Rainy Days

We’ve finally reached the end of a very long week.  On Sunday we returned to VA from a successful trip up to Rhode Island where we found a house to rent for the next year.  We’re excited to have that settled but we’ve all been feeling a little down about returning to VA and having another month ahead of us before we will be up there and getting started on our new adventure. 

For this week, we did not have any classes or organized activities arranged.  The kids in the neighborhood went back to school.  And we were stuck inside A LOT because it has rained every single day.  Not little showers either – torrential downpours that lasted for hours. 

While we did get out of the house each day to do our normal weekly errands like grocery shopping and a trip to the library, there was a lot of time to fill up.  Thankfully, I have been thinking about new activities to do with Julia and have recently been inspired by many posts on a website called Pinterest (a very cool and addictive site).  So we made a trip to the store early this week to stock up on some new craft supplies and we were set. 

We created pictures of apple trees with construction paper and paint, using straws to make the apples.  We made and played with playdough that smells like apple pie.  Julia explored a discovery box that I put together with different objects hidden amongst dried beans.

We made sculptures out of marshmallows and toothpicks:

And more sculptures out of pipe cleaners and a colander.

Our neighbor Meg came by today and helped with that one.  And when it was finished we decided it looked like a silly hat so we all tried it on.

We sorted through buttons, finding ones of the same size or color and picking out our favorites.  We hula-hooped.

And today, when we were very sick of rain, we made chocolate cake… with peanut butter frosting… and chocolate chips.

And then the sun came out!!!