What to do on a Rainy Day

A day can become a thousand times more complicated when all of the little ones are cooped up.  Here are a few ideas to liven things up:

- Turn on some fun music and have a dance party (even my 9-month-old daughter loves this!).

- Get some warm clothes out of the dryer, put them on the couch, and let your kids jump in the pile!  (Or you could just put some blankets in the dryer for 5 minutes and do the same thing, without having wrinkly laundry.)

- Have a tea party with hot cocoa.

- Play restaurant for lunch - and assign each child a role: cook, waiter, guest, etc.

- Play doctor - come up with fun drinks and little treats for medication, always a winner with kids!

- Cuddle up on the couch and read some books.

- Make a yummy treat: something the kids can do - letting them decorate sugar cookies is always fun.

- Go to the library.

- Have them draw, paint, or sculpt something.  Then place the art around the house and have an "art show."  Give out awards at the end - "Most colorful painting," "Most fierce-looking creature," etc.

- Have your kids make "mailboxes" out of shoe boxes.  Place them at the foot of the child's bed.  Then let them write secret notes to each other and deliver them.

- Make puppets out of brown lunch sacks and put on a puppet show.

- Make a warm, yummy soup for the end of a cold, rainy day:

Mexican Chicken Corn Chowder

This soup is delicious and easy.  Dave's aunt made it at our last family dinner and the pot was licked clean.

12 chicken tenders
1 cup diced onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbsp butter
4 chicken bouillon cubes
2 cups hot water
2 tsp ground cumin
1 qt half and half cream
4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 cans (16 oz) cream-style corn
2 cans (4 oz) chopped green chilies, undrained
2 dashes hot pepper sauce
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

Cut chicken into bite-size pieces.  Brown chicken (seasoning it with a little salt and pepper), onion and garlic in butter until chicken is no longer pink.  Dissolve the bouillon in hot water.  Add to pan along with cumin; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add cream, cheese, corn, chilies and hot pepper sauce.  Cook and stir over low heat until the cheese is melted and soup is heated through.  Stir in tomato and cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Suggestions: the soup has a tiny (and I do mean tiny) bit of kick to it.  If your kids are picky and don't like hot stuff, you might not put in so many green chilies, and leave out the hot pepper sauce.

A Healthy 8-Legged Snack

So here is a recipe from Family Fun - they have such great ideas - both healthy snacks and scrumptious treats!

They call it the Garden Octopus, and you can see why!

picture from familyfun.com

It's pretty simple.  All you need is some hummus or veggie dip spread on a platter, and a couple of bell peppers, plus two olives.  The first bell pepper is the body and the second one you cut into strips for all of the octopus legs.  Even if your kids don't like bell peppers, give them some carrots or cucumbers to dip and they'll love it!