The island, from my driveway

Two finely dressed princesses decided to have a picnic on the "island" in front of my house (a small landscaped patch of land with road all around it ... nice to look at and creates a little road for the three houses in my corner of the street that no one else ever drives on, so the kids are very safe playing there all day long). Seriously adorable. They had a blanket spread out and were dressed in the most wonderful finery.

Somehow, as the afternoon progressed and more children became involved, the tea party morphed into the island becoming a Scout survival station.

Complete with tripod covered blanketed area (I'm sure that's not the appropriate technical term for it):


Water catching station (palm catches water and drains it into water bottle):


And fort:


 The Swiss Family Robinson type creations only lasted overnight ("aesthetics committee" and all) but what a treat to see the kids work so hard at these projects and come up with such great ideas. There was absolutely no adult direction or input into any of this, the kids (probably 7-8 of them) worked together and did all this on their own.

The kids have been given another area to work their Scout survival magic ... I can't wait to see what they come up with next.