End of Year Picnic

Today was the end of the year picnic for Malcolm's school and the kids had a great time.  Last year, Malcolm really wanted to go down the giant slide, but was a little uncertain.  This year, he was not scared at all and spent most of his time sliding over and over and over.

Running with his friend to the slide.

Wee!

After lunch the kids were ready to get back to playing before I was done eating.  Malcolm headed for the slide and Dorothy wanted to go dig in the sand.  The sand wasn't too far away, there were a couple of other moms there, and I could see her from where I was sitting, so I let her go.  She was playing happily, so I took my time finishing up.  When I finally went over, I saw why she was so happy sitting there playing.  There was a little pond not too far away and Dorothy had really wanted to go in.  We had a long talk about staying away from the water and I was happy that she had been listening so well.  Well, she didn't go to the pond, but the other kids had brought the pond to her.  There was a big trench with a stream running through it and Dorothy was sitting in the middle of a moat, wallowing in the mud, having a great time.

Notice the little boy in the background with the straw...

...this is what pond water tastes like.

Of course, I did not have a change of clothes for her.  I rinsed her off at the water pump as best I could and put a clean diaper on her.  She had left her raincoat in the car, so she wore that home.  It was a mess, but she had a great time and both kids slept hard when we got home.