After Tuesday's not so great Sprinkler Day theme, Wednesday's goal was to absolutely exhaust the kids and leave no room for complaining, fighting, injuring, whining, or anything in between. I succeed with a fun Field Day in the backyard and ended it with the Slip n' Slide and bubble pools.
First up was kickball in the rain (it was only sprinkling and only for the first couple of minutes but the kids thought it was so cool I let them play in the rain). I had the two oldest kids (both 6) roll the ball because they're the only two kids that fully understood the concept of simply rolling the ball and not throwing it at the other kids. The kicking concept was understood well, although a few kids stopped the ball from rolling, picking it up, set it on home plate, and then kicked it. The running bases concept was more difficult than I imagined for all of the kids to grasp....including the two 6 year olds! Most of the kids would kick the ball and just stand there until I ran the bases with them, a couple of them ran when I told them to, and on the first round the kids ran the bases in this order: 2nd, 3rd, home plate, and 1st base last. This was the most entertaining part of my morning! We played 4 rounds of kickball and then moved onto the racing portion of our morning.
Instead of kicking the ball, Elizabeth picked it up and ran the bases with it.
I used a pool noodle as the finish line (I told the kids they had to jump over it and the first person to jump over wins the race). They absolutely loved the races and got out lots of energy. They ran, hopping, skipped, galloped, walk backwards, and even crawled to the finish line!
Third activity: Ninja Turtles Mini Golf. This activity took the longest of all because each kids had to make it through the mini golf course.....and none of them are very accurate when hitting the ball. However, that didn't seem to matter. They all cheered each other on and waited patiently for their turn to mini golf.
After taking a snack break and putting on swimming suits (which takes at least a half hour due to putting sunscreen on each child), it was time for the best race of the day: Slip n' Slide races! The kids loved the Slip n' Slide (although I did have to explain a few times how they were suppose to slide on it). The only kids that didn't like the Slip n' Slide were the two 2 year olds I had that day, but they did like putting their hands in the little fountains.
After taking turns racing down the Slip n' Slide, it was time to bring out the shaving cream slide. Some of the kids loved this and some of the kids felt it was too messy and skipped out on it.
Playing in the fountains and drinking the water from it.
After naps it was time for the bubble pools! The kids loved sliding down into the bubbles, dunking their faces, and throwing the bubbles at each other. The only downside to this activity is that the backyard was a muddy mess because of the earlier Slip n' Slide fun, which means that the kids and soon the pools were very muddy messes.
Field Day was an exhausting hit with all of the kids. Any activities that result in 3-4 hour long naps in a keeper in my book! We'll definitely be doing Slip n' Slide races and bubble pools throughout the summer.
