Turn dreary into fun!

Make memories you'll talk about for years to come.

We who live in the northwest, have had to learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. The main advice is make sure you have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about muddying up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring rats and hogs make the most of the wet weather and play with your kids or grandkids in the rain using these family-tested outdoor activities.

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned and take your phone so you can have music.

Mom, come on; get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

Turn dreary into fun!

Make memories you'll talk about for years to come.

We who live in the northwest, have had to learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. The main advice is make sure you have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about messing up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring rats and hogs make the most of the wet weather and play with your kids or grandkids in the rain using these family-tested outdoor activities.

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned.

Mom, come on; get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

Why Not Turn Dreary into Fun?

Make memories you'll talk about for years to come.

Living in the northwest, we learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. Just make sure you all have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about messing up your good ones.

Yesterday I was waiting for Terry, standing outside JoAnn's Fabric (he hates to go into fabric stores as it reminds him of when he was little and getting in trouble while his mom was looking through Simplicity pattern books). It had been raining hard and the parking lot had many shallow puddles. I watched a young, harried mom with a sleeping infant in her arms and a two-year-old by the hand, heading into JoAnn's. She was hell bent for fabric. The two-year-old was thrilled with the puddles he managed to stomp in from the car to the store. It made me think, 'we're always going somewhere and what would it be like if we weren't?' What if we set out to have fun? Just think how inexpensive it would be to take your kids to a parking lot after a heavy rain and let them play! I wish you could have seen the joy in that child's face with that quick to the store!

Whether it's just misting or pouring cats and dogs make the most of the wet weather and play with your kids in the rain with these family-tested outdoor activities. 

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned.

COME ON Mom, get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

1. See the sights

October in our state of Washington and its neighbor Oregon is stunningly beautiful now. Take a drive through the countryside and remember, it’s not too late to get one more picnic in.

What are some famous sights in your area? Go check them out. If you have already been to them, try to discover something new about them. If there aren’t any famous sights in your area, then go discover ones that aren’t famous.

Yesterday was Halloween and Terry and I had such fun in our costumes! We dressed as Trump and Clinton. (I actually planned ahead and bought wigs on the internet.)

Our main stop was to the bank to get crisp five dollar bills for our trick-or-treaters (we just have six children in our neighborhood who have been coming to our house since they were babies). Our banker and the tellers were all dressed as minions and we enjoyed laughing at each other. They wanted to know why our bank accounts don't reflect all that money we have! 

If ever there was evidence that we all have an inner child just waiting for any opportunity to play, Halloween certainly gives us a reason to let them out.

Turn dreary into fun!

Make memories you'll talk about for years to come.

Living in the northwest, we learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. Just make sure you all have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about messing up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring cats and dogs make the most of the wet weather  and play with your kids in the rain with these family-tested outdoor activities.

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned.

Mom, come on; get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

Whoa Mama! Nelly, my inner child, has control of the keyboard for this blog! Look out! She’s wild!!! WARNING, this blog could make you hungry, but it might help you lose weight!

.

Pam just spent a week in Seattle taking care of her son’s monkeys. That’s what they call the kids; Brooklyn 16 and Jackson 14. She was so excited to get to play with them! Except Brooklyn had finals all week and spent most of her time in her room studying, or at the library studying, or at her girlfriend’s house STUDYING and she couldn’t play with her very much. But Jackie and she played Gin Rummy a lot and they got to talk like two grown-ups when he wasn’t at school (I just listened in).

But here’s the part you’ve got to know: the monkey’s house was loaded with carbs!!! Oh there was lots of healthy food too, like fresh berries, broccoli, romaine, tomatoes, bacon, eggs, milk, avocado and yogurt (full fat Greek), but the carb section was impressive to me.

1. See the sights

October in our state of Washington and its neighbor Oregon is stunningly beautiful now. Take a drive through the countryside and remember, it’s not too late to get one more picnic in.

What are some famous sights in your area? Go check them out. If you have already been to them, try to discover something new about them. If there aren’t any famous sights in your area, then go discover ones that aren’t famous.

Living in the northwest, we learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. Just make sure you all have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about messing up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring cats and dogs make the most of the wet weather  and play with your kids in the rain with these family-tested outdoor activities.

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned.

Mom, come on; get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

Do your children like to be read to?

Have you heard people say, “The kids today have short attention spans because of electronics and quick-paced television for kids”? It’s true they’re used to watching three to four-second bytes and they enjoy fast-paced computer games, but to date I’ve never met a kid who doesn’t like to be read to. 

As I sat in the Kelso, WA Amtrak station waiting for a train that was 38 minutes late, I watched a grandmother read Curious George to her five-year-old grandson.

From my vantage point, she appeared to be a rather listless reader, void of expression, sound effects and lifted eyebrows accompanying some of Hans’ and Margaret’s incredible thoughts, yet the child was glued to his grandma’s side listening to the story! 

When the book was finished, I thought for sure he’d get up and run around the waiting room, but instead, he pulled another book from his backpack and she proceeded to read it in the same dreary way. The train turned out to be an hour late and the child remained interested in books the entire time. So much for short attention spans and quick-paced actions to keep a child’s attention.

So here are what I believe are 7 benefits of reading bedtime stories to your children.

Now that visual stimulation is served up via television, IPads, IPhones, Xbox etc., children rarely get to tap into their imaginations unless we read to them, or until they can read. As a child, I loved radio (it was before we had television) because my imagination provided the visuals. Because we don’t have kid radio, unless we read to our kids, their ability to use their precious imaginations and be able to visualize will weaken. 

I remember one Christmas, my daughter Peggy bought a bunch of children’s books at a neighborhood garage sale and recorded reading them on a cassette tape recorder for her non-reading cousins as gifts for Christmas. As adults, those cousins still speak of how they loved her gifts of being read to.

My husband Terry and I recorded books on CDs, the same way Peggy did with a cassette recorder. This way our grandchildren could listen to us read the books we gave them as gifts.

2. Creates a Bond