Winter afternoons

It seems as though winter has been upon us for eons, although it's really only been a couple of months.  With lots of time stretching out before us until the weather turns nicer again, I have opportunities every day to try to come up with something to do for the afternoon.  Most of our mornings are booked with one thing or another, but the awkward time between the end of napping/resting and dinner and bedtime can seem like forever on a lot of days.  Sometimes we go out to the library or even to a play park or the Children's Museum or something, but a lot of days, we just hang around the house. 

This can make for some very long afternoons!  In an effort to shake things up, I've been trying to find simple, crafty projects that require very little prep and yet are still fun.  One big hit was flour.  Yes, flour, on a big cookie sheet, that the kids could practice tracing letters or just mashing around into mountains.  Then, we read a book about the moon and how the dirt there is like flour, and how craters are formed by meteorites, and so then we had to try that out ourselves with flour again, but this time in bowls.

Another big hit has been a new set of awesome art supplies from our friends K and C.  They included some sweet markers that draw brightly on any color paper, and a set of kid dominoes.  We played with them both last night and the time flew by until bedtime, which was a wonderful thing.

Of course, there's a lot of other playing to be done, and most of it still involves cars, cars, and more cars.  Tali is more into play doh, play doh, and more play doh, and this can actually be done simultaneously with cars (and sometimes also simultaneously with folding laundry) if one can multi-task enough!

I'm more of a get out of the house and do something adventurous kind of mom, but I'm trying to make peace with this part of the year and the staying around the house that it encourages.  It's good for the kids to have unstructured playtime and it's good for me to get down on the floor and play with them.

With that said, I'm always thrilled with the beginning of the weekend and having Sacha home for two days!  She's so good with the kids and they're always doing fun and cool stuff that I would never think of, so it's great that they get more of her on Saturdays and Sundays. 

On that note, TGIF and happy weekend to everyone!