Hurricane Activities

We ended up getting tons of rain and wind from hurricane Sandy, but thankful no damage to our home and no loss of electricity. So many people were not spared from the damage, and we just very thankful.

Our hurricane prep included lots of cooking, starting with the 25lb+ bag of apples!

I made about 2 gallons of applesauce in my crockpot and dutch oven! I made sure to make way more than last year because it was gone so quickly.

I also made up this homemade pumpkin spice latte mix, using the recipe on A Farmgirl Dabbles. They turned out really nice, although by the last day the spice flavor was a little too strong for me. My husband still liked it, but I'm more of the coffee snob between the two of us :)

My kids were SO excited to help make these fall leaf sugar cookie cut outs. I saw the idea on Home Cook'N Newsletter and knew I had to try it. You can buy the Wilton leaves and acorns cookie cutters from Amazon or a craft store like Michael's or JoAnns. I divided my dough into 4 and colored each orange, green, red, or brown (cocoa powder). The red turned pink when it baked, but otherwise these were fabulous!

For indoor activities, we put this big roll of paper to good use! (Thanks Aunt Sue!) Each child had their own sheet taped to the floor in the kitchen and they went to town with stickers, crayons, and more stickers.

This was such a blast that I know we'll be pulling it out again soon. AND, since they were occupied in the kitchen, it made my cooking much easier.

I also taped the paper into a rectangle in our foyer and drew a quick little road on it for the matchbox cars.

This became our new coloring spot also, and we added trees, grass, lakes, flowers, forests, and people! My kids loved looking through The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race to find other things that would be along the road for us to color!

We also enjoyed homemade peppermint marshmallows with our hot chocolate the morning after the storm. I use this recipe from Joy of Baking, and just subbed out peppermint extract for the vanilla. I've also made these by dipping in cocoa powder to make chocolate marshmallows. They are amazing, you really should try one!

Our big "burn off some energy" activity was racing! We used our large letter mat to make a "track" for each child. Then each race they had a different relay. They loved racing each other, running like crazy in the house, and the different activities kept things interesting and engaging. We took time in between races for drinks and to give them time to catch their breath too!
Some races they had to transfer a small item (a toy animal, something small) by carrying in a cup and then pouring into another cup at the end.
They crawled with matchbox cars for a race...
We also worked on fine motor skills: carrying a block and stacking it higher each time.
And carrying a piece of a puzzle each time and having to find the correct spot.
I hope you weathered the storm ok and enjoy trying out some of these indoor activities over the winter months!