Sponge Balls and Summer Plans

In my ongoing efforts to let the kids have fun, today we made sponge balls! I got the idea from this blog that I read. The girls thought that they were really fun, and liked helping me make them. I think the instructions she gives says to use dental floss but ours was too wimpy so we used yarn and it worked just fine, I'm sure just about anything would.
After we made the sponge balls I let the girls play in the backyard! Can you believe it? If you've seen our backyard then you know that there's a really great covered patio, an equal amount of yard, and then a total slope into a major canyon that runs all around to the side of the house and nary a fence in sight. This isn't too big of a deal unless your daughter is Matilda and her first instinct is to head right for the ledge. So after some jimmy-rigging that involved Matilda, her safety harness and a length of clothesline we've got a sort of Tillie run, and now we can all safely enjoy the out of doors. Just in case you are thinking there's something cruel about the Tillie run I would point out that I don't see anything cruel about letting her get some fresh air and outside play. If you have a dog that you keep on a leash well let me tell you I love Matilda at least as much as you love your dog and I want to keep her alive and well. She wasn't always thrilled when she came to the end of her tether, and I definitely have to be out there keeping a close eye on things, but this is a big step for us!
I also wanted to point out that on my sidebar I made a list of our summer activity ideas, feel free to share more ideas with me, I have no problem adding to it. The ones with stars are the ones that we've done, so we've got a lot of fun to look forward to!