Cold day

Being a stay at home mom with two kids in school definitely has its perks.  One very big, very awesome perk = we still get snow days (or cold days as they sometimes may be).  Yes.  Today was one of those magical days off of school.  Knowing before I went to bed that school was cancelled we were all able to sleep in.  The kids, bleary eyed, walked out into the light that was still pink in the hallway, knowing something was wrong as it is usually black while we eat breakfast.

"What's going on?"  they inquired while I hand them a cup of cocoa and a pancake....."SNOW DAY"  I shriek, like a 10 year old girl.  Eyes get big, mouths pop open.  "really, no school?"  My kindergartner asks....this is his first official snow/cold day.

No school buddy!!

Commence inside activities for the day.  I read a friends blog yesterday and I just really loved the simplicity of her New Year's resolution for the year.  It was to control less and love more.  What a great mantra as a mom.  Even to think about not having things under control stresses me out a bit.  I usually feel best when the kids are doing a fun, yet educational activity while a load of wash is going and a load of dishes, floor swept, vacuumed, dusted, meal going in crock pot.  When all those things are done...ok....I can sit and play with you a bit.

 Knowing we were going to be inside all day I decided to borrow this mantra for the day, and quite possibly the year.  Control less, love more.  It was tested constantly of course but I noticed as I thought about controlling less that the kids didn't even want to do too outlandish or crazy things.  They didn't run crazy around the house when I wasn't their "director of fun".   I am definitely not saying "I am going to let the kids run wild and have no control" but I sometimes need to work on not having things under control all the time with activities lined up for the kids to do and playtime should look like this or that.

So today every single toy was played with that we own.  Every single one.  Not one single toy made it's way back to the toy box (until I told them it was clean up time before lunch) and that worked out great today.  I don't think I could handle this on a daily basis...but today it was good.  The kids played with all of their toys today.  I have often lamented "why do we have all these toys when they don't play with half of them".  Well today they did.

Isaac wanted to construct a rope to put on batman's shooter....so it would wrap around or hook on something when he shot at it...creative minds at work!!

Next was a little moon dough and kinetic sand time in the kitchen.

The floor got really slippery and Andie and Isaac took it upon themselves to penguin slide across it.

And just so we all know I didn't completely get lost in this whole "let them be a little crazy"....we had a massive pick up, clean up, and school work time and piano practice before and after lunch.  I can only handle so much.....

After lunch (and Mary Poppins)  it was time to have more of my speed of activities:

We just taught the older kids spoons so a few rounds of spoons were played as well.  

All in all I really enjoyed the kids today. Sometimes I feel I spend so much time with them that I don't stop to think about enjoying the time with them.   I think that is what I learned the most.  By not trying to control so much and just let loose a little bit, I had a really fun day full of lots of quality time with the kids.   I like the idea of letting go of a little control and to focus on being more loving, it helped make for a really great day around here.