The Dog Days of Summer

It's the end of August, and the dog days of summer are in full effect here in Okinawa and we won't feel any sort of relief until at least mid-October.... I think I might go crazy by then!!  It is HARD keeping the kiddos busy inside when it is too hot/humid (and dangerous) to take them outside!  The pools are closed now and the beach water feels like bath water. :) Although - I am very much aware that the benefit is the 7-8 months of beautiful weather we have and I am thankful for that!


Anyway, I digress again.  As I was reviewing my pictures from August I noticed that 90% of the pictures were taken INSIDE!  I have gotten very creative keeping the little ones busy.  During the typhoon, when we were stuck inside for 3 days straight, we played tons and tons of board games, and when those ran out I made up a photo scavenger hunt for Wyatt.  I made a list of clipart pictures on a Word document and had him go on a treasure hunt around the house to photograph them.  He loves taking pics with my camera so it kept him busy for about 30 minutes!  And the pictures were very funny :) Here is the picture he took of one of the cats (who was trying to run away!)


Legos, dancing, board games, and games of all kind are a part of every day around here - which is fine with me, I LOVE board games!  Here's a pic of the kids playing the Elephant game, which is a favorite of theirs.

A few days ago I made up a menu with pictures on it of main dishes, side dishes, and drinks and we played restaurant.  In the morning, I pretend ordered from the menu and Wyatt and Olivia made me the meals in their toy kitchen.  For lunch, I let the kids choose their own food off the menu and I made "for real" food for them to eat.  It was fun!  Let me know if you want a copy of the menu and I'll email it to you!


Of course there have been lots of arts and crafts... here are my and Wyatt's creations!  Olivia made one too, and as she was using the glitter tube she went and got her baby. 

I thought she wanted to decorate it, but Wyatt soon said, "Aww, look mom, she's feeding her baby!!"  The glitter tube looked like a bottle, and she was so cute!   You can see it in the background up there.



Cooking and baking has taken up a lot of our time as the kids love to help!  We made sugar cookies this weekend at Wyatt's request and this is Olivia putting the frosting on hers. Mmmm!

Wyatt loves Moon Sand.  I let him get it out ONLY when Livy is napping though.  It gets everywhere and makes a huge mess, but I don't care because he is a great helper cleaning up with his own little vacuum!



















Speaking of vacuums, I killed almost an hour by letting Wyatt play with the attachments to our Dyson.  All I had to do was tell him what area to vacuum and give him a different attachment and he was happy as punch!  He vacummed the whole down stairs and did a pretty good job too!  This is him doing the couch cushions!

Yesterday I took the kids to the Zoo and they have an amazing children's museum there that I have blogged about before.  We have an annual pass and the kids love it.  We spent almost 3 hours at the museum (inside, air conditioned) and one hour outside looking at the animals before we almost literally passed out from the heat.  The kids had so much fun with the Japanese kiddos!

This past week I broke out the masking tape and helped Wyatt make roads and parking lots with the tape on our carpet.  We then built houses and buildings out of the Lincoln Logs, blocks, and Trio blocks and, finally, gave each and every Hot Wheels car and bigger car/truck/what have you a home or a road to drive on.  That took up the better part of a day!  I am sad I didn't get any pictures of it, though.  I will be sure to during the sequel... the sequel being masking tape outlines of our bodies!

We've only got about a week and a half left until Preschool starts on MWF mornings, but what ideas do you have to help us beat the heat? I would love any and all ideas/comments!