Entertainment in the days of Staying-at-Home

I think most families with young children have spent a great deal of time this year finding very

Here are a few of the ways that we've been entertained over the last several months:

Cooking school with Barbara to make deviled eggs. Please note all of the stuffed animals that joined class.

I've mentioned that one of our weekly rhythms that we've kept in an attempt to ground our week is Friday night pizza and a movie. One week, we just couldn't quite find enough to fill our time/use up our excess energy, so I had the girls pick out our movie and set up a movie theater.

Claire drew a map to direct the moviegoers.

They chose

Working hard on the puzzle.

They decorated popcorn bags for everyone...

And made admission tickets

And served as quality control. The whole process was a big hit.

They have logged MANY hours playing with our neighbor's dogs. This has been a symbiotic relationship, given that the dogs and the girls all need to get energy out.

LOTS of backyard time with bubbles:

I love this picture of Claire.

I thought Barbara and I would never stop laughing when we realized that on one particular day, the girls LITERALLY watched our neighbor's paint (on his front porch) dry. 

All three of them were standing there watching.

The day after the paint-watching, they watched the landscaping guys trim the bushes:

That same week, we discovered that Barbara's car battery had died (one of the girls left the dome light on after playing in the cab...yet another simple form of entertainment), and she and Brad set about getting it jump-started.

Ready for the show (and by "show," I definitely mean the car jumping)

I joined the fun.

The main event

There were a few vehicular setbacks, so we got even more cozy.

Still waiting (and watching the FedEx man finding himself unable to fully pull into our neighborhood, parking and running to deliver his boxes, and then executing an 18-point turn to get back out- it was riveting)

And then success! There was much jumping! And rejoicing! And whooping and hollering!

We have found ourselves so easily entertained this year, and I have to say...there's something nice about it. The girls are great examples of how to really embrace a full and interesting life, even when we can't go and do like we used to. Hopefully you've found this to be true, too? If you've done anything as weird as watching the paint dry, PLEASE let me know.