Social Distancing day 43: Balloon game and yellow flowers

We tried another idea from Wren's school today.  Neither kid was really into it but it was maybe 15 minutes of entertainment?  Meh.  The idea was to make a couple of paddles out of paper plates and Popsicle sticks and then bat a balloon back and forth.  Neither of my kids had the attention span, interest or coordination for this one.  It was worth a try.  I had the supplies in the bag from school.  I think if they were a little older or if Wren was a little more coordinated it would have worked.  Stuff is still hanging around, might try it again some day if we don't pop the balloon first.

The big win of the day was taking a walk.  I tried to get the kids interested by saying we should check on the yellow flowers.  They were just starting to bloom last week and should be really pretty.  It worked and Wren got all excited about climbing on some rocks so off we went.  It was a lovely day.

Social distancing day 41 and 42: weekend yard work

During the week I did a pick-up order from HomeDepo with some supplies to make a small enclosure for our puppy so she has a nice safe space in our backyard.  Our yard is fully fenced but it has some places where a little puppy could get out.  We also got a sun umbrella for our table on the deck so we can enjoy eating outside a little more.  We have a beautiful deck but we don't use it as much as we should because it gets so sunny and hot.  The kids helped me carry fencing pieces, assemble the base for the umbrella and they played on their own for a really long time but they also "helped" build the puppy enclosure too.

Social distancing day 40: Coffee filter art

Coffee filter art was one of the few fun suggestions from Wren's school.  Once it was determined that school would not resume this spring they gave us a small bag of art supplies including a few coffee filters.  Basically, draw on a coffee filter with a marker and then give it a couple of squirts of water with a squirt bottle and wait.  They suggested that you put the coffee filter on a towel but be warned that it colors your towel.  I used old gym towels so I didn't care plus we have the washable markers.  It was fun!

We cut a couple like snowflakes at the end for fun. 

Social distancing day 39: puddles and make your own "musical instrument"

Today started a little rocky.  Flynt is going through a phase where he is very much letting me know he is deep in the terrible twos.

It rained today so we decided we needed some fresh air.  I had some thoughts on what would be a good idea but Wren and Flynt decided that what we really needed to do was to stomp in puddles.  Sooo... that's what we did.

There are a couple of big puddles that also get quite filthy in our cul de sac that my kids love to splash in.  They just kept going back and forth in the puddles and got completely soaked and filthy.  I had them strip off in the garage and rinsed their clothes out in the laundry tub.  It was a 2 outfit day.

In the afternoon we decided to make some musical instruments.  I had some heavy duty tubes left over from a roll of aluminum foil and one from parchment paper.  We used some construction paper to decorate our tubes.  I made one too out of a paper towel roll and added a bell to mine.  Once we were done I put on some music and we "played" along.  The kids were SUPER in to it and had a great time.  We put on a "concert" when Jeff came upstairs and asked him to play along with a shaker.  This was a project I thought would be maybe 30 minutes of entertainment but it was over 1.5 hours.  I think they will want to play their instruments again too.  This was a big win.  I wish I had videos but I can't play music for us to play along to and record at the same time so you will have to take my word for it that the kids were making lots of noise and dancing up a storm.

This was much better once I started playing music but like I said, I can't do both.

Social Distancing day 38: Cookie sharing

There is a new Daniel Tiger episode where the kids make cookies, put them in paper boxes and then share them with their friends.  This is (of course) what Wren wanted to do.  I encouraged this idea as it is a way to connect with people, spreads some joy and takes a long time.

The boxes I learned how to make using a utube video.  I used Trader Joe grocery bags and had the kids draw on the boxes.  I wasn't able to make them good enough with the kids helping to have the lid that closed so I decided we should make them baskets instead so we re-used the grocery bag handle for a basket handle and it worked great.

I wrapped the cookies in some parchment paper to keep them clean and to keep the baskets from getting greasy looking.  The kids piled into the stroller and off we went.  They got to watch their one cartoon in the stroller on the way and then we switched to listening to an audible book (frog and toad).  The whole delivery process took a hour and 45 minutes and 3.6 miles.  The kids walked a little bit of the way but rode most of it.  Wren really enjoyed ringing the door bells but knew she had to step back once she did.  We had some fun yelling conversations with friends to maintain distancing practices.  I think we will do something for our friends again.  I feel like we achieved the goals of getting outside, spreading joy, and doing something fun.  

Social Distancing Day 37: Flower walk and cookies

Today was a big day.  Some days I'm a little bit of a slacker and just let the day happen but today was a good day.  We went on a long flower walk and tried to find a bunch of different types of flowers, both wild flowers and flowers in peoples yards.  Wren also brought her camera and took pictures.  I took pictures too so we could compare pictures when we got home (note:  Wren's camera takes terrible pictures, it is a kids camera).  It was a super long outside excursion.  We were out for over an hour and a half and kids were still really having fun when I said it was time to come home (it was lunch time and fun to hangry can happen fast).  We also played the fire fighter game where Flynt decides a stick is a fire hose and I'm the fire chief (Fire Beef is how it sounds when he says it -love!) and I say "Oh no!  _____ is on fire!" and he runs over and pretends to put out the fire.  Wren joined in with the pretend game and it made the walk home fun as the fires kept getting closer to home until we were there.

Here are some of the flowers that we saw:

Next up was cookie making time.  We were all out of pecans so we used peanuts and made chocolate chip peanut cookies.  They were super yummy.  I let Flynt help crack the egg for the first time with this batch of cookies and also help me with the mixer for the first time.  He really enjoyed it.  I have no pictures of those big moments since I was trying to aim egg and keep fingers out of beaters.  Both kids love to help with baking projects.

Social distancing day 36: Backyard play and Dress up

I had a doctor appointment in the morning so Jeff had the kids for a bit.  Because of that we didn't really get anything super organized going.  We played in the back yard a little bit.  Wren got hung up by her dress on the climber which made me giggle.

We played a bit of dress up in the afternoon.  

And watched the deer eat the bush we cut down our of our compost bag.