We survived Typhoon Vongfong! The news reports said it would be a super typhoon which to us means have lots of food and entertainment on hand because lockdown is coming. The nice/bad thing about living overseas is that the govt tells us when lockdown is and its not really a suggestion so we know its coming and we just prepare for some mandatory family fun. Let me just say there is something about being locked in the house that makes people hungry - I think we ate the entire 36 hours away.
While on Storm Watch we made one last outing to the zoo with a few of the locals. The girls and I got there a few minutes before our friends so we headed over to the cars they can drive and I let them take a few laps. Once our friends arrived we bypassed all the rest of the outdoor activities at the zoo and headed into the Wonder Museum. It is a hands on science like center for the kids and it was 3 hours of non stop fun. The girls built things, destroyed things, laughed and played. Afterwards we went to our friends for a grill in and game night and played until they lost power and they declared lockdown was coming in an hour.
While on TCCOR 1C (which means you have one hour to get your kids and get home and then the front gate is locked down) we drove home and were happy to see we had power and slept through the first night of crazy winds and rain. When the girls woke up the next morning the fun began. In my mind I had decided every hour or two I would give them something new to distract them and hopefully help them continue to play but first I needed coffee so we turned on the tv and watched some cartoons. There are a few reasons I love pinterst and typhoon distractions are one of them. I know some people try and make it perfect but I just like taking the idea and transforming it into something I have enough energy to recreate. So we made some pumpkin spice playdough. The pinterst lady wanted us to find leaves and color our dough to match it BUT I just said who really cares as long as the girls have fun so we had blue, green, yellow, pink, red and brown pumpkin playdough. The girls played with this for a long time especially since we moved their play kitchen into the dining room and gave them cups, bowls and chopsticks along with all their play kitchen toys.
Once playdough time was in whine mode we moved one! Next up was water fun. We needed to fill our tubs up in case we lost power and water so why not make it splashtastic. Again we let the girls bring some of their play kitchen toys along with a few real ones to the tub. Jon and I removed all things that we didn't want to get soaked like the shower curtain, toilet paper and towels then let the girls play. I had a more hands off approach (ie shut the door) and Jon had a more hands on (lifeguard). No one was majorly injured but there was a lot of water everywhere!!! One by one they got bored with that so it was time for lunch.
After lunch I was ready for a break so we had NAPTIME!! Every one was sent to a room and Jon and I watched part of the Hobbitt. The littlest people slept for a pretty good amount of time but Molly was up and ready for more after her hour of quiet time. So we baked some cookies and once everyone was awake we decorated the cookies. Jon and Molly had a yoga session where she explained if he didn't get old he could still do the moves.
The afternoon consisted of game time lead by Jon and then color the cardboard lead by me. Each of these filled up hours of fun and got us ready for the grand finale of day one - MOVIE NIGHT. When we moved here we kept a few boxes for typhoon fun and they have come in handy!! We set the boxes up for each girl to have her own space for Monster University and sat back for a good 30 minutes until Kelly got bored of the movie and just came and jumped on me and talked to me for the remainder of the movie. After the movie we played a few rounds of hide and go seek. Some people are better at that than others. The girls love to hide and then scream out their location as you say here I come.
Day 2 of lockdown was similar to Day 1 with nonstop eating and giving the girls ideas to fill up their time. We made an obstacle course with bubble wrap, streamers, tables and balloons and had the girls rescue Jon from the mean trolls over and over and over and over. Then I could not hold them back from their costumes for the upcoming harvest fest so they got to play around in costumes and played "frozen." We finished this night with MOVIE NIGHT also this time with Frozen.
After we got off of lockdown we went outside to the track and ran a few laps, played in puddles and soaked up the fresh air!
The only damage we had was the license plate was ripped off Jon's car which he rescued and the 2 loads of towel laundry I had to do because water was leaking into our dining room.
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Driving at the zoo |
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Playing in the wonder museum |
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Dancing in the wind |
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My hero - rescued the license |
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Playdough |
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She kept telling Jon not to eat it! |
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Playing happily!!! |
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Tub is filled! |
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J -"We can't take them to the ER if they get hurt"
A - "they are fine" |
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Sprinkles makes everything better |
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Eating |
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Game time |
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More eating |
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Coloring with a little eating |
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Yep more food |
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Yoga session |
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Decorating cookies- oh and more eating |
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Up to no good |
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Movie night
Boxes make everything more fun |
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They can't move |
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Hide and go seek - she doesn't really understand |
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Preparing for and epic adventure to save daddy from the trolls |
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To the rescue |
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I'm coming |
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We could do this for hours - oh wait we have hours to kill |
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Costume time |
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We are never taking these off!! |