It's finally nice out. I've kicked the kids out to blow the stink off more than one fair day this week. We've opened up "The Bistro" out back and we are gearing up for another fantastic summer. We cleared the porch, powerwashed and swept in sand. What remained of the sand was donated to the kids' play pit at the back of the yard. You can't tell me that kids today don't have imagination or that they are simple video babies. Creativity isn't dead in our kids. It's in there. I saw it.
Most days after school and homework, I have a gaggle of screamin, laughing sometimes fighting children from various homes in the neighborhood. Although it is very stressful at times, most days I enjoy it. This was one of those times. At the end of my yard in the sand pit were five or six heads bobbing up and down. It resembled an over-active ant colony; for some were running to the house for water, others ran for toys or garden tools. This has been going on for four days now. Beginning any time after 2:30p kids begin to show up and work. It is part of their newest club. Each member signs in and is assinged a duty for that afternoon. They work until I send them all home. The ones who aren't eating in my house keep working until dinner is finished or they themselves must go home. More than one night this week I've used a flashlight to round up the stragglers and get them home for bed. "The Secret City" is what they've dubbed it. I ventured out to really look at it the other night and was amazed. In sand, they have erected bridges, tunnels, buildings, parks lakes, houses....the whole nine yards. They used Dixie cups, buckets and some other miscellaneous objects for molds to create unique shapes. There are matchbox cars and traffic signs from one boys old Thomas Train set. The kids really have put their hearts in it. Even the stray cats have by-passed it as their litter box for the time being. Well today as they were beginning to congregate and strategize it came to them:
What this totally awesome town needs is a little fire power....some vavoom. so what else? Those worker ants began hauling in sand from their own sandboxes to build....A VOLCANO!!!
YES! Now my kids have a chemistry set. I know what you're thinking but it wasn't so bad....actually, I'm the one who did it. Because of the sand, I knew we couldn't get anything really big (not without a permit of some sorts) so I stuffed a tupperware container with a WHOPPING dose of baking soda inside it (complete with lid and hole) and inserted a straw. I had in my hands a container of vinegar with red dye in it .
Oh yes I did. And it was FANTASTIC! It couldn't have been better unless I'd have lit sparklers on the perimeter...I looked but we were out. Crap! We were all whoopin and hollerin. Celebrating at this incredible mess we made in the back yard.
I can only stay a minute because I have to try to get all the red dye off the neighborhood kids, the dog and myself as well as getting all that sand turned over before my husband finds it. I think I killed some grass and I wouldn't be surprised if I upset the eco system somehow.
A little gritty, but still glad you came. Enjoy your day, we'll yap soon.
