The Top Five Rainy Day Activities

Try these five fun activities with your kids when it’s raining outside. From baking adventures to coloring pages, here are the ideas you need.

It’s raining outside and you’re bored today. Actually you aren’t so bored, but you are really tired of hearing how bored your kids are. They whine, they cry, they sulk, and you’re losing it. Why not turn off the television and try something a little out of the ordinary if your family has the rainy day blues?

• Discover new toys. If your kids are like mine, they have a room bursting with toys that don’t seem to get enough play time. Perhaps they have forgotten how much fun Barbie or GI Joe can be, or just can’t get creative anymore with blocks. If you sit down with your kids and show them just how much fun it can be to combine toys or find new things to do with old toys, you’ll be the hero of the day.
  
  For example, try using the blocks to outline a house for Barbie on the floor. Let your imagination soar as you make rooms together and play house. When you’re tired of one arrangement, try another! Dig through the closet and find thing that haven’t seen the light of day in a few months or years. If nothing in the toy closet has great appeal, make new toys. A few blankets and a card table can make a terrific fort. A towel and a great imagination make a nice magic carpet. Be creative!
  


• Play online. There are lots of things to do on the computer that don’t require constant supervision like many of the traditional games might. Pull up a website like TheDollPalace.com and let your kids explore. The coloring pages on the site can inspire creativity. Online coloring pages are made from many of the fun and fashionable dolls created on the site, so they are more interesting and exciting than traditional coloring pages.
  
  After trying out the coloring pages, play with doll makers on that site and try out different educational websites. There are tons of websites provided that teach various things or involve games that are educational rather than edgy and inappropriate. The best part of all is that they are free!
  



• Bake up a storm. Kids love to help bake things. Dig in the pantry for some sugar cookies or cake mix and whip up a batch. Let the kids help stir, and as the cookies or cupcakes cool, bring out all the sprinkles, food coloring and candy you can find. Let the kids frost the creations and add all the decorative elements. When the masterpieces are finished, everyone can indulge!
  



• Play a game together. Most people agree that board games, or even video games, are a terrific way to spend time together, but they can be a bit hard to get started. If you pull out the Monopoly or Candyland board for everyone and get the kids motivated, you’ll be on your way to a less stressful afternoon.
  
  Not only will your kids be having fun as they count spaces and make wise real estate investments, they will have something to do that challenges the brain a bit. Throw in a bit of popcorn and juice and you’ll have a regular party!
  



• Invite friends over. Just because you can’t go outside to play doesn’t mean friends can’t come over to the house to play. Inviting friends over is one of the easiest ways to break a kid’s boredom. A friend brings exciting new prospects and makes even the most played video game exciting again.
  Let your kids pick up the phone and call a friend. A quick drive in the car to pick him up may just help you keep your sanity and give your child a chance to play with someone they haven’t seen in a while.
  

Dinosaur Coloring Pages - I

Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 65 million years ago, a catastrophic extinction event ended dinosaurs' dominance on land. One group of dinosaurs is known to have survived to the present day: taxonomists consider modern birds to be direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs.

Iguanodon








Diplodocus

Brachiosaurus

Archaeopteryx

Apatosaurus

Ankylosaurus

Allosaurus

Finding Your Past

The internet can be a portal to your past. Rediscover the joy of simple things like coloring pages and Legos just for the fun of it.

There is something to be said for a bit of nostalgia. You might be cleaning out and find old love notes or the CD you burned for your now ex-girlfriend. A song comes on the radio and you find yourself singing along. Fashions you thought had come and gone are back again and you just can’t decide if you want to give them a second try. After all, the first round of the eighties wasn’t too great for you style wise.

On a rainy afternoon, when you just happen to be thinking about your old self, you might try bringing back of those few old memories just for the simple amusement of it. Certain television shows even specialize in creating shows about the 70s, 80s or 90s. You can make your own mini-show right over your computer.

Finding Your Past
Your past is all over the internet. You can look it up through the white pages or do a more complex people search to see what happened to all your old buddies. MySpace actually has divided people into high schools and colleges which means you can spend hours reading about your ex girlfriend or crush without feeling like too much of a stalker. When you get bored with that, you can go back and relive even earlier memories.

The Early Stuff
Most of the toys you loved as a child are still around. Light-Brights, Barbies, Legos and more can be bought online and enjoyed again. If you feel funny buying yourself toys and don’t have a niece or nephew to use as an excuse, consider trying something else. Coloring pages and paper dolls are online now, too, through websites like TheDollPalace.com. You can spend time carefully shading in the coloring pages as a child, make up for lost time now. Grab a hairbrush and sunglasses and jam out the way you always wanted to the tunes of Tiffany or Slayer.

If you had a pretty normal childhood and still don’t care about the memories, you just haven’t fully experienced them yet. Have you kept up with old friends? Do you have all your favorite songs from high school on your iPod yet? If not, you probably just don’t know what you’re missing!

Anime Coloring Pages

Anime pictures are very popular. Sometimes I like to print them, sit down and color them. I found a great anime coloring tutorial recently, it is very complicated, but Istill ove to watch it over and over.



Here are some coloring pages from the anime characters that I like the best:



Sailor Pluto

Sailor Moon