A Day of Rest - in Theory

Abby was feeling better today, so she joined us again. We originally had plans to go to the Children’s Garden at the Morton Arboretum with Melissa and Blake, but they had something come up and cancelled. We contemplated going anyway, but it was a nice change of pace not to have any plans today. So, we stayed home!


After breakfast, we played with play dough and a box of tools and molds. They really got into it today! We played with it all for over an hour! Abby really liked smashing the dough into molds and making play dough balls of every color, too. Shawn stayed busy pushing dough through his Play Dough Factory and conveyor belt. He liked using the molds too, but kept asking me to make them for him. I collected the pieces of dough that were drying out and crumbling, added some water and kneaded them back to life. We don’t have the same variety of colors that we once had (blue, green, yellow, and mud!), but at least we have more useable dough to work with.

Next, they changed into swimming suits and played outside in the kiddy pool and sprinkler. I brought a tunnel outside too. They had fun pretending there was a rain storm coming and taking cover in the tunnel and under the shade of the kiddy pool. Shawn and Abby were able to tolerate the +90°F temperature more than I could. Grant it, they were playing in the cool water much more than I was. Since they were having so much fun, I served lunch outside, too. Naptime was a good excuse to come inside and cool off.

They'd hide under the pool canopy when the oscillating sprinkler would shower over them.

 

While Abby napped, Shawn had quiet time. He asked if he could do a project with his paints and I was all too happy to get out the supplies for it. He started with some watercolors and then transferred to washable paints instead. I only got 2 paintings out of him this time, but he was very serious about blending the colors with his brush and watching them swirl into new colors.

After naptime, we played inside. Things got a little wild and very loud for no particular reason, but they had fun playing with airplanes, Legos, and calling each of the Disney princesses on the phone! When Bill came to pick up Abby, Shawn invited himself to play at their house until dinner time.  Bill sent us this video of Shawn and Abby's basement rock concert.

Raj later retrieved him and we ate dinner while we watched Zoo Keeper in the cool basement. It's not exactly an excellent movie, but Shawn had fun seeing animals talk. 

It was an easy and relaxing evening to a fun filled, yet still partially relaxing day!