Staycation: Day 1

It has been a crazy last few days, to say the least. This morning the girls barely woke up in time to get dressed, eat, and make it to Mass. The only thing I could entice them with was the knowledge that when we came home from church there was nothing else we had to do today. We could get back into our sweats or pjs or whatever and just relax. The girls were actually pretty excited about this, and I was thrilled. It's no secret I love some down time, and today was a long time coming.

Then about 2pm I received a text stating that school had been cancelled for both girls for tomorrow and Tuesday due to Hurricane Sandy approaching our area. At first I was relieved - I wouldn't have to drag kids out in the rain unnecessarily. Then it dawned on me: now I have an extra 2 days to entertain my kids, probably without electricity. I love my daughters, and we get along great, but creative entertainment is not my strong suit. I enjoy that they come home from a full day at school and want to play independently. Weekends are fun, but they really are more needy. So suddenly I found myself concerned with what the heck we are going to do to occupy ourselves during this mandated staycation.

A quick trip to Michael's craft store hopefully did the trick. I now have a few extra items in my arsenal of kid-entertaining activities. Today's activity was pumpkin painting. Ben is the pumpkin carver of the family, but since he's been working funky hours I decided it would be more fun for everyone for the girls to just paint on their pumpkins. And fun it was. Each pumpkin is a masterpiece. Ava was very methodical with her design; Jocelyn had fun painting the top of her pumpkin (for some reason the bottom remained bare); and Molly was so excited to be painting, it may take until Halloween for all the paint to dry. Overall it was a successful day at home. I'm crossing fingers it's the start of a fun extended holiday, and not the calm before the storm indoors as well as outside.