Rainy Day Fun!

It seems it's been raining on and off for the past week now. We've been cooped up inside as the rain pelts on the roof and threatens to wash us away. So much for summer!

We've been burning through activities normally reserved for the middle of winter, but I am determined to make sure we have a fun summer. We took the kids to the Royal Alberta Museum this past weekend. It's not a large museum and a lot of the exhibits are a little over their head, but they still enjoyed checking it out and most importantly, getting out of the house.Wyatt loves bugs and spiders so he loved checking out the live specimens they had in the bug room - tarantulas, lizards, snakes, and some giant cockroaches that were just too gross to even take a picture of. While we were checking them out, one of the museum workers came out with a cart loaded with veggies and small bugs and fed them all.

 

 

We had a tiny reprieve from the rain on Sunday and the kids were desperate to get outside. The mosquitoes are horrendous right now and seem to come in swarms once the rain dies down. We slathered on our orange scented lotion, which is supposed to deter them (I hate using DEET on the kids) and headed out to ride bikes for a bit.  The nice weather was short lived and the rain was back by that evening.

We can't always go on an adventure every day so sometimes we just have to make our own fun at home. Little Hadley is such a girly girl. This girl loves to dress up. It's not even something I taught her. She figured it out all on her own. From the time she could walk, she's always loved trying on everyone's shoes and wearing them around the house. Dayven always jokes that it's time to play the "shoe hunt" game everytime we leave. This means that most likely someone, other than you, was recently wearing your shoes around the house and you must frantically search for the lost mate of the one you're holding.

She puts on both of her tutus at once "Mommy, I ba-wey! [ballet]", loads herself up in a half dozen necklaces, slips on her plastic high heels and off she goes. And don't forget her backpack "back-kack!" that she is constantly wearing around the house.

My friend Ning sent Hadley these fancy party dresses with crinolin skirts when she was little. She's finally big enough to fit in them. If only we had a party to go to! Hadley's eyes lit up when I pulled them from the closet. I told her she could try them on for fun and she LOVED them. She immediately put on her tap shoes (at least 4 sizes too big) and danced and twirled around until she was dizzy. She said "Oh, Mommy! I'm faaaaancy!" She did not want to take them off and was really upset when I wouldn't let her wear one to the grocery store. I probably just should have. She would have been the fanciest one there! Who says you need a special occasion to dress up anyway!?

We stumbled upon a costume sale at a local dance studio. They were selling leftover costumes for $3 each, so I grabbed a couple for Hadley. She was so excited when she saw them and couldn't get them on fast enough. She was dancing and twirling around and admiring herself in the mirror. What a ham! Wyatt said he wanted to dress up too so now I'm keeping my eyes open for some boy costumes.

Dayven has been gone for the past four days, which makes for a really long week when you're stuck inside. We've had a couple of playdates and some little outings, but the kids were beyond cooped up by Thursday. Boredom = TROUBLE!  There have been quite a few time outs and a lot of messes to clean up. Wyatt is bored and picking on Hadley a lot. They normally get along pretty well, so I've been frustrated by all the scuffles we've had lately. I'm blaming summer boredom and the rainy weather. Finally last night, I'd had enough so I loaded up the kids and took them to Mucho Burrito for dinner. I didn't feel like cooking and we needed a change of scenery. I don't usually go out to eat with the two by myself but they did great. Wyatt is always pretty good at restaurants, but Hadley is another story. She's too busy to sit down, walking around and peeking over the back of the booth. She surprised me and sat and ate most of her meal. I think they were just glad to be out. The weather is supposed to clear this weekend (fingers crossed) so we're hoping to get back outside and continue enjoying our summer!