Decorating outdoors

We interrupt this house-decorating set to bring you new ideas for fun times outdoors.

What can I say? When the weather is absolutely gorgeous, we work outside all day, eat outside, and then do our crafts/ painting outside in the late afternoon. Do you see a theme?

I finished up a bit on the porch first, with my trusty helpers doing the sides.

Then we painted the hopscotch. Actually, my days are blending together. We did this project yesterday afternoon.

I think Fred and I have been having as much fun with the hopscotch as the kids!! :-)

This afternoon I decided to paint a checkerboard on the wooden picnic table. As you can see, the kids were doing their "seat work" at the other picnic table at the time. I was nearby in case they had questions. No, I don't usually sit down.

(Just in case you are wondering, each square is 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches long. It was easy to do. Use a sealant and exterior paint. Tomorrow I'll spray over it with clear coat. I already had these things on hand, thanks to my mom's ample supply.)

When I told Nature Man that he could play checkers or chess on the board, he said that those plastic pieces were "too wimpy" and they would just blow away. Good point. So, when the table was dry, and the kids had their work done, they went dug up some "manly" checker pieces aka rocks. We painted the pieces gray and black, with crowns on one side, for when a piece gets kinged. Pretty nifty. They enjoyed playing with it this evening. :-) And if we lose a piece, we just dig up another rock to paint!

Hope everyone is enjoying this fantastic weather!! I wish it were 80 degrees every day!