JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Earl Morris, Roanoke County coordinator for the Virginia Bluebird Society, opens a bluebird house Saturday in Green Hill Park for a KIVA group. KIVA is designed to get children up to the fifth grade and their parents engaged in outdoor activities.

Chase Dorsey, 8 (left), and Alex Loftin, 7, climb on an antique rail car Saturday during a KIVA meeting. They were among about 50 children who participated.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Lorelai Hale, 3, sleeps as her mother, Kelley Hale, carries her on a hike to see bluebird houses Saturday during a KIVA outing.

There are plenty of things you can do with your children on a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon. You can let them sit in front of the television playing video games. You can strap them into the minivan and ferry them from soccer to ballet to horseback riding all day. Or you can take them to a park, cut them loose and let them make their own fun, ruddy-faced and muddy.

Dozens of families and about 50 children chose the third option Saturday. They assembled at Roanoke County's Green Hill Park for the third gathering of a new group called Kids in the Valley, Adventuring! or KIVA.

Chip and Ashley Donahue started KIVA to let other young families know about all the free outdoor activities for children around the Roanoke area.

"It's what we go out every weekend and do with our kids anyway," said Ashley Donahue.

But when the Donahues told their friends about all the activities around town, "they didn't even know they existed," she said.

Judging by the turnout Saturday, the Donahues seem to have tapped into a significant unmet need. About 22 children showed up for the first KIVA event in January at the Mill Mountain Discovery Center even though there were four inches of snow on the ground.

"Chip and I are astounded with the reaction we've had," said Donahue.

Chip Donahue, a second-grade teacher at Roanoke County's Glen Cove Elementary School, said he gets an e-mail every other day about the group. People hear about it through newspaper announcements and by word of mouth, he said.

"It just gives something nonorganized, like, 'Let's sit around in the grass and play and go on a hike,' " said Ashley Donahue, adding, "I am not trying to come off as a hippie."

The children took a walk around the park, looking at bluebird houses and listening to Earl Morris.

"You don't put a bluebird house up if you're not going to monitor it," explained Morris, the Roanoke County coordinator with the Virginia Bluebird Society.

In the back of the group, some children seemed more interested in a mud puddle than in the nesting habits of bluebirds.

An antique rail car in the park also was a hit with the children.

"Mom, can we climb up there?" asked Benjamin Jenkins, 11.

He clambered up before his mother, Tracy Jenkins, could answer.

A few minutes later, as the group made its way along a path next to the road, Benjamin's brother, Nicholas, 6, reached out a hand and tentatively tapped the guardrail separating the road from the path.

"For the first time, I get to touch the guardrail," he said.

Their mother said her children enjoyed running around outside.

"In this day and age, we keep kids so busy they need something relaxing, and a day in the woods is a great way to spend a Saturday," she said.