Cry me a River

One of the many, many advantages of having NO GRASS in your backyard is that you have lots and lots of dirt.  er, clay.

And, as we all know, dirt (clay)+water= MUD!

So when Hannah and Sam ask to play in the hose, I know that this will turn into a orange-clay-mud spectaculo-rama.  I usually ask them to put on swimsuits first.  And take several deep breaths.

Because they will, eventually, want to come back inside the house.

Yesterday they made a complete replica of the mighty Mississippi in our backyard, delta and all:

Sam gave the the run-down, sprinting down the length of their home-made river and its many, many tributaries.

It took a lot of mud-scooping to get the water flowing in the right direction.

Josh was mostly interested in playing with the water hose itself, because...

...he slipped a lot when he walked.  (oooOOoooh, cute squishy muddy baby feet!)

Sam...

...and Hannah had a blast.

And we cleaned off all the mud before Dad got home.  (very, very important!)