Valentine's & What Winter?

Thanks to my new obsession with Pinterest, I've been feeling slightly underachieving lately. Between the crafts some moms post and the 'everyday' meals that make my dinner table look inadequate, this amazing website can be both thrilling and depressing at the same time. After seeing all the Valentine ideas, I knew the standard box cards weren't going to do it for me this year, so we set off to make a modified version of this...

Addy, loved this photoshoot!

Lilly, a bit under the weather, was a trooper and picked the cutest lollipops!

Living in Indiana, we prepped for a pretty heavy winter--this was the first year we splurged on snow pants, boots, sleds and enough hats/gloves/ear muffs to last a few seasons. I knew they'd love playing in the snow this year, so I was ready! But, of course, as luck would have it, we've actually seen very LITTLE snow. The girls have managed to 'need' to shovel the driveway only once and during our annual lake weekend with some dear friends, we saw only flurries. The flurries were enough to convince my husband that the girls could 'street sled' on a flat road covered with a little frost. They had a blast, but these pictures do make it look much more dangerous than it actually was. It was a great weekend with friends and their kiddos who my kiddos adored, so all in all, it didn't matter that we didn't see snow.

Shovel Queens

Addy--my adventurer

Lilly--much more cautious, but loved it!

The dads at launch~!

The weekend crew!

50 Boredom Busters...

Indiana was one of many states hit last week with over 3 inches of ice and accumulating snow. We were lucky we never lost power and faired better than many of our Chicago-land friends. However, I was NOT cut out for 4 consecutive days inside with my darling girls. To top it off I got this nasty cold/cough thing that was going around so my nights were about as painful as our long days were. The good news? We lived to tell the tale! Here's a listing of some of our Boredom Busters from the week, many we did last week, others were carried over from other hostage situations, but a good list anyway.

1. Make Monkey Bread
   
2. Finger Paint
   
3. Play with Play-dough
   
4. Have a tea-party themed hot cocoa party


5. Play dress-up, pretend to be your favorite princess while watching princess movies


6. Mix food coloring in bath water, see what colors you can make


7. Collect a bucket clean snow and bring inside to play


8. Collect icecles from outside and bring in to eat
   
9. Have a dance party


10. Make s'mores in the oven


11. Make catepillars out of old egg cartons



12. Practice letter-writing, scissor cutting, glue sticking or any kind of craft!
    
13. Bead necklaces


14. Count money in your piggy bank


15. Skype with Aunt Cat


16. Make Valentine's Day card


17. Bake cookies




18. Build forts


19. Play 'school' setting all our dolls up for circle time and reading books


20. Look through old pictures of mommy & daddy as kids


21. Watch mom & dad's wedding video


22. Make heart garland


23. Bake "Heart Tarts" (not a fan favorite)


24. Help mom organize toys!


25. Compile info for taxes (mom's task)


26. Have a dinner date with our neighbors



27. Change all the outfits on the dolls--have them do a fashion show


28. Build our train tracks off the train table and around the first floor of the house


29. Watch videos of Addy & Lilly as babies
    
30. Make a movie video
    
31. Read LOTS of books (Have You Filled a Bucket Today? is a current favorite!)


32. Take pictures


33. Shared popsicles with our friends



34. Have a spa day--manis & pedis for everyone
    
35. Watch A LOT of Dora the Explorer


36. Wrap ourselves in toilet paper to pretent to be mummies


37. Sign up for summer camp (yea!)


38. Roll bouncy balls down the basement steps to see which one lands first (testing gravity)


39. Squeeze our own orange juice


40. Build pyramids out of our plastic cups


41. Make an entire village out of our wooden blocks


42. Paint cardboard boxes into our own houses


43. Play super-hero's with pillow-cases as our capes


44. Make colored pancakes with food coloring


45. Schedule a winter get-away (Great Wolf Lodge--see you in 2 weeks!)


46. Read blogs and let kiddos see all their online friends :-)


47. Online shopping (mom's therapy)


48. Host in indoor scavenger hunt


49. Build inside snowmen with marshmallows


50. When the ice begins to thaw and you are brave enough...head outside!