More of What We Do to Entertain Ourselves

We've all been sick enough this last week that I thought we should try to stay away from other people as much as possible, but not sick enough to warrant laying around all day. We're doing our best to keep busy around here. Lincoln and I have been playing games during nap time. I think I've mentioned before that my mom gets the kids a subscription to Highlights High Five magazine for Christmas every year. Sometimes the magazine come with games you can rip out and play. We've been doing those, but I think you could make a game like this on your own really easily.

If you take a sheet of paper and turn it horizontally, then at one end put a starting line and at the other end put a finish line. Then divide the spaces between the lines into boxes. You should have three rows of about seven boxes. Next make three different pictures, they could be anything really, this game choose to use animals. Put the pictures on a separate strip of paper so you can fold them up so they'll stand and can be moved. Then make a small deck of cards with one of the animals pictures on each card.

To play the game, draw a card. Whichever animal you draw, move that animal's piece on the game board one space. Whichever animal reaches the finish line first is the winner! The nice thing about this game, is that you can play with your child, and each be an animal, or the child can play by himself and just see which animal finishes first. Lincoln and I had fun doing this for about 1/2 hour before he got tired of it.

A different day, I was at my wits end with what to do. The kids were bouncing off the walls, and very tired of listening to me tell them what to do every five minutes. We were desperately missing our hours of outside time on summer afternoons. The kids needed something they could do semi-unsupervised that allowed them the space they needed from me.

Call me crazy, but I set up a water table, of sorts, in my kitchen. I got two empty ice cream buckets, put a towel underneath each one, and filled them about 1/2 full of water. Then I got out my measuring spoons, some old formula scoops, and a bunch of the kids' small toys, and I let the kids go at it. Then I went and sat in the living room with Adelia. I figured any water that got on the floor was just water and would be easy enough to clean up later, and it was well worth the time this activity kept the boys attention. (An entire hour!)

We've also been building a lot with blocks. Mega Bloks, Trios, wooden blocks, Mag Neatos, you name it. Sometimes we see how tall we can make a tower. Sometimes we have a certain structure in mind, like a fire station. Sometimes we get out all my cake and pie pans and use the Mag Neatos (they're magnetic) with them to make all sorts of creations. And of course, there's always the Trio swords and guns. I really should just give in and get the boys Nerf guns and be done with it.

Lincoln had recently developed an affinity for vacuuming. So sometimes, when all else fails, I haul out the vacuum and let him go at it with the edger. The only downside to it is that I have to sit and listen to the vacuum for half an hour.

We've also been spending a lot of time on the floor with Adelia, trying to encourage her to roll over. She really is not interested, but we have fun.

We tried potato stamps for the first time. That went ok, but the boys didn't really grasp the concept, so some of them are a little be hard to identify. But after they were dry, we made them into thank you cards to send out to our family members for the nice Christmas presents that were given to us.

And, I think I mentioned that we've been sick...so one of the days we had a pajama day. None of us got dressed. :) Here's two cute kids all wrapped up in Ivan's "bing-kit" his new obsession and must-have item. We're up to three now...the binkie (which he only gets in bed, but HAS to have), his "babbit", a stuffed rabbit that goes everywhere with us, and the blanket.

So that's what we've been doing...what have you been doing?