So if your state is anything like mine, you've probably been in "stay at home" (lockdown as I call it) not just once, but twice now, as the state closed up restaurants, bars, clubs, fitness centers and anything nonessential once again. The county fair was cancelled, Fourth of July was a bust, and there are no open zoos or movie theaters or fun places to go! HOW can we have fun even while being in lockdown? Here are some great ideas:
Create your own "At Home Festival Experience!" For example--it's almost FALL and there should be apple picking harvest festivals and pumpkin fall festivals coming up very soon, but probably not this year. So create your own "Apple Harvest Weekend Festival" or "Pumpkin Harvest Festival Fun"! Go get some apples (or pumpkins when it's time) and look up all the fun things to bake or make using them--crafts too! There's pie but also apple butter, caramel apples, hot apple cider, baked apples, mini pies, applesauce bread, apple muffins, and I'm even going to make apple cider spice ice cream (by adding an apple cider mix I got into homemade vanilla ice cream! See my other blog post if you want the vanilla ice cream recipe). On the pumpkin side, besides pie, I found out how to make dinner in a pumpkin (you bake the pumpkin with fixin's inside), pumpkin fudge, pumpkin muffins/bread and of course all different kinds pumpkin seeds (sweet cinnamon, spicy/tangy, caramel-like)! For crafts, with apples you can use dried apples to make a wreath, you can cut open apples and dip in paint to make different prints on paper, and other crafts (look on Pinterist for more ideas!) You can even do "bobbing for apples" and "apple relays" (person balances apple on open palm, runs, then passes it to next person)--find ways to have some fun at home!
Another idea is to have a Movie Marathon Weekend, and you deem what type of movies to show! Could be Princess movies or watching all of a series such as Harry Potter, Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon, or Kung Fu Panda. Or the American Girl Doll movies. I might personally do great fun 80's movies! Get out some popcorn and treats, go pick up some movie style food to eat (or make it yourself) and have a "stay at home" fun weekend watching favorite movies!
One other idea that lasts more than a weekend is to pick a TV series that was a favorite or classic back in the day and have a "streaming streak" showing it to your kids, since nothing new is on TV anyways right now! Shows such as The Wonder Years, My So Called Life, Veronica Mars, and even classics such as I Love Lucy or Star Trek would be wonderful to look forward to seeing the next episode of each day! Go back in time and remember shows you loved growing up, from cartoons (Flintstones! Jetsons!) to funny shows which ran a long time (Home Improvement, Friends, Family Matters (Urkel!), The Nanny), and even The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, The Carol Burnett Show, Leave it to Beaver, and The Waltons! You could even have a Marathon Watching Weekend like they used to put on TV during New Year's weekend of The Twilight Zone or The Honeymooners!
Don't let being in "stay at home" orders shut down your fun---you can MAKE your own fun right in your very own home! Take these ideas and run with them, and see if you can make the weekends something to look forward to again!