Beating the Cold Snap Blues

For those who read this blog that don't live in the interior of Alaska it has been really cold up here; not just cold, but cold for a really long time. It has been three weeks since I've had the boys out to play, and the last time we did that was when we flew down to ER to visit with Ahma and Grandpa. We haven't been outside because it's been below -20F for weeks, and a lot of that time the temperature was at -30 or lower. I have a personal cutoff for going outside at -20. It's really hard to keep cheeks warm at those temperatures, and #1 has the lingering frostbite to prove it.

So, we've been cooped up inside all this time and I've been challenged to find lots of things for the kiddos to do. Here are some of the activities to stave off cabin fever:

 

I pulled my van out of the garage and then "painted" tracks on the floor with water and let them ride their bikes.  #1 enjoyed pushing #3 in the stroller, and he enjoyed it right back!

 

 #3 watching, from a safe distance!, his brothers zoom around on their bikes.

The house was really cold this morning so I thought it best to play near the stove.  We rarely get these rugs out, so the boys were entertained for quite some time.

 

Yesterday I pulled out the large electric train and each kiddo took a turn using the controller.

I've been trying to get of my comfort zone and getting the paints out more.  Here the kids are making ornaments.  I cut out shapes from cardboard and they chose their colors.  

 

 Here they are finished.  I plan on stringing them and letting the kids put them on the tree.  It's been ages since we've had ornaments, and I figure no one will care if these break!  Headache free tree decorations.

 

 We bought a small magnetic dry erase board and hung it on the wall.  Something else for the boys to do when the lack of cooperation and cabin fever start to close in on us.  Here are a couple other painting projects. The apple and dinosaur are cheap wood cutouts from the craft store and after they were painted I glued on a magnet.  The snowflakes and tree are painted on cardboard with painters tape to make the shapes!

 

 Each of the boys playing with their computer.  #1 has a couple really cool games on his that uses the mouse to guide a spaceship through the air and a monkey through a maze!

A fort!  We don't have many boxes, so I made this with one box, the rocking chair, a play tent, and the babies JumperRoo.  Had to get creative!