Wow! I am so late in posting this but just realized that I never posted pictures of our sunflower house full grown. The kids had a lot of fun with it with the outdoor playhouse and ate a lot of snacks and evening dinners in it.  We strung some natural twine from one stalk to another to make a ‘ceiling’ for the morning glory’s to grow across. The we hung a red playsilk up in the doorway. We chose red and orange because the summer days were so hot when we put them up.

Getting outside and experiencing nature is a super fun activity and we can always see something new. The best part is that it doesn’t have to cost much, if anything, so it makes for the perfect family outing.

With little ones it can be difficult to spend time in the great outdoors but with a little bit of planning your outdoor trip with your baby or toddler can be fun and memorable. Here are some tips for hiking camping or other outdoor trips with an infant or toddler:

Choose a place that offers short day hikes.
If you have a toddler and just a short amount of time find a place you can park and walk. Maybe it’s a park you haven’t been to or the river’s edge. Whatever it is, just being outside makes you feel better.
Have plenty of easy snacks on hand. I like to cut up apples into cubes or slices for my toddlers. I also peel a carrot and leave it whole for the babies to hold on to and chew.
Bring a soft structured baby carrier with you for day hikes. We recommend an ergo baby carrier.
For longer hikes you may want to check out a framed child carrier.
Bring an extra set of clothes for baby (you never know when they might need them)
Only bring one toy and/or book. Allow your curious baby to explore nature.
Some state parks offer rustic cabins or yurts. Stay in one of these if you aren’t ready for the tent yet.
Sleep on an aero bed if you opt for the tent.
Bring a washcloth and a towel. Even if you don’t plan on showering, your toddler may get messy and need more cleaning than what a wipe can offer.
Even if you are an extreme backpacker, you may want to ease into the outdoors if it’s been awhile or if you’ve never been with children. Because kids can be unpredictable, it’s good to get a sense of how they handle different environments.

What has made your outdoor adventure trips with children work well for you? Share them with other parents by writing them in the comment area of this post.

It’s week 4 of growing our sunflower house. We have enjoyed watching the sunflowers get taller…..such a rewarding project for young children because sunflowers grow so fast you can almost watch it happen before your eyes. I have a hard time taking credit for the how great the sunflowers are doing….the fact that we have cool temperatures and the occassional rain shower has helped them grow strong.

We have had one casualty and a couple of injuries though. One of the sunflowers just didn’t make it. He got sort of floppy one day so I watered him some more but he just didn’t make it. This has sort of created a wide open “window” I guess. The morning glory will climb up in that area so I will train it to climb onto the next available sunflower stalk.

Earlier today a neighbor friend came over with her children and one of the toddlers walked right through two sunflower and held them in his hands as he continued to walk! (holds heart in hand) His little foot crushed the morning glory and thankfully the sunflowers bounced right back up. In no time at all the sunflowers will have created the walls that will make it the magical sunflower house we have been waiting for and I know all children will be drawn to the door so they can walk inside…..I’m sure we won’t have to worry about them trying to walk through any walls.

If you would like to build your own sunflower house start here with our instructions for natural outdoor play spaces.

It’s been a couple of weeks since we planted the veggies in our garden and sowed the seeds for the sunflower house. We fertilized everything midweek and with the sunny 80 degree weather everything is growing superbly. We check on the sunflower house every day and it has been a fun project for all of the neighbor girls who are sharing in the fun. At some point during the day our front yard becomes a busy little station of pint size gardeners who have hope for what grows before their eyes. Want to grow your own sunflower house?

We’ve already enjoyed the bounty from our garden and the calendar month is still in May. So far we’ve enjoyed a variety of lettuce and cilantro. A small harvest, but only the beginning. We have decided to continue making the land that we live on even more sustainable. This year we will definitley have to supplement our produce with vegetables from the Farmer’s Market but next year we plan to have more garden space. We will begin prepping the ground this summer for some fall plantings of blueberries and then raspberries. We’ll keep you up-to-date on our easy turn-your-lawn-into-food methods.

Now that the weather is good and you want to keep your young ones enjoying nature….why not give them a natural and organic outdoor playhouse? They will have so much more fun with something that they helped to build and can watch grow than they might with a plastic model. We made our house from Sunflowers and Morning Glory’s.

Ready? Here’s how to get started.

Building a Sunflower House

First you will need a couple of packages of Mammoth Sunflower Seeds or another variety that grows tall (8-10 feet minimum with large 10 inch flowers)

- 1 pack of Morning Glory seeds

- Other low growing, trailing flowers (optional)

- A shovel

- Some compost or planting mix and potting soil

- Children for planting seeds

- Water

To begin making your sunflower house first you need to clear an area in your lawn. You can make it as large as you like but 2 packs of sunflower seeds will cover a 6-7 foot diameter circle while having 2 seeds for every 12-16 inches to allow for thinning. Don’t clear the inside of the circle, just the perimeter.

Once you have dug up the grass, loosen the soil and then pour your compost and potting soil on top of the cleared area so you can give the seeds a good start (we had to do this because our ground is so packed with clay and rocks). Now get the kids to plant the seeds alternating sunflower seeds with morning glory’s. Once our team of kids were done with our seed pattern we also gave them Nasturtium seeds to place where ever they liked. These flowers mound at the base of the house and are edible.

Keep the seeds moist. The Morning Glory vines will grow up the sunflowers. Once the sunflowers have reached a 6 ft. height tie strings between them to create a ‘roof’ support for the vines to climb on. This little playhouse will give your children many days of imaginative fun for around $15 and it provides for a very fun project.

If you want you can add a bale of straw to the inside of the house to make a table or seat. Now that we’ve built this one, maybe next year we will go for a 2-room sunflower house.

See week 2 of the Sunflower House