Backyard Centers

I love our backyard.

Libby, Sydney's sitter, was the one who told me, almost three years ago, to set up the backyard in centers, like I would a classroom.

Each summer, I try to add a center or two and so far, it's gone well.

Sydney has a place with slides, a sand table, a water table, a house, the gardens, and during the summer, a kiddie pool.

We just added the sink and moved the water table to the front back porch (that's what Sydney calls the front porch) so that she can play while we're in the kitchen and we can still keep an eye on her.

She has also had cars in the backyard, but never played with them.

So I decided to use the rest of my consignment money to make a mechanic station.

I bought a gas station on-line and found a little tikes workbench on craigslist.

Voila!

The new mechanic station:

Sydney thought that the tools were really neat. She insisted on taking at least one of them to the bath with her when it was time to go in.

Mostly, I just love how ginormous the backyard is that this is the view of the side yard where the cars and mechanic station are. You can't even see the house which is just to the left or much of the deck which is to the right.

We're getting ready to move on from Libby's so that Sydney can start a pre-preschool in the fall and in some ways, I feel very ready for the change, but then I think about great ideas that she shared with us, like how to set up the best toddler friendly backyard, and I realize how lucky we were to have her expertise for as long as we did.