It's the Simple Things......

I love how the most simple and carefree things are able to entertain and appease kids better than any toy or expensive outing. There is a little pond/lake near our house that is home to several Mallard ducks. Since Fall has approached, migration has started and the traffic at the lake has increased 10-fold. Not only are there a lot of ducks, but we have witnessed several flocks of geese landing and taking breaks there as well.

We had been saving the heels of bread for a venture to the lake so the kids could feed the ducks for some time now. We finally had enough saved to justify the trip, so off we went last night. The weather was absolutely beautiful; there was a slight wind just chilly enough to take the edge off the heat from the day (can you believe it was 96 yesterday still?!).

As soon as we got to the park, I separated the bread into 3 equal shares for the kids to distribute at their leisure. As I was momentarily distracted doing that, Jadyn thought she would take a trip to see a bench that was a few yards away. I didn't think much of it, as it was in the opposite direction of the water and there weren't any stray ducks that way. When will I learn that no matter where we are or where we go, toddlers (at least mine anyway) will ALWAYS be drawn to the place with the most dirt? Not more than 30 seconds later, I looked up and Jadyn had fallen right into a mud puddle next to the bench. Apparently we arrived right after the sprinklers had shut off. My daughter, who was in fresh clean clothes, was now a walking mud monster. Here is the aftermath....I promise it's just MUD!

Now, being a mother with a 2 year old who is potty trained, you'd think I'd have a spare set of clothes, right? Wrong. I took the kids earlier to another park to play, and Jadyn had an accident there, so my spare set of clothes had been used. Foolish me, I forgot to replenish my supply (since we haven't used the spare in weeks) and was left to contemplate my options. I came up with 2:

1. We could go home, get cleaned up, and come back. No, the sun was setting and there wouldn't be time to come back. I would then have a clan of hysterical kids.

2. I could just let Jadyn walk around as the Swamp Thing and let the night go as planned.

# 2 it is. The kids had a fun time feeding the birds (and turtles), and Jadyn's wet clothes and muddy shoes didn't seem to bother her at all!

(notice the plumber's crack!)

Jadyn really enjoyed the bread....and she even saved some for the ducks!

I snapped these as the sun was setting...the lighting was striking.

As we were about to leave, another flock of geese landed on the lake. I was able to get some very pretty silhouette shots of them.

Everyone had a great time...that is until their bread ran out. As soon as that happened, it was time to high tail it out of there. I stripped Jadyn down to her undies and plopped her into her car seat. Homeward Bound! It was a very relaxing night and the kids had a great time giving back to nature for once. We will definately need to start saving the heels of the bread from now on so that we can do this again!