Snow day

During the snow day yesterday, I tried to entertain the kids with as many activities as possible. We started the day with Playdough. The kids used Gillian's new Playdough set and they made cakes and frosted them. 

The kids then got to play for a little bit. I went to find them to start our next project. I found them in John's room. John was reading to Gillian. 

Next I set each kid up with a tray of baking soda. And I prepared 6 squeeze bottles of colored vinegar. The kids take the squeeze bottles and make designs in the baking soda. It's fun to watch the baking soda bubble and fizz. John and Gillian had completely different approaches. John made a picture and Gillian just went abstract. 

I love their different approaches and final projects. They are both amazing. 

Next we played outside. The kids got all bundled up and we were outside for about an hour. 

The kids came inside and snuggled under some blankets to warm up. We ate dinner and then I made some snow ice cream for dessert. Gillian was not a big fan of it, but John loved it. 

Overall it was a pretty awesome snow day. 

A day at the office

Yesterday John was scheduled off from school and I had planned to bring him to work with me. We woke up yesterday morning and Gillian's school had a 10:00 am start and Daddy had a 10:30 start. So the only options were for me to wait out Gillian's delay or bring her to work with me. I decided to bring her to work. I packed up a bunch of activities for the kids and we headed to the office. (On a side note, I work at my in-law's car dealership and it is not a problem to bring the kids to work)

We stopped at the service center to drop off some Valentine's cookies for the employees. Aunt Missy met us at the door. She asked "Who wants to stay with Aunt Miss?" Gillian raised her hand and said "I do!" I got Gillian out of the car and she and Aunt Missy went to work. John and I went over to the sales building and started our day. We have an extra desk in our office that John has claimed. John hung out at his desk playing games on his DS. I was able to get some work done too. Mimi came in and John told her "It's really hot by my desk!" (His desk is by the window.) Mimi had a solution, she made him a little fort. 

He loved his little fort. He also convinced Mimi to add another tablecloth to the fort so it was bigger and the sun didn't make him hot. Uncle T came inside and asked John to help him with the plow truck. When they were done, John said "Uncle T drived and I got to do the plow. I made it go up and down!"

Meanwhile, Gillian was having a great time in the service department. Every time a tech or another employee came into Aunt Missy's office, Gillian would point at them and say "Who's that? What they doing here?" Gillian was very busy and she made pictures for Uncle T, Mimi, Miss Sharon and me too. Gillian and Aunt Missy walked over to the sales building in time for lunch. Gillian was not happy when she saw that John had a nameplate for his desk. John only has a nameplate, because Poppy modified it for him.

Notice the masking tape? It's covering Poppy's middle initial E. Anyway, Gillian asked "Where's my name?" Aunt Missy made Gillian a nameplate out of card stock. Gillian wasn't happy. "I want a wood one!"

The kids had a little picnic in John's fort. 

The picnic was short lived. Gillian ended up eating at my desk. And I ended up with peanut butter on my monitor. I packed the kids extra snacks and juice boxes thinking that they would have some for an afternoon snack. Well Gillian ate everything in her lunch bag. 

After lunch the kids played games on the iPad and my phone. When Mimi came back from her meeting, she set the kids up in the conference room with Disney Junior on TV. 

They spent the rest of the day hanging out in the conference room watching cartoons, relaxing and drawing pictures. It was a long day for them and they were very good. 

Snow day projects

Today was yet another snow day. In anticipation of being stuck inside the house all day, I ran to the food store on Wednesday night. Normally I avoid food stores before a storm, but honestly it wasn't that bad. Luckily I didn't need bread or milk. I just needed some supplies to make chicken torilla soup. While I was getting my soup supplies, I also got a few thing to keep the kids busy. 

This morning I put some clear contact paper on the sliding glass doors with the sticky side out. I also cut up little pieces of tissue paper. So the kids could create stained glass windows. I showed them what to do and let them be creative. Gillian wasn't sure at first, but she figured it out and went crazy. John was very specific. He looked for all white and wanted to make a sky filled with snow. and then all he wanted was green to make grass. 

John's final project. He said "It's snow in the sky and then the grass and there's a fake sky too. I wanted to make people in the middle but wasn't sure how to do it."

Gillian's final project. She said "I crumple up the pieces for the little spots!"

We had a lot of fun with this project. I will definitely do this again. 

Later in the afternoon, we made heart trees. I traced the kids arms and hands to make the tree trunk and let them put heart leaves on the trunk. I'm surprised with the result. I thought they would have used more hearts. 

John's final heart tree. 

This is Gillian's final heart tree. She said "I make it for Johnny!" And she ran over to him and gave it to him. Love their big hearts. 

If the snow didn't turn to rain then we would have had more fun outside. Next time!