Hurricane Fun - Mendez Style

Being in a new place does not equal hurricane preparedness.

That being said, both Joel and I have lived through plenty of hurricanes, and the girls and I even did one (though it really ended up being a tropical depression by the time it got to us) in our house in Fairhope last year. Heck, we've even done earthquakes. So we know how to get ready. We just weren't.

(I left all of our hurricane supplies at our place in Fairhope when we packed out, thinking our renters would need it much more than we did. HA!)

Which meant a lot of trips to the brand new Target in our neighborhood.

Here is a picture of the girls entertaining themselves while we waited for Joel to come pick us up. Forget toys, just give them a huge concrete ball cemented to the ground for hours of guaranteed amusement.

One day I'm gonna take them back all dressed up and re-pose this picture. I love this shot.

Now the fun part of parenting during a hurricane is how to keep the kiddos occupied if/when the power goes out and while they are stuck inside with all the rain, and while you're trying to get everything ready. Besides the obvious charging up all the gadgets and gizmos and making sure everything that needed batteries had them, I also don't want them to be afraid of the storm.

Last year in Alabama, we created the ultimate tea party experience. We bought all sorts of treats and goodies and the girls dressed themselves up in their favorite costumes, and we did hair and nails, and we did fancy tea party right in the middle of the living room. Of course, we were Daddy-free at the time, which meant no testosterone in the house to mess with.

The girls piling on Daddy in the bunk bed.

This time I knew we needed new activities. I found several new DVDs and games for their Leapsters at the thrift store, and got the girls new coloring books. I figured at the very least - we don't need electricity to do school, so we could keep right on with that, but I did find several craft projects (Halloween and regular school-related) that I had ignored and pulled those out.

We prepped lots of food to use up what was in our fridge, and I made pumpkin muffins for the girls' breakfast for the next week. (The girls love to cook, so that is always a safe activity.)

I also took a trip into Michaels. (I am not allowed to go to Michaels. It's like crack to a crack addict.) I got Abby this kit to make friendship bracelets and started to teach her how to make them. I totally got flashbacks to sitting in classes in highschool making those things!

And we picked up a bunch of decorative iron-on patches so we could decorate the jeans we got at the thrift store. (We haven't actually gotten to that project yet, though.)

And, as a homeschool- related project, we counted up all the change we have been saving in the banks the girls have. The girls had over $15 in change! There was quite a long discussion over which charity to support with that money, but in the end the girls decided to buy a pair of chickens through a organization in India. (Rabbits are next, but we have to save up for them.)

In the end, I am so very grateful that we didn't get the kind of weather in our area that had been predicted all week, and kind of guilty in that others DID get that weather. I watch those pictures of New York and recognize all the places we used to live and go to, and just hurt for the folks up their STILL in such a mess. I can only imagine what that sort of devastation would look like in the DC area.