Rain, rain please stay...

...Though only for the earth's sake. Being rained in with two toddlers is marginal at best. And admissions to indoor activities adds up.

So in case it's useful to anyone else here's what I've been falling back on:

1. Having a stash of thrift store books to pull out. I make periodic trips to Thrift Town to scout for clothes and always try to pick up one or two books. It's been invaluable to have a bag of them to reach into. The girls happily sit through numerous readings of their new books.

2. Smelling spices. One day I discovered the girls love going through and smelling the spices in the spice rack. We can spend 15-20 minutes that way. Not a ton of time, but it's something!

3. Very Random Arts and Crafts. This is not well thought out stuff. More like cutting out the pictures in today's advertisements and then using a glue stick to put them on scraps of saved wrapping paper. Today we actually made Valentine's. And I think we'll send them, so the project was not for naught. Another suggestion I got from a friend was making fingerpaints from shaving cream mixed with food color. It looks really cool when dried too.

4. Streaming video. A. & I are addicted (HBO posted the entire first episode of Flight of the Conchords before it aired and I've been catching United States of Tara at Showtime when I cook).
But it's also great for the girls. What you want is there when you're most desperate. We tend to head over to the official Sesame Street site. You can view their videos by character. (The girls LOVE Bert and Ernie. I wonder if it's because, like the girlios, Bert and Ernie are a pair. Then maybe it's because Bert has a twin (Bart).) This counting sheep sketch with Ernie is popular, also this one where Bert ice skates.
Still, for some reason, our Sesame Street classic faves we can only find on You Tube. Like this one:



5. And then there's baking. That's been a huge winner for us, though it's taken some trial and error not to end up with flour everywhere or fights over batter laden spatulas (meaning batter everywhere, even worse). Part 2, Baking, will come with tomorrow's showers...