After a week where Noah, then Ethan, then Harvey were all sick with a cold, this weekend was supposed to be two days of fun in the sun to celebrate being better. But after a huge thunderstorm on Friday night the rain continued to fall – and still is on Sunday night as I write.
We wanted to see the beach after three months away from the coast, and planned to head to St Helens, but thought the boys would be so disappointed to be at the beach when it was too wet to swim. So we held off until today, hoping the weather would improve. We woke up this morning to an even worse day.
Sigh. The weather not on our side, we knew we still had to entertain two boys who had energy to burn, so thought about some indoor actvities that would work – Kid’s Paradise at Riverside this morning and baking this afternoon.
Both boys had a ball on the pirate ship slides, mazes, toy shops, huge wooden blocks and cars for two hours. We played until Kid’s Paradise flooded with about 100 people and decided that was our cue to head home.
Ethan fell asleep in the car so Noah and I took advantage of the quiet time and baked 14 gingerbread men and 12 cupcakes. Noah loved rolling out the dough and kept a small ball he worked and worked for the whole afternoon, making interesting shapes and letting his imagination run wild with possibilities. He excitedly pushed the cutter into the flat gingerbread, then pushed the Smartie buttons into the little ginger bodies. His treat was licking the spoon (one of my favourite childhood cooking memories) and then sprinkling tiny red and pink heart shapes on the cupcakes.
What a way to spend a rainy day!