Inside Our Family's New "Kitchen"

What I love about it is that it's Jupiter's own place to get really messy, have fun, be outside, and let her imagination run wild. When she's pouring and mixing her ingredients, she feels completely in her own world. Since she gets to spoon things out herself, she feels like a big girl. Everything is her own, so she just feels more free. And as someone who's always trying to keep the house tidy, I appreciate that the mess stays outside.

If you have young children, I can't say enough good things about creating a mud kitchen. The Wild Mountain Child toys feel really special and magical (and no, this is not sponsored!), but if you can't order from Australia, no problem. You can easily make a mud kitchen with old wooden spoons and other items you might have lying around the house. (I recycled old jam jars into storage for all of her ingredients.)

Obviously, you won't want to eat the "food" from this kitchen, but as far as the fun factor? Everyone will eat that up for sure.