

Its been pretty well documented that I will never ever have a yard like Lythrum's (oh gosh, take a peek, her new flowers are totally swoon-worthy!). I love living vicariously through her, and sometimes wish I had the energy and wherewithal to attempt green (dandelion-free) grass, much less flowers but then I realize that it's not going to happen. Back when I still had delusions, I would pick out a pretty plant and all the while we were in the store and walking to the car, Jeff would be apologizing to the plant, basically giving it last rites.

He thought he was funny.

He can't grow green grass either!

Anywho, back to our plastic garden. It seems Danger Girl is getting more and more brave. So we decided, put all the energy to use and get her something to climb on! A couple of weekends back, Danger Girl and I ran out and purchased the end-all-be-all of plastic climbing goodness.Little Tyke's Expedition Climber. Now, it's rated for 5-10year olds, so we figured it was right up her alley. I am happy to report that she cannot climb it herself. She still needs help, and the slide is way too fast for her (which means that it will continue to grow with her, which was our hope). But, she loves for us to help her climb up (and then claps in success) and enjoys walking around on it, sliding down but ONLY if we are holding her hands. She is very clear on that after sliding down by herself and plopping her butt on the grass. This girl has a wee bit o' stubborn in her.

The first weekend was spent 'helping' daddy put it up. Needless to say, there were fewer four-letter words than usual, I was impressed. He was sure we needed to do something in the house, but once she realized that he was playing with colorful plastic things, she really really needed to be daddy's little assistant. By moving things for him. She's handy like that. Don't even mention power tools, when she found the drill even I knew it was time for us to head back inside and look for less dangerous things to do ... like build a towering basket pyramid, climb and then clap. Oh gosh, the gray hairs.

Back to putting it up. The pictures were just begging to be taken, so click away I did! (BTW, that last picture is with Emi and the cordless drill. I did take it from her, once I realized what it was, and that was when we went into the house!)

Now that the climber is up, we are out there usually several times a day for about 10-15 minutes at a time. I do think the time outside will lengthen as she is able to climb up herself. But for right now, she gets frustrated that she can't do it herself. Miss Independent.

Here are some photos from last weekend, she's getting so big and is still so darned cute!

So starts the beginning of our plastic garden. The second piece is already here, waiting for a hot day (we had a cold snap, which was nice .... cool 60's and 70's, which considering it was 100-103 this early in May made mama an unhappy camper!). As soon as it's hot again, daddy and Emi can put together the water table! Fun (and mayhem) should soon follow. Next on the list is a sand box. Can you picture how our backyard is going to be decorated? No flowers, sorta dead grass (but we really are trying!), and lots of colorful stuff.