"30 Minutes of Play for 30 Days"

Since I get to be a stay-at-home mom, I spend ALOT of time with my kids. I'm not complaining. I LOVE it and I wouldn't have it any other way. However, we do get bored sometimes. Well I wasn't going to let us have a boring summer.

I printed out a couple calendars for the summer months and went to work planning a fun activities for each week day. I had found this "30 minutes of Play for 30 days" challenge online and I was determined to do this. See, I'm not the best at actually playing with my kids. I love setting up ways for them to have fun and play, but I don't always get involved with them. I'm usually content to watch them have fun. But I really wanted to have more fun with my kids and summer is a great time to do this. So anyways, here are our "30 days of play" in picture form.

 

1. We did ice cube toys. Basically I took a bunch of Tanner's tiny toys and dice and froze them in ice cubes, then we went outside and played with them as the melted in the ridiculously hot weather. The kids loved this. They were so excited when they figured out what was inside the ice cubes.

 

2. Chocolate/Caramel apples on a stick. These were a big hit.

 

3. Trips to the park

 

4.Feeding the ducks

 

5. Water Table. I just put a ton of different bowls and cups on a table and then let the kids play in the water. Tanner loved pouring water into the stacking cups.

 

6. Shaving cream finger paint- Tanner had finger paint EVERYWHERE

Bailey mostly liked playing in the tablecloth I'd laid down, so it wouldn't get everywhere...

 

7. Lake Day

Yep- just swimming without a lifejacket- bc he's a little fish!

 

8.Watermelon Pops

 

9. Slip-N-Slide

 

10. Workin' at the Car wash

 

11. Indoor obstacle course/blanket fort

 

12. Giant Bubbles

 

13. Whale Pool in our backyard

14. Trips to the City Pool

 

15. Picnic on the back porch

 

 16.Trips to the retired train caboose

 

17. Sponge Bombs

 

18.Water Balloon fights

 

19.Bubble Snakes

Bailey didn't think the bubbles tasted very good

And we did a few more things- like bath tub paints, kool-aid playdoh, home made Popsicles, family pizza nights and story time at the library. However, our laptop crashed and so I lost the pictures documenting this. (For anyone who knows me, this is heart-breaking). Anyways, I was able to complete a whole month of activities on weekdays only, before I got super sick with pneumonia and had to go to the hospital.

I really really enjoyed spending this special time with my kids. It was so fun because each day we had something different and new to look forward to. Both Tanner and Bailey loved every minute of it. And even though I did spend some time taking pictures to document each fun thing, I made sure that I also spent quality time actually playing with my sweet kids. It was soooo fun. I'm one lucky momma and this was a great reminder of that fact.

If you are interested in doing any of these activities look them up on Pinterest. That's where alot of my inspiration came from.  Until next time!