water table

A few weeks ago, Kent told me he wanted to build a water table for the kids.

I thought that sounded like a fantastic idea, so we started researching, made a rough plan, and then, just went for it.

Version 1.0:  

 Had a few kinks to work out:  the table's walls were much too short, the pump was too strong for the amount of water the table could hold, and our tote at the top completely cracked and broke apart when we tried to drill holes into it.
Also, the plastic sheeting tore and leaked.

A few days later we tried again.  Kent worked on it all Saturday afternoon, and by evening, this is what we had: 

 I'm not even sure what that girl's name is that Nicholas was playing with....the water table has become a child magnet for kids from all over the neighborhood.  

We still have many improvements to make--we need to waterproof the wood or find some other material so we don't have to use plastic, we need to widen the waterspout so the water doesn't get so high in the table, we'd like to get some sort of shade tent to put up during the mornings so they can pay with it in the shade, etc.

We're figuring we won't keep this up permanently--just set it up for a week or so, then store it away for a while so we can pull it out again and have it be new and exciting all over again.

All on his own, Nicholas figured out how to rig up a pulley system with yarn to lift his toys back onto the table.  I was quite impressed.

I think this has been one of the most fun projects we've done together as a family. Working on construction, noticing flaws (typically involving someone getting really wet when something breaks,) and seeing how. much. fun. the kids are having with it. 

Yesterday I counted seven children other than our own playing with the table.  Yep, that's just the way we wanted it.