Yesterday it was really cold again, and while it was sunny and kind of snowy, I just did not want to bundle the kids up to go out when it is only 8 outside. They didn't quite understand that nor agree with my decision. I am trying to find a balance between doing fun activies with them and teaching them to play on their own.  I felt yesterday was a day I was needed to help out a bit more!  One of the activies I had tucked away for a "rainy" day was a kit I'd bought on clearance at Target, one with a cookie dough mix and decorations to make Gingerbread bears.

I have to give the Crayloa kits a big Thumbs Down.  The mix was just not workable! But, considering I only paid about $0.75 for it, and I got it after the holidays, I'm not so sure that's something that surpised me.  Also,  I'd say that was worth it for the decorations it included! After the mix wasn't working out, I decided to go with cupcakes. THOSE, I can do!  And those went over well. We had a great time decorating them! I didn't have enough powder sugar to make more frosting, so we used the included tubes in the kit and various candy–the boys enjoyed them a great deal and they were sweet enough!

The best part was doing this just in time for snack, so the boys could eat as they went.  Alex's had a bite taken out of it before he even started, and I do think he ate more decorations then he put on his cupcake.  Will had fun making silly faces and then eating them.  The aftermath (the last picture to the right) wasn't quite as pretty.  And the boys went right to a bath as well. 

(Can you tell  of the faces on the left which one I made and which one Will did? :-D)

Other things I tried: Making bowling "pins" out of Mega Blocks–kept them busy for 30 seconds.  Makins a race track out of masking tape on the carpet–still being played with on and off today. 

I'm concerned that one or both of the boys may be getting sick, they both seem to more clingy/needy that normal. The last two days Will has complained about a sore throat but once he gets a dose of medicine, he's fine for the rest of the day. So we'll see. I'm sure all the candy REALLY helped their immune systems! ;-) (They eat healthy the rest of the day, I promise!)