We've had a lot of crummy weather lately. It isn't so much that it rains all day...it is that it stays cloudy and gloomy and threatens to rain all day. If it isn't raining, you feel like you can't go outside because it looks like it might start raining at any moment. We have occasional bursts of sun through the clouds, or dry spells that look promising and take as many of these moments as possible to get outside. But, we have spent a lot of time indoors the last couple of weeks. And since we are trying to conserve on gas, and there is virtually nothing close, most of that time has been in our house. We are getting a little antsy. I've used all the cards I keep up my sleeve. I've run out of special tricks to entertain during the l-o-n-g days. Desperate to come up with something fun and new to shake up the monotony, I racked my brain for something, Anything. I came up with this:

A giant blanket tent is the quintessential rainy day activity. This one filled our entire living room. I used whatever I had on hand: plenty of sheets, random strips of tulle (proving that it can be used for more than making tutus or decorating for weddings!), the random bar hanging in our living room,

brooms, chairs, and my limited knowledge of physics!

We left it up all day and had a blast playing inside! The twins spent a significant amount of time reading books.

They also spent a lot of time running into the tent (where I would catch them) and running through the tent (back and forth, back and forth).

Completely at a loss for anything on one side of the living room to tie sheets to, I used a rope made of several tulle strips to tie one end of a sheet to the freezer door. This ended up leading to a very unexpected game - we'll call it "Tent-tie Volleyball." As you can see, Ryan would throw the ball, over the tulle, to his sister,

and she would throw it right back!

These pictures are mostly for the grandparents, who humored me by playing along when I sent them a picture of the tulle tied to the freezer and asked them to guess what it was! Several hours, many guesses, and a few more clues later, and the moms guessed it right (within seconds of each other). Prizes will be forthcoming!