Mud Pie Kitchen

We have a children's plastic table in the garden, it has been outside for a year.  Last year the children sometimes ate their lunch off it, but this year I bought a bigger and sturdier children's picnic bench specifically for that purpose.  The table sat at the side of the house getting dirtier and dirtier as the months went by.  It was in the way, but I was reluctant to throw it away.  So I decided to put it to use, and create a 'mud pie kitchen' for the children.


I cut back some plants in the flower bed (they were very overgrown and half of them were weeds anyway!) and put the table there with a pot of knives (real ones!), forks and spoons and a couple of bowls.  I pointed it out to the children and they were very unimpressed!  It got ignored!


Then earlier this week I got some old furniture and kitchen bits n bobs from my Nanna's house - an original 1960's formica coffee table, a very twee 1990's nest of tables (circa 1991 Argos?), 3 colanders, a plastic mixing bowl, a tupperware cereal container and a couple of wooden spoons.  I set it all up next to the ignored plastic table and waited to see if the children would be enthralled with it - they ignored it again!


So I played with it - I dug up some soil from the garden, I got some water and added it to the soil, I mixed it all up and added an old (empty) snail shell.  The children were disgusted, there were very loud cries of "eurgh!' followed immediately by "can I have a go?"


Yippee!  


The children needed someone to show them that they can actually create mud pies in their mud pie kitchen, the only rules are :

• no living creatures to be added to the mixture
• no pouring the mixture on yourself or anyone else
• no tasting allowed
• please don't bring it into the house!

I didn't manage to get any photos of the children playing with the kitchen as I was too busy watching them (OK, I admit, I was too nervous to leave them unsupervised while I got my camera from inside!), but here are a few photos of the kitchen after they had finished playing with it.

I have a feeling the kitchen is going to be a very used area of the garden  :o)