6 Free Indoor Winter Fun Ideas

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Winter is upon us.  Here in the midwest we're covered with snow.  Of course there's plenty of outside fun to be had but we need some things to do inside as well.  If you're in the same boat, find some ideas for your family in the list below!

1. Indoor Snowball Fight
You can buy super cute kits like the ones pictured below, or just ball up some white socks.  Section off part of the living room or basement, give each player some sock snowballs and let the fun begin!
    
2. Flight School
Cue up some YouTube videos on how to make paper airplanes. Give the kids some pieces of paper and everyone make paper planes.  Then, practice flying them.  Get out the hoola hoop and have one person hold it.  Can you fly your plane through the hoop?  Set up a chair, can you fly over the chair?  Tie a rope or piece of ribbon up high, can you fly your plane under the line of "storms"? 

3. Draw Me
Does your house have a fan of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books?  If so, check out the tutorials on YouTube for how to draw Greg.  It's lots of fun to get out a sharpie and try to follow along!  Same for littler kids who might like Mo Willems' books "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and his "Elephant and Piggie" series.  Here is Mo himself teaching you how to draw Piggie!
      

4. Make Your Own Play Dough
Recipe and clean up tip here.  This dough is easy to make and fun to play with!  It uses simple ingredients you probably already have in the cabinet.  The one kind of odd ingredient is cream of tartar but Amazon has it for under $5 if you don't already have some!

5. Taste Test Snow Ice Cream
Do you know about this?  It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned snow ice cream is a thing!  Gather some fresh (fresh is the keyword here) snow and have the family help make the ice cream.  Vote on how much you like it and what your favorite toppings are.

6. Aluminum Foil Charades

Use aluminum foil (I got the ready sheets kind from Dollar Tree and it made this activity so much easier!).  One player will be the builder and everyone else will be the guessers.  The builder will draw a card and then silently build that item out of foil while everyone else tries to guess.  For the cards, I just used index cards and wrote on them: heart, toilet, boat, phone, and so on.

5 Things I am NOT Thankful For

There's much to be said for maintaining a positive outlook and counting your blessings. 

This is not one of those posts.
To be honest those facebook updates of "I'll post something I'm thankful for every single day during November!" drive me nuts.  "Today I'm thankful for my lovebug, husband, lover, best friend, kissy kissy kissy face xoxoxo. He is truly my rock. My everything. My heart. My soul."
GAG.

And this crap goes on for the. entire. month. Day after day of old friends and new buddies posting this gooey mush about their husband and kids. 

Then you get the days where they are really reaching to come up with something so it's a "Day 25. I'm thankful for shoelaces!" 
Wow. Deep stuff there. /sarcasm

This post is for you, fellow cynics of the world, struggling to get through this month of Thankfulness without throttling someone.

5 Things I am Not Thankful For

5. Kids handing me bugs.  I have awesome boys. But no, it is not "the thought that counts." I do not want to hold your bug/worm/spider/cicada/ant. It isn't a gift I want. Do not hand it to me.  No thank you.

4. Public Bathroom Toilet Paper.  Better than nothing, I guess?  But it should not take me half a roll to get enough for one use.  Side note: In college I found an out of the way one-seater bathroom that had CHARMIN toilet paper.  I always went to that one. Didn't tell a soul about it (I'm no fool).

3. Junk in my water.  True story: Went to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel, ordered a water.  Waitress brings water and there's something floating around in it.  No thank you. Not thankful for debris in my water.

2. Zits.  Weren't we supposed to have outgrown this by now?  NOT THANKFUL.

1. People deleting my dvr recordings.  Unnamed persons in this household have been caught hitting 'stop' when something comes on that I was going to record.  This leaves me with the first 26 minutes of a 2 hour movie.  Cut that out.  Not thankful.


What are you NOT thankful for today?  Leave your answers in the comments. This can be our own little safe haven away from the insanity that is facebook in November!