Ideas – Rainy days

Aug 06 2011 Published by under ideas for dad

So, it’s a rainy day. Sometimes rainy days are rubbish, they can ruin picnics, planned trips to the park or just generally stop you having fun – right? NO! wrong, very, very wrong.

Sometimes a rainy day can be exactly what you need. But what to do? Grab your wellies and a raincoat and go and splash in puddles. It’s fantastic fun! If you don’t have wellies, why not wear flip flops instead? Assuming you are confident the puddles aren’t filled with nasties, flip flops can be good because they dry out alot quicker than shoes. Plus it’s quite refreshing. Either way, if you and the little one need some fresh air and it’s raining – puddles all the way!

And in an age where peppa pig rules the airwaves in houses across the world, muddy puddles are the latest sensation don’t you know?

But, if it’s raining you can’t go to the park right? Nope, sure it may not be quite as much fun as normal and you may need to be careful  about slipping about – although generally I think kids wellies could stick you upside down.

If you’ve been jumping around in puddles getting a wet bum isn’t really an issue, so why not let them play in the park? At the end of the day it’s only rain and the whole thing can feel like quite an adventure even if it’s the park just around the corner.

Plus one of the best things about getting cold and wet on a rainy day is coming home, drying off and warming up. And Hot chocolates, warm milk or cups of tea feel like a lovely treat after the cold sting of rain.

The bear and I love splashing in puddles and playing in the rain. We have got incredibly wet splashing about, earlier this week the weather was awful, but man did we have fun. We are also really lucky as the drain down the side of our house always back up into a long thin puddle of fun!

If going out in the rain doesnt appeal, and lets be honest, it doesn’t every day, there are some great games to be had indoors. Earlier this week on said rainy day, we made a tent. Tilly actually has a pop up tent, but she loved the tent we made. We used a clothes horse and as my wife is an obsessive sling collector (we babywear) we draped those over it and made a tunnel down the back. Towels, bed sheets or old curtains will do just as well.

The picture to the right is version one, but it was a bit of a squeeze for daddy – you will note, I haven’t shared any pictures of that ;-) - so we made another, where we used the top of the clothes horse and top of the sofa to make a camp for us all. Tilly was overjoyed to be camping in a tent with us both, so much so she even bought a little picnic and feed us anything we asked for. Yum, yum.

The tent was a wonderful opportunity for some creative and imaginative play and a lovely bonding experience for us all.

So, a couple of ideas for rainy days, hope they are of use.


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Painting – Painting Overload

Aug 06 2011 Published by under ideas for dad

Been a crazy Friday today, started work at 7:30 and worked straight through to 3 in a crazy and stressful fashion, then a driving lesson before heading home. Once home it was straight to the park on Tilly’s trike for lots of fun and playing with a little girl we met, while I spoke to her Grandma. Then an early dinner as Helen was working.

After dins we did some painting. I say some painting, but really it was LOTS of painting – 18 pictures! 18! She is one prolific little artist! To prevent slightly ‘dry’ thank you letters, we thought some pictures painted by Tilly would be a lovely way of thanking all of her aunties, uncles and cousins for her fab birthday present. 12 were just painting fun frenzy – I think each cousin may get some pictures too!

It’s definitely an idea worth considering next time your little ones have thank you letters to write, as had so much fun doing this.


We were both absolutely covered in paint, there were lots hand prints happening (and Tilly singing smooth road as she spread an inordinate amount of paint on one piece of paper), so we hit the bath. The water was so dirty from all the paint we had to run a second bath for general bathtime fun!

Tilly’s imaginative play is really kicking in and she really got into ‘what animals can we see at the zoo’, doctor and supermarket and it’s really great fun to play with her.  She was clearly pooped so we sung some songs and read some books and she was pretty much straight to sleep.

Given I only spent 2.5hours with her, we managed to have alot of fun, a great way to start a weekend. Didn’t feel like the start of the weekend mind, as after she was in bed I had to; tidy kitchen, do dishwasher, put washing on the line, tidy paint madness and do over 2 hours more work…

I did get a chance for some ukulele fun though (I’m not sure they liked my cover of you’re the one that I want – a window slammed shut during the chorus). I also spent ages finally cutting out pictures and scrap paper ready for a sticking frenzy this morning. Tidge has forgotten I promised to do sticking, but I don’t think it will be long.


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Messy and Creative play – 3.5 hrs of madness

Jul 31 2011 Published by under ideas for dad

Hello it’s a very sunny Sunday :-)
In 3.5 hrs of madness Tilly and I have managed to do:
Painting
Kitchen bubbles
Dressing up
Played picnic at the beach
Played ukelele
Sung songs
And been to the park :-) such wonderful fun, we are now having a break with peanut butter toast and milk… It’s only 10.30 so heaven knows what we will get up to with the rest of the day

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