Plan Your Own: Simple Earth Day Playdate

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
-Moses Henry Cass

I’ve noticed a lot of parents and kids forget that dirt is fun. I want to give you permission – GO AHEAD – GET DIRTY! I promise you the world won’t end. Sure you might have a little more laundry to do but really what is one more load? The smiles you get and the simple wonder and joy of squishing mud is well worth it. 

For Earth Day, we decided to celebrate by getting dirty with it. We packed up our environmentally-friendly snacks and went to hang out at our local community greenhouse. My crew was joined by some of our favourite friends who just happen to run the green local parenting store called Mamaroo Baby & Maternity. 

I brought a few jugs of water (greenhouse water isn’t on yet), and a bin full of our outdoor toys. We let the kids explore the mud & dirt using shovels, trucks, cups, and whatever else they found in the greenhouse. Even the babies got in on the action as we brought our regular sensory bin to put on the greenhouse floor for them to get into.

At the end, we decided to go for the gusto and put the kids in our families’ 18 square foot plot. Miss P particularly just loved it. By then most of the water had soaked in so the dirt was just muddy and fun to dig or grab.

Compostable Dinnerwear from Greenmunch

One of the downsides of most playdates, pot lucks and parties is that they create a lot of waste. On Earth Day, it seemed the proper solution to find a better alternative to the typical dinnerware. Although we love to use our reusable containers, when entertaining a crowd larger than our family we don’t have enough! Luckily the answer to my question wasn’t much further than one of my favourite online retailers, Greenmunch.

Not only do they carry chic paper straws, they also have terrific options for compostable dinnerware too.

We had a quick snack of apples in the Green Stripe Compostable Cup.  This 9 oz size was terrific for toddler hands. For a 1-2 year old party, this is the cup I would order with lids and funky straws!

Both of the cups we tried look and feel like your typical plastic party cup. The difference is in the materials: each cup is made from 100% renewable resources & Ingeo, a plant based plastic. My husband honestly could not tell the difference and didn’t understand why I was saving them on the counter to put into the composter instead tossing them in the garbage.

How cool are these Chevron Compostable Cups? I really like them! They were a terrific size at 16 oz for a slurp on the beach, outdoor picnic or at your next party. The green chevron striped paper straws made a contrast – but if green isn’t your colour, check out all of the Chevron loveliness & pick your favourite.

When you are finished with your party, toss all your compostable dinnerware in your GreenBin or take to your local commercial compost heap. 

Ideas for Your Own Earth Day Playdate

• Visit your local community greenhouse or get digging in your own garden
• Make an outdoor mud pie kitchen
• How-to on mud soup
• Create a little mobile mud patch
• Urban mud making & art

Have you played in the dirt lately?

Check out more great ideas on Outdoor Fun & follow along with all our inspired ideas on  Pinterest:
Follow The Inspired Home's board Outdoor Fun on Pinterest.

Disclosure: I received compensation and compostable dinnerware to try from Greenmunch. The opinions on this blog are still my own.