Backyard play area

I have been thinking about what would be the best thing to put down on the ground, in my Twins Backyard play area. Right now it is basically dirt, dead grass, weeds, and some interlocking foam play mats.

 The recent freezing cold weather we have had in December 2010 and January 2011 has wreaked havoc on our lawn, especially in the backyard play area.

I hate how in photos it looks so ugly with lush green weeds and yucky yellow and tan grass. Oh and the dirt.  ick.

I "built" up the backyard play area for my Twins and also for their playmates. I am the organizer of a playgroup with around 100 Moms in it. We have mostly Moms of singletons but also have Moms of Twins and Triplets in the group too. I wanted to create a really fun and functional backyard play area that all of the children could really enjoy. They all have a blast out there. We usually have 8-10 children out there playing at each playdate. I really enjoy seeing my Twins interact with their little friends and build friendships, as well as seeing my Twins and all of the children in the playgroup have an awesome time. I made sure to choose items that would work out well so that the children did not feel left out of playing any particular activity,. There are 2 climber/slides, a large enclosed trampoline, 1 large sandbox and sand table, 2 water tables, plenty of ride ons, 2 kiddie pools, bouncy house, seating and a picnic table for snacking, a finger painting station,  and plenty of things to pick up and play with! We rarely see the children fight over toys. They just play and have a blast together!

 I use tarps under the pools and foam tiles around and under certain toys for various reasons. The ground just looks so uninviting though. It is so brown/yellow and dull.

 

  

 It's great out there but the ground is icky in my opinion. I had looked into different materials available, but wow are they pricey. I really don't want to mess around with mulch. I think mulch is a pain in the rump. Plus ants can hang around in mulch just as much as they can in dirt or grass. We really do not have an ant problem out there right now, but we have in the past 2 years. The ants come and go. I prefer they go and stay away.  I have made up some chemical free mixtures to put down and that seems to be keeping the ants away. I hope it really does keep them away.

I would love to have one of those rubbery commercial playground floors, ya know the kind that looks like a bunch of squares but is soft or bouncy. I am pretty sure those kinds of floors are quite pricey.

I am wondering what my readers have for the ground in their children's backyard play area?  I hate the thought of having to grow grass and then keep mowing it. I don't like having to move everything and move the gating around the play area.

I will have to look around town at the hardware stores like Lowers or Home Depot. Maybe I am overlooking something that could be inexpensive and nice.

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If it's gonna be THAT kind of party.........

*insert part of Beastie Boys song here*

Planning a child's birthday party can be quite stressful. There are so many details that go into a birthday party, and you sometimes are made to feel it has to be just perfect. This can not always be so, then again maybe every birthday is just perfect in it's own way. I guess you really have to set your limit of expectations and be happy with the way it goes regardless. I just finished planning my daughter Mackenna's 11th Birthday party. Once I really had a good location set up, the rest fell into line quite easily. Thank goodness!
My oldest daughter does not want a birthday party this year, so we will just go somewhere she wants to go on that day. She will be 15 this year, so I am sure it will be something like Busch Gardens or Islands of Adventure. who knows though, right?!?

My Twins are going to be 3 in April. I had pondered the idea of sparing everyone of the birthday party routine this year, however now I feel that I can not. One of my Twins talks about birthday parties, party hats, and sings the Happy Birthday song 3-4 times a day. MEEP! So, to rob them of a birthday party would make me feel like a jerk. The problem with birthday parties for my Twins is that we really do not have family here. The paternal grandparents (2 sets) are in an eternal feud and would not be caught dead in the same location, even if it meant the world to their Twin grandsons. The maternal side consists of Nana(my mom). The rest of the family are all out of state and unable to travel here for their birthdays. They were not even able to make it to their first birthday.

My Dad just retired recently and with his pre-existing health conditions it is costing him upwards of something like $700 per month for his health insurance. Due to this expense and the fact he is now responsible for several elderly relatives, he can not attend.

My Twins 1st and 2nd Birthday parties consisted of, as far as guests go....... Us, the paternal grandpa, his wife, and a few of her relatives, some of our playgroup friends, My mom, and my Moms best friend. They had a great party both years. It was really nice to have those who came, to attend. We had to have a 2nd mini party for them at the paternal Grandma's home both years due to the feud.

This year, I feel guilty.

I don't feel guilty to invite the very small amount of adult relatives that attend every year. I however do feel guilty inviting our playgroup friends. If I did not invite them, there would be no party. The only children at the party would be the Birthday Boys and my three older children ages 11.5, 12, and 14.5

I really value the friendships we have with our playgroup friends. However I now feel guilty inviting them to my Twins 3rd birthday party because when I asked a few of them recently what their birthday party plan will be for their child, several of them said they were only having their family over for small parties. So if they feel they would not want their playgroup friends at their child's birthday, does that mean they would appreciate not being invited to my Twins 3rd birthday too? Does it mean they can not afford a party that includes playgroup friends? Does it mean they feel strange mixing family with playgroup friends? What really does it mean?

I feel like if I do not invite them, there is no point of a party. What is a toddlers birthday party with no other toddlers there to enjoy it with? It's a bunch of bored adults eating cake off of a cartoon character paper plates with a colorful plastic fork. Uh......yeah.

What the heck do you do to entertain your bored adult guests and make it a fun party for your Twin toddlers if there are no other children at the party? Do you have them pin the tail on Grandpa? Do you have the Grandparents do some cartwheels?

I also feel like if I do invite them, they will be highly annoyed and feel obligated to either begrudgingly attend or make up some last minute lie/excuse to get themselves out of it.

Would it be easier if I just tell them gifts are not necessary? How do you make the parents happy and feel happy to come, not feel obligated to come while having no intentions of really wanting to be there?

What is the best way to have a birthday party that people want to attend?  I want our playgroup friends to continue to be our friends, not run for the hills to avoid being invited to another birthday party. Most of the playgroup friends that attended last year, did not invite us to their child's birthday when it came around. So, this makes me think that they would really appreciate not being invited. I just don't know.

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Hanging at the shore'

Our playgroup now has a weekly playdate at this really cool store called Lakeshore. They have a lot of awesome teaching and learning supplies for children. The awesome store manager at Lakeshore hosts a weekly playdate for us. Some weeks we do a craft too! She has a space for us to let the kiddos play and they open up some toys for them to play with!! It's been really nice!

They love this giant marble ball drop toy 

They also love this food stand with cash registers and a board with fridge magnet gears. They have a lot of great toys and puzzles that my Twins have been enjoying. It gives me some good birthday gift ideas for them too! They turn 3 in April.

and.....................................



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HOLY SCHNIKES

I HAD A LONG DAY!
I really feel like today was played out three times at once. Wowsers!

I felt like I had three full time jobs that were mega demanding all at one time all day today.

My 10 year old had her friend over, my 12 year old was sick, my 14 year old was really annoyed by my 10 year old and her friend. One of my twins is sick and the other is annoyed that his twin is sick and not as playful.  I had a full day of kids, housekeeping, playdate organizing, home pre-school organizing,  a billion phone calls, a lot of typing, vacuuming, swiffering, cooking, wiping, entertaining, nurturing, etc etc etc etc.
Everyone and everything was 50x more demanding than usual today!

I can say I am very happy things are calm and it is bed time. Thank goodness.
Later on I will have to amuse myself by watching the new episode of the monstrosity that is Toddlers & Tiaras. what a trainwreck!!

So I bet you might be wondering about the home preschool, right?
A few friends and I that are in a playgroup together have started a home preschool group. We have 19 of us in the group and have spit the groups into a couple of groups.
We are doing a more natural learning type of preschooling. Lots of fun, no pressure or drilling with flash cards, and most of all...great mini projects and field trips!
We have chosen several books, each of us bought one and we are creating 2-weeks-at-a-time lesson plans. We actually start next week! We will do our "schooling" one day per week in a big community room at one of the local libraries. It is free!! We just had to reserve in advance. Then on another day each week we will be going to a local library storytime and craft hour. The other days will be play dates and field trips, depending on the week..with one day per week being a big group day where we meet with the other half of our home preschool group. We want to go with learning through play. Not pressure and drilling and crazy expectations. We wish not to rob our toddlers of toddlerhood....children of childhood etc.

The philosophy........
Children pursue life, and in doing so, pursue knowledge



All of the children in the group were born in 2008 or 2009.

Our first 2 weeks theme is blue. All of our lessons those 2 weeks will revolve around the color blue in some way. Including the snacks, They will be BLUE!

We plan to let them go at their own pace, not to pressure or make them feel like they are in school but to add some smart structure to their daily playdates. We usually hold playdates 5 days a week.



The books we purchased and are working from are:

1.  The Encyclopedia of Infant and Toddler Activities: Written by Teachers for Teachers
2. Gymboree - The Parent's Guide to Play (Gymboree Play & Music)
3. The Preschool Calendar
4. The Complete Resource Book for Preschoolers: An Early Childhood Curriculum With Over 2000 Activities and Ideas
5. The Complete Daily Curriculum for Early Childhood: Over 1200 Easy Activities to Support Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles
6. Montessori Play And Learn: A Parent's Guide to Purposeful Play from Two to Six
   
   
   
    
Field Trip ideas so far:  Zoo, art museum, feeding ducks, pumpkin patch, strawberry patch, grocery store. Have them find 3 items each and add to cart, cupcake decorating at one of our houses, splash pad, park to collect leaves, stones, sticks, etc...make a nature day, park to play but add some light learning with the play wish us luck!

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Playgroups and Names

We didn't do much of a theme with our names. We tried to stay with a Celtic theme for most of our kids, with some exceptions for literary characters or family names. That's it.

I'll second Kristen's opinion of NOMOTC, with some extras. I, too, noticed that it wasn't about the kids, it was about the moms, and I did not feel welcome there with my little ones. (This was in Austin, TX, 10 years ago.) At the time, most of the mothers of HOM (higher-order multiples) in the area felt the same, so we had our own separate group for triplets and up. We had a yahoo group, and we went out to a moms-only dinner once a month. Sometimes moms got together for playdates, but we didn't do any big activities as a group with our kids. It filled a need to be with other moms "like me" in having triplets or more.

I never did find a playgroup that worked, though. Never found a multiples-only playgroup, and never found one friendly to multiples. We're a walking freak show, not somebody you make friends with, apparently. One lady ran into me with my triplets at a coffee shop once, and invited us to join her playgroup. We went three times, and then the group was scheduled to meet at my house...whereupon I was called the day before the meeting and told I was no longer welcome. I tried a local babysitting co-op, too (don't get me started on finding sitters for triplets!). They kicked me out.

Multiples intimidate other families, I think. Singleton babies don't know what to make of it when multiples come to play. The multiples are already accustomed to crawling all over each other and playing together, and the singletons flip out. Moms of singletons don't know what to make of us, either. Some of them put us up on a pedestal as being goddesses of child-rearing just for staying sane (or some semblance of sanity). Some of them don't understand the chaos that comes with bringing more than one baby anywhere, the 20-minute diaper change routine, the 1-hour feeding routine, the fact that MOMs can't just sit still and watch one child, we have to constantly bounce to keep one child after another out of trouble. Based on my experiences in Austin, it seems like HOMs get the same reaction from twins.

It's hard not to take it personally. But keep trying. Eventually either you'll find the group that fits you, or you'll make your own, or you'll just settle in with some friends who are welcoming without any structure at all. Any way, while you're looking, at least our kids have built-in playgroups!

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