In Minnesota it’s often super cold or super snowy, but very often lately it’s a-whole-lot of both around here.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve spent many days inside as we watch the thermostats struggle to stay as warm as we’d like them. With windchill, we for real dipped down to negative 65 degrees. (Let me just say that again for the people in the back, NEGATIVE 65. What the what?!)
Most Minnesota winters were constantly praising Jesus for libraries, indoor playgrounds, and museums but this winter even those have closed due to weather, so we go days feeling straight up trapped in our houses.
So the days we’re left wondering why in the world we chose to live in a place where the air hurts our faces, what can we do with our rambunctious kiddos? I’ve compiled a list of a few of our current favorite indoor, at home activities!
Eloise is a girl on the go. She very quickly gets bored and I am constantly searching for the thing that’s going to hold her attention the longest. (This is an everyday question for me right now as I spend lots of time nursing mister Finn.) She loves to color or create, be active, and is way too smart for her own good. Thankfully the target dollar section, Instagram, and Pinterest have loaded me up with ideas to keep my girl busy!
Some of her current faves are…
- Colorable puzzles. (Target dollar section, what’d I tell yah?) They’re literally a dollar and I have started investing in one or two every time we go to target. She gets to color and use her brain to put the pieces together once she’s deemed them just the right amount of scribbled.
- Homemade play dough. Eloise loves this stuff! She got some for Christmas from her god mama and now we have fun making more together. I followed this recipe here.
- DIY color matching game. I’ve seen this done a few different ways on Pinterest but we used pre-dyed popsicle sticks and literally just a box. I cut six lines into the box and colored around them with the matching colors. (I also wrote the names of the colors in all caps as a bonus letter element.) Then handed her the popsicle sticks and let her go to town! This kept her attention for what felt like hours. It was actually probably a solid twenty minutes straight but she came back to it over and over again throughout the day, and continues to pull it down almost daily to play with! Next step is getting a container she can use that is a little more put together. (And I don’t have to fold over and over again to open and close haha!)
- Forts, all the forts (or tunnels as she calls them). The greatest part about forts i think, is the toys or activities that maybe dared to become a little boring from playing over and over so many days in a row, become exciting again because they’re playing them in a “new” space. And i just love to watch her imagination sore. Pro tip – Don’t be afraid to use those couch cushions mamas.
- And seriously, we got so cooped up that we actually DID wanna build a snowman, so I straight up brought snow into our house. It started small, in a bowl with a spoon and some gloves to play with (or eat). But then I got real creative and brought it up into our tub and threw on her snow pants and boots so she could really play! And hey, no clean up and I don’t have to freeze my butt off. Win-win!
Not all of us are lucky enough to escape this frozen tundra like miss Emily and fam, so if you’re stuck inside like this mama, I hope some of our activities can help keep your littles having fun and keep you sane.
But if it snows one more time…
Xo,
A
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