Fun Ways to keep the kids busy during winter
I’m not sure about you, but here in Ohio we have been experiencing a lot of very cold weather which has made entertaining my kids a little bit tricky. We LOVE bundling up and getting outdoors and playing in the snow, but this winter we have had a lot of very cold weather without a lot of snow, or even with the snow it has been unbearably cold (I’m talking almost in the negatives!).
This has forced me to get a bit creative in terms of keeping the kids busy, but we have made some pretty fun memories this winter by finding some new fun and engaging ways to keep entertained indoors!
Here are some of our favorite ways to pass the time on those extra cold days!
Anything underlined is a shoppable link.
Play Couch with panels
We LOVE our nugget couch for a variety of reasons, its easy to clean, there are so many different ways to build- truly the possibilities are endless with this thing, and it makes building forts for creative play fun and easy. We like to take it to the next level with these incredible panels that can transform your nugget into a vet office, coffee shop, lemonade stand, ice cream stand, and MORE! This is one of our favorite ways to encourage imaginative play and have some screen free time!
2. Air Fort
We love forts around here, and this fort is one that I know ALL children will LOVE. We have given these out as gifts to many of Maren’s friends after they fell in love playing with it at our home. These forts blow up to quite a good size and work very easily with a box fan to stay up the entire time your child is playing! One of our favorite parts about these amazing forts is that they are not only decorated on the outside, but they are also decorated on the inside which makes this a perfect way to keep the imaginative play going for hours! They even have a glow in the dark fort that shows the constellations, and a United States Space Shuttle- both of these are definitely on our list to get in the near future. These forts are easy to put up and take down (which keeps the mess to a minimum) and store very easily.
We LOVE to bring other toys into our fort, and even make it extra cozy by bringing the nugget and other pillows and blankets inside!
3. Projector
We recently purchased a projector which has become one of our FAVORITE purchases ever. We LOVE our outdoor projector in the summer for movie nights by the fire, or for watching football in the fall. This sent me on a journey to find a projector to enjoy inside in the colder months too and WOW, I am SO glad I did! The kids, my husband and I have gotten to enjoy so many fun movie nights with this incredible 4k smart projector. Despite its small, compact size (one of the many reasons I LOVE this thing), this projector is INCREDIBLE. It has a really cool feature that allows you to put it basically anywhere and it adjusts itself to give you the perfectly square screen from anywhere! It also offers obstacle avoidance, has ChromeCast built in and has the Google play store which allows you to access Netflix and other streaming services quickly and easily, and the picture is crystal clear and has an amazing sound.
To add even a little more fun and magic to our movie nights, we LOVE using our SnowCone machine to provide a “movie theatre” experience right from the comfort of our own home! We even found these incredible “clean” syrups which is perfect since we are in the midst of our clean journey (more on that here).
4. Ninja Creami
Alright, I know what you’re thinking, if it’s cold outside, why are you making ice cream? I know it seems a bit contradictory, but I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun we have had with this amazing machine. I originally purchased this for myself as a way to make some yummy protein ice cream to enjoy in the evenings (this helps me increase my protein intake and satisfy my sweet tooth craving!). However, it has been SO fun for the kids to make their own ice cream and play around with different flavors and mix ins, AND it makes the perfect movie night snack for those cozy nights we all snuggle in and enjoy the projector.
5. Bringing outdoor inflatables inside
We absolutely LOVE our outdoor inflatable playhouses outside in the summer months. We truly love and crave time outdoors, so we try to purchase a lot of toys that can grow with the kids and last for summers to come. We love setting up our inflatable houses for parties and I love that these incredible inflatables are often cheaper to purchase for your home than to rent from a company, especially when you purchase them on sale.
One thing I never considered was that these inflatables are actually perfect for indoor use in the winter too! We used to set ours up in basement before it was finished, now we LOVE setting ours up in the living room and admiring all of the snow! These are perfect for making forts or for a fun twist on a cozy movie day or night!
6. Subscriptions
We LOVE monthly subscriptions around here, and they have truly been a LIFE SAVER this winter. Maren LOVES her monthly play doh subscription kit and this truly keeps her busy for hours and days on end.
If you are looking for a way to keep your kids busy and engaged and encourage their creativity, enter Busy Banner! We LOVE our monthly Busy Banner subscription, and I even recently gifted one to be delivered for Maren’s class to enjoy coloring next month. If your kids love coloring like mine do, this is a great way to keep them busy for hours, and is another great screen free option!
We have also loved and enjoyed Lovevery Play Kits! The quality of the toys is absolutely INCREDIBLE and I love that they are made specifically for your child’s age, and are made to encourage learning through play!
I hope you are all enjoying this winter so far. Please be sure to let us know some of your favorite ways to keep busy while being cooped up indoors. We love trying out new suggestions!
Affiliate links are mentioned throughout this post.
Our favorite inflatable to put up in our living room!
5 Ways to Make Valentine’s Day Special for your kids
Since becoming a mom, I can honestly say I have never loved or appreciated the holidays more. It feels like when one holiday ends, I am already thinking about the next upcoming holiday and trying to find new, fun, and exciting ways to bring the holiday magic! There is no better feeling than seeing my children’s faces light up after taking in the holiday magic.
After falling in love with the holiday magic of Christmas after becoming a mom, I decided I wanted to try to make each and every holiday feel magical and create new ways and traditions to make each holiday uniquely special for my kids. There is nothing on earth I love more than being a mom, and while I know I am so blessed to be home with my kids each day, I can’t help but feeling like even though I am soaking in each moment with them time is still going by so fast. So, even though I’m often met with the “but they won’t remember” comments and advice, I still do it anyway, because I will remember. I will remember the look on their faces when uncovering the surprises, the way the simplest of gestures makes them smile so big, or hearing the laughs and squeals as they discover their playhouse decorated and those memories will be forever etched in my mind. Those memories are priceless.
So, with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, here are 5 ways I am planning to create some holiday magic for my kids!
Anything underlined is a shoppable link.
Okay, I’ll admit, before becoming a mom I thought matching pajamas and outfits were kind of cheesy but I get it now. This has easily become one of my favorite traditions for making the holiday’s special. I have even become such a lover of this tradition that my husband and I get to join in on the fun with matching family pajamas! Some of my favorite brands for matching holiday pajamas are Caden Lane and Little Sleepies. Little Sleepies has become one of my FAVORITE places for purchasing holiday pajamas (and pajamas for the kids in general) because not only are they incredibly soft and stretchy, but they’re also designed to fit 3x longer which is so nice when you have younger children that grow so quickly. They also typically offer the same design in a few different colors and styles, which is makes it easy to shop knowing there is without a doubt something for everyone in our family! Target and Old Navy also always have really cute matching family pajama options, but I’ve been opting for Little Sleepies because they last a lot longer and seem to withstand more wear and tear!
As a girl mom, I also LOVE shopping for holiday themed outfits for my daughter, and Old Navy NEVER disappoints with their incredibly cute holiday outfits, AND they offer so many adorable family matching patterns for all ages (yes, even dogs!), so siblings of all ages can join in on the fun!
I also love doing my sweet baby girl’s hair, and Estero Bow Co has the highest quality, CUTEST bows around! Code LITTLEHOUSE10 will save you 10% on your order!
I can’t quite remember how this tradition started, but one day as I was shopping in Target and browsing the Bullseye section, I saw the cutest little decorations and thought to myself “Wow, this would look so cute on the kid’s play area” and so it began. Now I try to decorate their play areas with little decorations for each holiday, and the reaction on their faces when they first discover the new holiday set up is always priceless. In fact, when we decided to put the playhouse in our basement, one of the first things I thought to myself was “I can’t wait to decorate the playhouse for Christmas!.”
One thing I love about this tradition is that the Target makes this so affordable! They often have festive yet inexpensive holiday garland, and small inexpensive decor pieces. For Valentine’s Day I purchased felt heart garland, a cute LED light up wreath, a cute banner, and two decorative felt pieces: strawberries and chocolate, and coffee and a donut. They also had peanut butter and jelly and an avocado which would be perfect to decorate a play kitchen, and they had an adorable red and pink Valentine’s Day village (only $5 per piece!) that would be perfect to decorate your older child’s bedroom, or even the sideboard in your dining room, the mantle in your living room, or even a console table in your entry way!
One thing I love about this tradition is that we are able to save the decorations to reuse for future years!
3. Affirmation Hearts on their Bedroom Doors
This one is pretty exclusive to just Valentine’s Day, but I saw this idea one day scrolling on my phone and absolutely loved it. I love any opportunity I can take to make my kids feel loved and special, and this was a fun and easy way to do so! Grab some construction paper and cut out some hearts and write all of the reasons you love your child! I have seen 2 ways to do this:
1. Put all of the hearts on their bedroom doors the first day of February and read the hearts together each day.
2. Put one new heart on their door each day from February 1st-February 14th so each day they have a new message from you!
This year I am going to do a combination of both by adding one new heart to their door each day and reading all of the hearts on their doors together each day! I think they will love searching for the new heart and will be so excited to read the new message each day!
4. Crafts
I love crafts and any opportunity to be creative, and luckily, my kids are the same way! With it being so cold outside here in Ohio, this is also a great option for screen free playing! Pinterest is always filled with so many fun holiday crafts, and Target has really affordable paint sets and crafts by Mando Llama. Doing new crafts is one of our favorite ways to spend snow days, and this year Maren is so excited to get to create Valentine’s for all of her friends.
5. Baskets
I love creating little holiday baskets for my kids with a few of their favorite things, and Valentine’s Day is no exception. One of my favorite small businesses, Pebble Hill Customs, offers incredibly cute tags for every single holiday that make it so easy to reuse the same basket while still making it unique and festive for each holiday by swapping out the tags! They also offer cute holiday crafts that can be used for gifts or home decor and would be perfect for any first time mamas looking for a fun way to commemorate the first set of holiday’s with their new baby! We always love looking back on the crafts from previous years and seeing just how much those once little hands and feet have grown!
We LOVE books in this house, so regardless of the holiday, the kids are always guaranteed to be getting a few new books! Books are one of the things I never feel guilty buying, and the kids are always so excited getting to see the new holiday book (or books) they’ve gotten! Other ideas for holiday baskets are stuffed animals, coloring books or craft sets, holiday outfits or pajamas, and this year I will be sure to throw in one or two of their favorite “healthy” candies. Yum Earth is our favorite brand!
If you have any fun holiday traditions for Valentine’s Day, or ways to make the holidays feel special for your kids, please share them! I love getting to find new ideas and ways to keep the holiday magic alive in our home!
If you are looking for some Valentine’s Day shopping inspo, check out my gift guides here.
Valentine’s Day for dogs.
Valentine’s Day for kids.
Valentine’s Day for her.
Valentine’s Day for him.
Valentine’s Day for anyone.
Affiliate links are mentioned throughout this post.
My new favorite outfit for Maren!
Valentine’s Day bow from Estero Bow Co. Use code LITTLEHOUSE10 for 10% off!
Crafts and Valentine’s Day decor from Target!
Matching family pajamas!
Pebble Hill Customs Valentine’s Day crafts and tags for baskets!
Valentine’s Day decor for our playhouse!
One of my favorite areas to decorate for each holiday!