Fun & Free on a Rainy Day

Freida woke up this morning at a shocking 5:35am (thank you dear husband for letting your woman sleep!). Not wanting today to turn into a miserably lazy rain-day, I decided to splurge and take her to an art center in my neighborhood ($20)... Only after my morning cup of joe did I think to check in and make sure they were open; which they were not (closed for "vacation" - who's taking vacation in October??). I half-heartedly decided to make our signature rain-day-buster trip to Barnes & Noble. Happened to be the school here had Teachers In Service day, so we brought Freida's cousins along for the ride. I know this sounds pathetic - we were there (happily!) for 2 whole hours! We parked ourselves at a picnic table in Kids Section, and set off to collect and set up a stack of books, some snacks and drinks etc. and believe it or not - had fun. Not just quiet-time library-style fun - real live fun. The boys were stoked to compete with each other in "I Spy" books, and Freida was happy to munch on crackers and leaf through colorful board books. She made some stuffed friends, and had a surprisingly good time trying to remember where she got each book from, and matching the ones on the shelves while putting them back. The kids even put on a full-fledged performance on the stage (it was 9am and the store just opened - believe me no one was there to mind). We hit up the in-house Starbucks for some Coffee/Tea- time, a friend of ours even joined us there, and generally we just spent a couple of educational hours enjoying each others company...

On the way back to the car we decided to stop in next door at the PetSmart and check out the animal-happenings. I looove taking Freida to pet shops! She always has such a good time talking to the animals, and learning about where they like to live, and eat etc. Today we lucked out - this PetSmart had a huge glass wall and on the other side of it was "Doggy Day Camp"! The kids happily watched as the dogs played around while the trainers got them to jump, fetch, slide etc.

If you are dealing with kids and rain this week - definitely stop Barnes & Noble... it is not just a bookstore.