Rainy Days and Tent Play

The sun just came out yesterday for the first time in a week.

T was gone for all but one day of that week.

Fortunately, Aunt Linda gave the kids a tent for Christmas.

The tent became a fixture of our living room on Rainy Day #2.  

It still takes up most of our living room.  

And I love it.

The Bears have played sleepover, 

tea party,

and endless chasing games in and out of the tent.  

The biggest peels of laughter are from the chasing games

when Baby Bear is doing the chasing.

 Baby Bear loves his sibs so much,

he just wants to be in on their action.

Lord, when I remember these rainy days,

let me forget the moments when I was crabby,

and tired,

and tripping over the bedding on the floor,

and instead remember the smiles,

the screams of delight,

the laughter,

the shaking tent,

the make-believe.

and Lord, thank you for these rainy days,

and our tent.

Daybook for October 2011

Today I took a few moments to pause for an October Daybook.  Usually, I am composing my Daybook thoughts before bed, when it is quiet and peaceful.  I realized that is not the most accurate representation of our lives right now.  Today, I pieced together my thoughts throughout the day in the midst of the action.   What a difference!  It is a nice snapshot of a very normal Tuesday, precious in it's simplicity and normalcy.  As always, thanks to the Simple Woman's Daybook for hosting the inspiration.


Outside my window...it is raining, a dark morning, and it is supposed to rain all day.  But that's ok.  Today is Tuesday, the refreshing catch-up day of our week.  We don't have to run out the door this morning, because there is no preschool or Bible study today.  We have nowhere we need to be, nowhere we need to go.  What's on our list for today?  Laundry, vacuuming, meal prep and Sesame Street, and that's all we have to accomplish.   Cue a deep breath and contented sigh.  I love Tuesdays.

I am hearing...the sweet sounds of a lazy early morning.  The kids are playing as I stand in the hallway sorting laundry.  Baby Bear is napping in the room behind me.   G-Bear is singing a song as she colors at the art table.  I hear  E-Bear in the playroom playing with his trucks: "look out for the tractor, roooooowr!  Beep, beep!  Outta my waayyyyy!"  I am closing my eyes, trying to save this happy soundtrack to my brain's hard drive.  


I am thinking...about what it would be like to homeschool my kids.  The thought is both tempting and terrifying this morning. 

I am thankful...for my new bag of Coach's Oatmeal (thanks, Mom!), the perfect breakfast for a rainy morning like today.  They taste like steel cut oatmeal but cook in 5 minutes on the stove, which is perfect for my kids, who take after their momma and get cranky when their breakfast-ready tummies are rumbling.  We all love oatmeal, and I am so thankful for the cool, rainy breeze at our window that makes it sound appealing this morning.  I'll have craisins, milk and brown sugar on mine, milk and brown sugar only for G-Bear, and E-Bear will have just the sugar, please.  Yum.

From the learning rooms...Time to hit the bathroom before Sesame Street starts!  While I have had very little success motivating E-Bear to try the potty, both his preschool and Bible study teachers have him in the "potty chair" group at school.  What gives?!   Am I really that bad at motivating my kids out of diapers?  I don't know whether to jump for joy or throw my hands up in bewilderment.  I think I'll jump for joy for now, even though I'm still the one changing the diapers ;)

Around the house...we are decked out for fall.  E-Bear's finger paint pumpkin and apple tree painting adorn our window.  G-Bear did a great job on her autumn color page, which now adorns our front door.  Leaf and apple cut-outs hang from our sliding porch door.  Who needs decorations with these resident artists!  On the porch, our fairytale pumpkin sits contentedly on the table, and our mum plants perch on the railing.  We have quite the harvest around here.  

In the kitchen...our butternut squashes are roasting.  They smell amazing.  While the kids enjoy their lunch, I am peeling, chopping, roasting, and pureeing squash for our dinner tonight, dinner tomorrow , and for Baby Bear who will soon be ready to enter into the world of baby food.  The kids watched me prep the squashes as they ate lunch.  They giggled at the squash's name, waited wide-eyed for me to cut it open as they guessed what color it would be inside, ahhhhed at the seeds as I cut them out, and marveled at my knife-welding skills as I chopped it into chunks.  We all have such a good time when we cook together.  

Check out Toddler Approved for this great game idea

I am creating...a rainy day game for us to play after lunch.  It is called Lily Pad Hop from a great toddler idea blog, Toddler Approved.  We made ten paper lily pads, each labeled with a number 1-10 on it.  Then we played spread the lily pads out on the living room floor number side down.   We had a great time hopping around as the kids pretended to be frogs searching for the numbers I called out.  We made it through at least 6 rounds before we all collapsed in exhaustion, just in time for Quiet Time!  This was a hit, and we'll definitely do it again.





I am wondering...how such huge piles of toys can be amassed so quickly after Quiet Time when it took us sooooo long to put them away only an hour before :)


I am reading...my email in a quiet moment as T walks in.  It is such a treat it is to have him home some afternoons this year.  Even if he has work to finish, it is nice just to be close, working together.  


I am hoping...that dinner tastes as good as it smells.  Our soup is simmering on the stove.  Together, the cinnamon, butternut squash, apples, thyme and onion make the perfect scent of autumn.  

I am looking forward to...feeding Baby Bear his FIRST rice cereal tonight at dinner!  


I am pondering...the messiness that I am bringing upon myself as Baby Bear takes his first cereal bites.  Did I mention that our carpet is off-white?  Hmmmm.

One of my favorite things...is playing "Superman" with the kids: 

E-Bear:  

"Mommy, let's play Superman.  I'll be Superman...."

G-Bear:  

"And I'll be Wonder Woman!"

E-Bear: 

"....and Baby Bear can be the rocketship...."

G-Bear:  

"Or Baby Superman."

E-Bear:  

".....and Daddy can be the airplane, and you be the girl who likes Superman."

I am going...it's time for our one outing of the day.  Everyone ate great dinners tonight, (thanks to our butternut squash and Texas Mommy's recipe!) and it is Family Night at Chick-fil-a, which means we're headed out for IceDream cones.  The Chick-fil-a restaurant by our house makes colored IceDream cones for it's family night.  Last week the cones were light blue, this week they are light green.  The staff have the kids vote each Tuesday night on the color they want for the next week.  They have us hooked.  Tonight they let G-Bear make her own cone.  When E-Bear saw his cone he let out a delighted laugh so loud the whole restaurant looked over.  God bless Chick-fil-a.  

A few plans for the rest of the week:  We'll reunion with some close friends from Princeton later this week, something we have looked forward to for awhile now.  We'll have ten kids between four families!   Bring it on, I can't wait.

Rainy Day Fun

As if returning from vacation to laundry, refrigerator re-stocking, vacuuming, and cooking wasn't enough--today was a rainy day.  My kids were barely hanging in there as I finished our morning chores, and we needed a fun reward for all our patience and hard work.

Fortunately, I had a rainy day idea saved up.

We went for a TRAIN ride!  Or, as E-Bear would say...."Shoooo SHOOOO!"

Minneapolis is fortunate enough to have a light rail train as part of its public transit.  We drive by it frequently, (SHOO SHOO!  Mommy!  SHoo SHooooo!) but my kids had never ridden on it before today. Oh, the excitement when I said we were going to ride the train!  You would have thought I had promised ice cream, candy and cookies on top of a pile of bubble blowers, toy cars and Disney princesses.  Not that we didn't still have two time-outs and several melt downs between putting on our shoes and getting into the car.....

Riding the light rail train is easily a 1-2 hour slam dunk rainy day activity.  We drove to one of the train stops, parked our car and bought our tickets at the automated kiosk.  It cost us all of $3.25 for 2.5 hours of fun:  $0.75 for each of the kids and 1.25 for me.  So worth it compared to the delight in my kids' eyes as we scooted onto the escalator up to the platform.

We started in the middle of the route, so we got to pick whether to head toward Downtown and the Twins Stadium or the Mall of America.  I knew we would be taking whichever train came first, which meant we headed toward MOA.  I couldn't believe it, but the kids were RIVETED.  Looking out the window was like a new adventure for them.  They loved watching the passing cars, trains, tunnels, bridges and buildings.  G-Bear loved listening to the train chimes and the names of the stations.  If all else failed, there was always great people-watching.

We arrived at Mall of America 25 minutes later, and took the elevator up to the Mall to have a snack that we had packed.  We agreed to walk around the Nickelodeon Amusement park, and goodness if I didn't hit the jackpot, because Dora the Explorer was there.

Now, this wouldn't have been a huge deal 2 weeks ago, but we are just back from visiting cousins E & S in North Carolina, and they are all about Dora.  So of course, G-Bear is also now all about Dora.  G-Bear's eyes lit up like a birthday cake.  And when Dora waved at her, you would have thought she had died and gone to heaven.  Goodness, the kid has only seen about 4 Dora episodes in her life!

When she was invited in to shake Dora's hand, no amount of fear could hold G-Bear back.

She practically melted when Dora gave her a hug:

By the end of our walk around the park, G-Bear was so blissed out that she was hugging plush people all over the place.

This is my cautious child?  What?

And E-Bear?  Well, he had a death grip on my thigh, hiding behind my right leg.

By the time we finally caught our light rail train back to our car the kids were tuckered out.  But we had enjoyed 2 hours of rainy day fun, all for $3.25.  Oh, that all rainy days would be so sweet.  We might have to pull out the old "Shoo Shoo" ticket again sometime soon.  

The moral of the story?  When rainy days head your way, no need to fret, no need to empty your wallet to find something to do.  A little creativity goes a long way, and when all else fails,

A sign at the entrance of Nickelodeon Universe.  It could not have more perfectly captured our day.  And we didn't spend a dime there.

May your rainy days turn out to be sunny.....