One of my pandemic dreams was to have an outdoor mud kitchen for my kids. I had all kinds of waldorf inspired homeschooling outdoor academic aspirations that have slowly fizzled over the years! But, the outdoor mud kitchen still had a place in my heart.
Specifically, I wanted a place for all of my children's treasured "collections" to be off of our front porch. Pine cones, rocks, leaves, and flowers...it was quite devastating if I moved any of things or heaven forbid GOT RID OF THEM. So besides having a place to make dirt pies, I wanted the nature collections to have a place.
Brent got us some discount wood from Home Depot and some cinder blocks. With a little cutting and some screws, our simple DIY mud table came to life. I wanted it very basic - really just a long skinny table that had the feel of a kitchen but mostly to just hold everything. With how wet our climate is most of the year, the more durable the better. It ended up costing about $16.
I promise they were riding their bikes, hence the helmets! Though you can never be too safe in a mud kitchen! ;)
I got bowls and baskets from the thrift store. And we use galvanized buckets below to hold all their sand table kitchen toys.
This giant water jug I found at the thrift store and it holds a ton of water. So nice to not have to refill this quite as many times!
It's tucked away to the side of our yard so it isn't super noticeable. Now they have a place to collect and make a mess and I have a clean porch again!
Here is my collection I recently thrifted. Lots of baskets and bowls for that hippie outdoor aesthetic I was going for.
And the water jug was only $6! I admit a blue camping water container was not my first choice. But come summer time and all the water fun, functionality was more of a priority. How can I not refill their water pitcher a million times was my goal.
And while I love my kids other cutsie kids watering cans, they are really small. This full size one is much better and even prettier.
We love our little mud kitchen and look forward to a fun summer ahead full of mud pies and grass soup!
