SPLASH!!!! Mud Puddles

Oh what beautiful weather today!! This morning there was thunder and lightening that made me think we would lose power. The lights flickered and the rain came down. Ben lamented the fact that it was too cold to go splash in the beautiful puddles. Playgroup at the park was cancelled, so we invited friends to our house. Erin came with Ella and Stephanie brought Margo and Penny. We enjoyed the morning holed up in the basement staying dry. By the time they left at about noon, the rain had stopped and the sun was beaming. Once again, Ben mentioned how sad he was to not get to splash in the puddles.

Why not? I thought. It's toasty warm now. The sun feels fantastic. Up to his room we went. We dug through all the boxes of old summer clothes to find dark colored shorts for both Ben and Maddie and then found some sandals and out we went. They had a ball!! It was fun to watch them get a running start and splash mud all over the place. Sitting on the front porch I got wet a time or two. They were so happy. Most the time they would start their approach back at the steps one house away. Maddie must have figured if a little bit is good, more is better. She went four houses down to get her running start. She ran for all she was worth until she got to the stairs. She stopped, climbed carefully down the stairs, then ran for all she was worth again. I couldn't stop laughing. Her little legs are so small that it took her three steps to run through the puddle, so she never missed. She is too cute.

Ben would go back to the steps to get his running start. He would run as fast as he could and jump into the puddle...or over it. He totally missed the puddle about a third of the time, landing on the grass on the other side. Then he would continue running until he got to the middle of the field, with is little shadow (Maddie) following close behind in fits of laughter. They had so much fun playing follow the leader and getting really, really dirty.

I came out to supervise and brought Jacob in the bumbo to enjoy the show. I couldn't find a hat and didn't want to bother with sun screen for such a short time. I did what I could do, but I'm gonna have to rummage through our stuff to find something better for him. I don't think he'll let me put a burp rag on his head much longer.