Little Ninja Warriors

The cold has finally hit us here in this frozen tundra we call home, which means many more hours spent indoors with three wiggly kids. Many people have been complaining about the lack of snow and unusually warm temperatures we have had, but not me. I knew all too well that as soon as winter hit, we'd all be shocked back into Minnesota winter reality and remember exactly what it was that makes us beg for spring each year.

So before the arctic blast hit home, we soaked in every minute outside that we could. One of Rae's new favorite shows to watch with Daddy is Ninja Warrior. No, I didn't say American Ninja Warrior -- just Ninja Warrior. As in the Japanese version with subtitles that she can't read. But she doesn't care. Since we had just soaked in an episode before heading outside to soak in the 50 degree weather, we decided to set up our own obstacle course. The girls loved it, and they got great exercise in the process. They must have run this course more than a dozen times each.

Just one more way to get creative outdoors!

(Apparently Blogger isn't letting me load Ruby's video as well. Maybe I'll try it in a separate post.)

Now that it really is cold outside, the real challenge is to get more creative indoors. Sometimes that means sacrificing my sanity to let my children do things like this:

That is a wolf den (duh). It started as a spider web, then morphed into a wolf den with the addition of every clean kitchen towel in the drawer and every pillow or semi-large toy they could use as a "wall" for the den.

I like to think I'm a good mom for letting them get creative and do that. But don't think for a second that they didn't fold every one of those towels, put every single toy away, and untangle the web entirely by themselves. That's just part of the deal. :)

Other indoor winter activities have included fashion shows, building forts, baking, making crafts, painting, board games, making more trips to the library, extra reading, and embracing our church mom's group get-togethers and AWANA.

How are you letting your kids get creative this winter? Leave a comment...I'm always looking for new ideas!