a mud party...

 the thought came to me spontaneously as i was writing out our summer list this year. i wasn't really sure how, when or where we would do this, or if i reeeeally wanted the mess, but it just felt like the right thing to do so i wrote it up there anyway. :)

and then one afternoon it just happened. out came the hose and puddles formed, sticks started mixing the gooey goodness, toes got splashed and i realized that today was the day! off came shirts and madeline's fancy dress and in they went.

squishing fingers and toes in the fabulous mud...

smiling and splashing...

building canals, dams, bridges and pools...

 throwing out inhibitions...

and looking more and more like amazonian natives...

 then ben woke up from his nap!

oh joy! oh bliss! he could hardly contain himself! his little baby dreams were coming true!

it was a great, great day! we recommend everyone having a mud party of their own...in fact there's talk over here about a birthday mud party for a certain soon-to-be 7 year old. so, so fun.