Social distancing day 15: Easter ornaments

Today we made salt dough ornaments in spring and Easter shapes.  Wren is super excited about Easter and has been pestering almost non-stop about it for a month.  I have no idea why she is so excited.  I think it was fun for her last year to do an egg hunt?  IDK.  We a not a religious household and the Easter bunny doesn't bring all that much so...  Anyhow, she is excited so I thought I'd just go with it.  I decided to make one of those silly Easter trees (we still have to go find the perfect branches to stuff in a vase to hang the ornaments on - a great task for a walk on another day).

We started with making the salt dough (1 cup water, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup water - mix/kneed).  The kids love to help measure and since it wasn't something anyone was going to eat, I let them be a little more helpful than when I make a cake or something more complicated.

I also let the kids help roll out the dough and use the cookie cutters (I pulled out all the cutters that seemed spring like and we used some circles to make eggs.  I just stretched the circles a little to make them ovals.  Don't forget to make holes to put a string though.  Then bake and wait to cool (2 hours at 250).

We then painted a couple of the ornaments.  I think it will take us a lot of rainy days to get these all painted.  An hour seems to be the max for a paint project but I really enjoyed it. 

Social distancing day 14: Watching a concert

Today started out with a little play dough play.  We had fun making things for our face.  Mustaches, eyebrows, goatees and long dog tongues.

We had some more outdoor climber play in the afternoon.  Wren is really getting good at climbing.

The big excitement of the day was watching a concert.  The kids have been to a couple of Jeff's gigs (Jeff is the drummer in a band called Snaarl) when they have been out doors and the kids wear noise canceling earmuffs.  Since the world is on lock down, a number of artists have been giving live performances from their houses.  One of our favorite local artists, Eilen Jewel had a streaming concert last night so we let the kids watch it with us.  It is music they have heard in the car and like.  It was only an hour.  They danced, I bought out the kids instruments for them to play along with, and then they insisted on the bass and the guitar (sorry Jeff).  They really had fun and it was a super quick story and off to bed after the concert.

Social distancing day 13: more yard work and tools

Today was mostly a random play day (I got out for a longer run in the morning so Jeff had the kids).  In the afternoon we did some more outside play, playing on the climber and I got a little yard work done with the kids "helping".  I know how much they love the idea of helping and using tools so I thought we would do a little practice with a hammer and a screwdriver.  I was lazy and just found an old yard stake for them to practice on.  We have a tiny hammer.  I started the nails for them and let them bang on them and then I started a screw and screwed it in and backed it out so it would be easier for them to try to screw in.  They loved it.  They also did a really nice job taking turns. 

Social distancing day 12: hike, climbing, at home date night

Jeff took today off of working from home.  We were supposed to be on a two week vacation in Spain right now so Jeff took off two days to play with the kids in lock down, lol.  Not quite as goon but almost, hahaha!

The day was pretty good.  Jeff went out for a little mountain bike ride (still allowed since he didn't ride with or near people) and left me with the kiddos.  We had some fun playing with Kinetic sand.  If you haven't played with this stuff it is a really interesting texture.  It's pretty cool.  Wren got it for her birthday last year and its been a while since I've gotten it out, mostly because last time I did, Flynt ate some of it.  With Flynt no longer napping, it has been really tough to do some of the projects and play with Wren that he isn't ready for since he wants to be just like his big sister but the kinetic sand play went well and I had fun playing with it too.

After lunch we took a little family hike up in the hills.  Again, we tried to pick a less popular trail. Our first choice looked too crowded so we went to another area.  It was pretty empty (although still way more people than you would expect on a normal Friday this time of year).  It was a little cold and windy, but beautiful.  Wren, of course had a potty emergency 6 minutes into the hike and peed in the bushes.  We made it about 40 minutes before both kids were done and we walked to the parking lot.  It was up hill out and down hill back.  Flynt got put in the frame pack which he was really unhappy about (at first) for the walk back.  We got back way faster than we went out.  The hike was about a mile and a quarter.

Later in the afternoon the kids climbed on the climber.  It took a couple minutes and some thinking about it but they decided it was really fun and enjoyed climbing all over it.  I think it has a lot of potential for a fantastic place to play for many years.

We finished up the day with a little stay at home date night.  We fed the kids some leftover spaghetti and got them to bed.  While the kids were eating I did some meal prep for Jeff and I and tossed some foil packet salmon, broccoli rabe and potatoes in the oven.  These are all things the kids wont eat without a lot of complaining so it was nice to have an adult dinner.  I actually turned out pretty good.  We do a local organic produce delivery service so we had the potatoes and broccoli rabe as part of that box and the salmon was in the freezer.  Its fun to do the grocery delivery but we never know what is going to be in the box so it takes a little creativity to figure out how to make meals out of it that the kids will eat.  I digress.  I got the date space ready while Jeff was bathing the kids and then we got them to bed.  I put on a dress, Jeff put on a nicer shirt and I pulled our dinner out of the oven.  A bottle of wine and a nice uninterrupted conversation.  It really was lovely.  We have decided to do this again soon.  We don't always have to make it fancy and takeout is a good option if we want to simplify things but I wanted the first at home date to feel special since we kind of need that right now.  It was.

Social distancing day 11: building a climber

Today's project started out excellent.  Both kids were having fun helping Jeff and I get materials and at one point Wren was even holding pieces together for me but at some point Flynt decided it was scream o'clock and was pretty inconsolable for a long time.  Jeff tried to get him happy without any success and eventually Jeff, Wren and Flynt called it done and went inside while I finished building the climber.  I got it all the way built but the kids haven't gotten to climb on it yet.  We still need to move it to the grass for them to play on it.

Social distancing day 10: painting

Today project didn't exactly go as planned.  I thought it would be super fun it the kids did a blown paint project.  You know, the type of project where they blow through a straw to move the drop of paint across the paper?  Neither kiddo could do it.  Flynt blew really hard and had tons of slobber dripping out the end of his straw but he couldn't aim it good enough to get the paint to move and Wren is just pathetic with blowing though a straw unless its making bubbles in her drink and making a mess.

The project for round two was just water color paints which was Flynts first time painting so I guess it kind-of counts.  He can be pretty wild without warning and it's been too cold to paint outside so the mean neat-freak mom that I am didn't let him paint yet.  Both kids really enjoyed it and the project still took about an hour.  It was a little lame on the cool factor as far as I was concerned but the kids loved it which is all that mattered.

Then we went outside where they "planted" themselves in the flower pot and "grew into beautiful tulips".  It was a pretty good day.  

Social distancing day 9: indoor camping trip

Today was pretty wet and cold outside so we decided to have a fun inside play project.  The plan was to set up our indoor campsite and play in it.

I got out the tent (I wanted to check it out anyway since we had another tent that the waterproofing had deteriorated over time and had gotten sticky and was disgusting), the sleeping pads, sleeping bags, backpacking pillows, camp chairs and a small battery powered lantern.

We played in the tent.  It was more like a mix between a tickle party in a foam pit and a snugly wrestling match than the pretend play I had envisioned.  I suppose Wren hasn't gone camping enough for it to really be ingrained into her pretend play lexicon yet and Flynt has never been.  Still, it provided hours of entertainment.  Required a hot chocolate break and the kids were pretty happy all day.  Peek-a-boo with the door was also great fun and lasted a long time. 

We had a social distancing play date too and did FaceTime with a friend who has a little guy who is a little older than Flynt.  That was also a fun treat.

The pictures a rather terrible on this one but there were kids and giggles and sleeping bags and that's really all that matters.  And yes, Flynt is really into the princess dress right now.  It makes him happy and I don't care.