Blanket Forts & Halloween Costumes

The majority of my week is spent taking care of my two kiddos without my husband. My husband has a crazy work schedule because his job does mandatory overtime. For about a year now, he has been working between 65 to 75 hours a week. He would get time off for Sundays and the major holidays, but that was only a few days every now and then. I struggled immensely during that time because I had a newborn baby and a toddler to take care of while he would be gone between 12 to 16 hours a day. I struggled taking care of my kids and doing household chores. I felt that I ended up watching the clock until it was nap time or bed time. I quickly discovered that this attitude wasn't helping the situation, and I was tired of being a grumpy mom who was so frazzled that I cried over the dumbest things.

I wanted to take charge of my situation and to treasure the moments with my kids. I didn't want to keep wishing for the next day because eventually my children will grow up, and I would regret not taking the time to enjoy those moments when they were little.

Even though there are some days where I can't wait until bed time comes, I am happy to say that those days don't occur nearly as often. I have tried thinking of ways to make our days more enjoyable. And, that is when I came up with doing things that we normally don't do like making blanket forts. I can't take credit for the dressing up in Halloween costumes because it was Monkey's idea. He found his costume in his closet earlier that day and wanted to wear it. I decided to relax and let him have some fun (I can be a little uptight about several things).

The beauty of blanket forts is that they don't cost anything and they provide hours of entertainment. All you need are tables, chairs, and lots of blankets. Monkey had so much playing with different toys in his fort and, of course, wanted Roo and myself to join him. He was my cute little monster in the cave. It was fun to realize how much time passed away, and I didn't even notice!

Monkey loved dressing up in his dinosaur costume that he insisted on wearing it all day long and through nap time. This is Monkey using links to make a train from his box. He LOVES trains and likes making trains from whatever materials he finds around the house.

 What activities do you do with your kiddos to make the day more enjoyable?