Since it is summer that should be no big deal, but the weather was calling for rain today so I decided against the park or the beach. We did get outside a little bit since the rain never came, but the pre-rain humidity kept us inside quite a bit as well. This is how we filled our TV free day.
The kids painted with spoons. I don't know why. That is just the way they decided to do it.
Alyssa went upstairs, found my sister Kristen's number in the cell phone, and gave her a ring. Kristen lives in CA, where it is two hours earlier. Alyssa woke her up and held her captive for 30 minutes, and I had no idea. I thought she was pretending to be on the phone and I almost hung up on Kristen when I took the phone from her. I decided to say hello first, just in case. I laughed so hard when I found my sister on the other side of the phone, listening patiently as Alyssa blabbed on.
I took a turn talking to Kristen, and the kids moved on to building a fort.
We dragged out some old shirts and painted them with the three colors of fabric paint we had on hand.
Now I am torn.
I love TV free days. I love when they are using their imaginations and interacting with each other.
But...I also like to be able to turn on a cartoon here and there to give myself 30 minutes to clean up after lunch, or take a shower. My house was wrecked all day, and every new activity only made it worse. Sometimes it is nice to let the kids zone out for a minute so that I can re-group.
I do feel like a better mom though, when the TV is off.
9 comments:
Never have I seen three siblings look so different from each other! I like the pic with Alyssa and Chloe laying down, it makes me want to blast Chloe with kisses. Looks like you finally got the best of Gene Wilder...and all it took was a little pink bow!
I love Chloe's hair. Those curls are so darling.
How funny! My kids are super into fort building too! The couch cushions are only on the couch at night. Cedar was quite impressed with the fort picture. And I agree, I love Chloe's curls! The picture with the pink bow is too adorable!
I agree, no t.v. means bigger messes. Fortunately for me, I can send them outside to play with other kids, so my house gets spared sometimes. I have been trying to avoid the t.v. anyway though because it's a brain sucker.
Love that pic of all 3 kids that you "accidentally" got. I think that's the first time I've seen such a giddy smile from Alyssa. And Chloe's hair has really turned out to be so cute with those curls. Reminds me of Mimi's hair at that age.
Those t-shirts turned out cute. I may have to try that with my girls. I even like Chloe's psychadelic black one:)
Is that the black and white outfit I sent Chloe? If so I'm glad I did, she looks cute in it. Also I seem to recognize the skirt I sent Alyssa last year for her school clothes on Chloe now. I'm guessing it fits them both? Already got one outfit for Alyssa for back to school this year and it is really cute and has a dog on it which I know she will like. They need to come to Grandma Camp.
I'm with you on the no tv thing. We just canceled our cable on Tuesday. I love the quiet. We do have netflix and the Wii so we can load cartoons/movies on it and just turn on one show at a time. It's nice.
Good luck!
The whole TV vs. clean house thing is a big problem around this place, too. I try to avoid too much TV and yet somehow often end up letting them watch a LOT, so what do I know? I also swore they'd never have one in their room, but we've put the little tv/vcr combo in their room so they can watch some old school disney vhs's when I teach piano, but that almost doesn't count in my mind. Somehow disney movies are better than tv shows in my book, right? The shirts you made are totally awesome, and I must say forts are one of my LEAST favorite things (although I love how much they love them), but I try to let them do them occasionally. They totally stress me out, though. Or even when they get out all the blankets for a big "bed" or nest or whatever else. What can I say? :o)
love the shirts. How did you paint them so well?
Mom, that is the outfit you sent last year but the shirt is too short now so she can only wear it in the house. The other skirt is one you sent Alyssa when she was 3. It is the one she was wearing in that silly picture we took at Target where they could only fit our heads.
Andra, we got rid of cable for a year once and it was awesome. They still watched PBS sometimes, but PBS shows are the most kid friendly and they never run commercials so I never had to hear, "Mommy can we buy that?"
LeShel, The kids told me what they wanted to paint, I googled an image of it, and then traced it onto contact paper. I cut out the image and then stuck the contact paper on the shirt like a stencil. I cut Chloe's name out freehand, which is why it looks kind of sloppy. It was clear contact paper, but if you look closely you can see it. I found the idea on Family Fun and they used a shoe to stamp the paint on the shirts, so we tried that with Chloe's but the other kids just wanted to paint with a brush.
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