Sprinklers, Spraygrounds and Sunshine--Oh My!

Rounding out Granddaddy's trip to see us, the kids ran through the sprinklers one day and we took them to the local sprayground the next day.

For those who don't know what a sprayground is--I'm beginning to think it's a Midwestern thing. We create playgrounds that are water toys and sprayers. The water is recycled so it's not such a huge waste and rainwater (and snow melt) is part of the water used for the sprayground. There's a button to push to start the waterworks and then it typically runs on a 15-20 minute cycle. When the pumps kick off, hit the button and go again. (Andrew is pushing the button to start the water in the photo below.)

The first water-oriented day was late afternoon on a Sunday. The kids were chomping at the bit to get their swimsuits on and get wet. They wore us down and we agreed to let them run through the sprinklers. Rebekah didn't want her swimsuit and promised to stay out of the water and stay dry.

You are probably amazed that I am so gullible that I took her word at face value. I think Sean knew better, but let me live in my delusional world where children do NOT run around in the grass soaking their brand new dress that Mommy has saved since her birth for her to be able to wear. I'm sure it was purely accidental that I came out to get pictures of this...

She was watching herself 'dancy, dancy, dance' in the reflection on the front door. Then she turned around to conduct the music she hears in her head.

Here are the boys running and playing in the sprinklers. These first two photos are my current 'favorites of summer'. I'm always amazed and floored when my children play with such total abandon. Then he is distracted by figuring out the mechanics of the sprinkler system. His smile with a background of daisies--how can you not fall in love with him?

Andrew is running through the sprinklers--but the photo makes it look like he's marching.

Here the three kiddos are checking out the grass stuck to Andrew's foot.


The next day we decided to head to the Sprayground. We went late in the afternoon and had a really great time. The grown ups got to relax, most of the time, while the kids ran and had fun. First are a couple of rare moments when the three kids were together in one photo at the sprayground.

Here's Rebekah waiting for the sprayers to come up--and running through the water when they turned on. She loves this area of the sprayground because it only gets her legs wet. Her face stays dry.