Stuck Inside?

As we headed into winter and the impending colder temperatures, I knew the boys and I would be forced to spend a lot more time inside.  In fact, when I compiled our winter to-do list, I planned accordingly and included a whole bunch of activities that would take place right inside our humble abode.  Good thing too because last week was completely nasty here in Va. Beach...no fun snow or anything (unless you count the few flakes that supposedly fell over night and caused massive mayhem on our news stations), just 4 straight days of cold rain.  And to top off the misery, Levi was pathetically sick one of those days, keeping Colton and I inside for an entire days as well (a rarity around here as we usually get out to go to the gym or something at least!).
So how did we keep ourselves entertained?
Well, we made snow globes.  In case you're curious, we just used washed out spaghetti sauce jars, added some water, glitter, and a few tsp. of glycerin (available in the baking section at any arts and crafts store).  I hot glued some figurines (my boys chose dogs because they're both big fans!) to the lids and voila!

And we drew on the windows with dry erase markers.

                                     

We brought out some whipped cream for a little fingerpainting/alphabet practice on the counters.  OK, it turned into a lot of finger licking, but still...

We did some bathtub painting.  Again, in case you're curious, each color was made with about 5 pumps of baby shampoo, 1 tbsp. cornstarch, 2 tbsp. water, and a few drops of different food colors.

And we even got C.R.A.Z.Y and whipped out some classics...a little board game action.  Colton is now a huge Candy Land fan.

                                       

If you're paying really close attention, you probably noticed we didn't do all of these in one day, although we did do 4 out of 5 of them on that one sick day stuck inside (if you now an almost 3 year old's and one year old's attention span, you're probably not surprised to learn each activity lasted about 3 minutes!).  

When the day started and I realized we weren't going to be able to leave the house, I honestly had a little panic attack.  But you know what?  The day was actually really enjoyable (well aside from the fact that Levi clearly didn't feel good).  It was nice to spend a low-key day with my boys watching them discover, play, and learn.