For the past few weeks we have had temperatures reaching 80 degrees and higher. It has been wonderful spending so much time outside, but at times, this heat already seems unbearable. I didn't want to, but last week we had to turn our air conditioning on already. With the house full of little ones and the inside temps reaching 80 degrees during the day, we didn't really have any way around it. It pained me to turn the a/c on in March, but for the sake of the kiddos and my sanity, it had to be done. Of course, once we closed up the windows, every ones allergies seemed to do so much better, so it paid off.
Most days we will head outside in the morning, after lunch and again in the evening. The fresh air, sun and chance to run wild has made such a difference for all of us. The girls love playing with all their yard toys they have not seen since November. We filled their sand and water table with bird seed last week. It is so much work to fill with water, strip them down and dry them off after each use. The past few summers we had not used the table as often as we would have liked because of that. I told Josh that this year I wanted bird seed in the table. Sand is so difficult to clean up when it gets in shoes, hair, clothes and everything else. Bird seed can easily be swept, picked or cleaned up be little critters looking for a meal.
We have already had many meals where squirrels or birds come right up on the deck and have a nibble while we are sitting at the table. The girls get a kick out of watching them. Leia goes crazy, but she is protective of her yard and doesn't like anything even sitting on the back fence.

It is wonderful finally being to the point where we can send the girls out in the backyard by themselves to play while I get things done in the house. Of course, they come knocking on the door every few minutes to show me something or if it has been more than a few minutes I stick my head out to see what they are up to.

(Our backyard is completely fenced in and the gates are locked shut)