Last weekends adventure was a crafty one. We decided to liven our garden up with some rock ornaments. Of course as easy as it is to buy them where would be the fun in that.
As it was a nice day we decided that the best thing to do would be to actually collect the rocks and paint them ourselves. Ha ha we do after all have a free labour force in our 4 children (tempted to go into global production already). So off we all went to Edisford Bridge a local river where people take picnics and paddle and fish in the river.
After a short walk we arrived near the waters edge and began looking for medium size smooth round rocks. Normally all of the kids have to collect rocks and sticks and leaves and anything else they can stuff in there pockets. Especially the boys. Soon we had a good stack piled up in the bottom of our pushchair. This left them to throw stones eagerly into the river. There were also times when they tried to paddle in the still waters, socks and all.
The only thing to remember, especially if you got the pram down to the waters edge, is that you do have to get the pram back up, including the large stones you filled it with. Just saying. In case, like me, you didn’t consider this. Ha ha. My back will recover.
The kids had there dose of fun and adventure by the river, they got to lazily wander home through the field and park. Soon it would be time to put part two of the plan into action.
Once home we emptied the rocks out onto the kitchen table, picked and shared out the best ones and got to work. We had given the kids a selection of acrylic paints to use at will. We had a few ideas that we wanted to try, like we wanted a badger as our 6 year olds nickname is badger. Mrs Berg had an idea of a frog on a Lilly pad. In general, and as it was our first attempt we kept it simple. Bees, butterfly’s and just general colouring.
It was a fun activity that we could allow the kids a fairly free reign to paint and create as they wanted, we then allowed them to dry and tidied up all the mess. A mix of outdoor fun with a creative playtime kept them occupied all day. And we got our free garden ornaments.
Just to finish them off we covered and recovered in glue once dry, to protect them from the elements.
Now we have memories that we can place in the garden to liven it up for the summer and the kids feel like they have contributed.
Bergs Place 
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