Straight From the Bottle

God you're making me feel really uncreative, so have a look at www.juniormagazine.co.uk/.../article.asp. But we (In London - rain for 9 days straight? if only) tend to read A LOT, do speed drawings of the characters/animals on Roman's DVDs as they appear on screen, make dens / assault courses out of the sofa, do finger painting, bake lots (he loves cooking and baking), then put on the waterproofs and head to the library / and or baby gym and wait for the summer.

Minus twenty with almost a metre of snow?  Snow castles, my friend!  And then some ho-cho (hot chocoloate) to keep us warm until the socks come out of the dryer.  And then we're back at it.

Here in Winnipeg, we don't get rain.  Just sun and snow.

My favourite indoor game is making a zip line with string from the top of the entertainment centre tied down to a chair leg. Then we attach army men to coat hangers and send them down the zip line over and over again. This game usually leads to making parachutes for the army men out of shopping bags and tossing them as high as we can, or throwing them from the top of the stairs... which then usually leads to paper airplane making... then leads to attaching parachutes to the airplanes... etc. etc. etc.

When all else fails, we bundle up and go outside. :-)

Puzzles.  Like, grown up puzzles.  Ezra likes to help find the edge pieces and sort them by color and stuff.  Then I let him push the pieces in the right places, and he thinks it's the bees knees.  When he tires of that, we blow up big balloons and play "keep off"- where the balloons aren't allowed to  touch the ground.  We count every time we hit the balloon, or say the alphabet.  He LOVES it.

Also? Blankets and MOVIES.  :)

i have no freakin' idea how we're going to handle winter with our 2-year-old son yet. storytime at the library? museums? lots and lots of museums (we're in the dc area). or maybe it's time that he starts spending some weekends with the grandparents. i don't know. haven't quite figured it out yet.

Wii...all things Wii.  You will not regret this purchase.

Martina has it! Also, fort building....  and now that Archer is older, check out Play Mobil! Expensive, but worth it! They have fun toys to play with, not only will Archer love it, but you will too (hint, if you get him some for Christmas, put it together Christmas eve and have it set up under the tree already! Some of the sets can take over an hour to put together and little guys don't have the patience after opening it up!)! Knights and castles, pirates, the airport, Native Americans.....

We have a couple of fun games too-- Zingo. Our house favorite is a Ravensberger game called Rivers, Roads and Rails. You can just put the cards together and create fun, make believe towns, or attempt to teach Archer the rules....

and I'll second Tina on the Wii also! We are not big on video games but my sister got it for my son's birthday and it's a hit here!

Play-dough!!

ahh man, i want to go to that tree house place sometime! looks like fun. its been cold...but so cal standards at least...did you go outside yesterday? burrr....oh, and when its raining we do playdough, make cookies, cut out a gazillion things out of construction paper, finger paint, glue/color/tape, etc. oh, nap and watch tv too!

You guys are awesome. Puzzles REALLY are the best. And tents! Indoor tents! They're BRILLIANT! Highly recommend them to all... Of course it's back to being warm here in So. Cal... Sigh... And Jenifer! Let's go! Early January! Wanna?

A day late, I'm afraid... but I always enjoyed indoor picnics.  Push all the furniture out of the way, lay out a big blanket full of goodies, and play frisbee or soccer inside.  It was always a huge treat to be allowed to play ball inside the house!

If all else fails, put a shower curtain over your table and break out the homemade finger paints!  Anything gooey will do... pudding, shaving cream, whipped cream... the messy possibilities are endless!  Have fun!!!

LogicalMama and Mollie have my heart...I have a 5 year old ACTIVE boy ( is there any other kind of boy?) and a 2 year old spunky girl. We live in New England and the snow and cold really put a slow in our roll, so to speak. My house has been transformed into a city of forts...some pop-up variety and some constructed with backs of chairs and sofas. And lunch is a free for all of finger foods presented picnic style.

I love that you asked this question though...the shower curtain on the table idea is FABULOUS!

i am there!!!

Ok, yes, the Muppets are the coolest! Our favorite Christmas album is John Denver and the Muppets-- love during We Wish You a Merry Christmas when Gonzo sings, "bring me some figgy pudding..." Miss Piggy says, "piggy pudding?!" He says, "no figgy pudding, made with figs.... and bacon!!" "What?!"

I also have the Muppet Show Cast Album which, incidentally, I've had for 30 years on cassette-- copied from vinyl! Can't find this anywhere and IT. IS. THE. BEST!

Sometimes I'm driving along singing to the cassette (mind you my son is NOT in the car with me...) and someone will ineviteably signal to me at a light to open my window.... "what is that you are listening to, you look so happy?" "Why it's Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem singing Tenderly!"

Hey Beck.....  what ever happened to that nice friend of yours scar? i miss her cute creative blogs.  as for fun in the indoors....... i got my 4 year old daughter a vacuum... she loves it and now she is into the magic eraser, my home has never been cleaner...haha!  i also gave out christmas cookies in little chinese take out boxes to all the close family and let her decorate the boxes with stickers and then the cookies...  with a lot of guidance!  was a blast.  have a funtacious holiday!

LOVE these ideas! What a bunch of rockin' cool mamas!! So I have a 16 month old and we're all about the library and science museum and believe it or not, the MALL. It's a great place to let him RUN when he needs to get it all out on these snowy days. And lots and lots of play dates. Like every day if we can swing it with his buds.

How about Aquadoodle?  We have the "musical" version, and the singing isn't half-bad!  Also, read-along books on tape or book with cd.  Our library loans them out, and my kids adore the "grown-up" aspect of using the cd player along with a book they enjoy.  We also like CandyLand, and yes, those big floor puzzles that kids can feel some success with completing.  Sometimes my 5-year-old helps me cook (adds ingredients to a bowl, turns on stand mixer, etc) and sometimes I give him little tasks to help around the house.  He can take a baby wipe and wipe off all our doorknobs.  Or windex a few windows, or dust with a feather duster.  They think it's fun!  They don't realize it's work, just yet.