Rainy Day Fun

Even rainy days can be fun!

For lunch, I made Lifesavers life raft napkin ties.



For the napkin ties you will need: a red edible food writer/marker, white Lifesavers, and twine. Draw a cross on the Lifesaver using the red food writer. Let dry. Roll up your silverware in a napkin (I used blue for water). Tie the Lifesaver onto the rolled up napkin. (I tied the twine by threading the twine through the Lifesaver, then making a knot in the twine. I then tied the Lifesaver to rolled up napkin.)

Orange fruit boats. You may have
to use a little imagination to see
the boat design ;)

As a side, I made orange fruit boats. I cut an orange in half and cut out the insides by using a sharp knife and cutting around the inside edge to separate the pulp from the rind. I took pulp sections out for the kids to eat. Next I took a strawberry, cut off the green top, and cut out the middle section. I then inserted a baby carrot into the strawberry for the mast. The strawberry sat in the middle of the orange bowl. I then filled it in with grapes. For the sail, I cut thin pear wedges and attached to the carrot with toothpicks. (Thin pretzel rods and fruit roll-ups would work well as a mast and sail too, especially around younger kids who don't mix well with toothpicks).

The main dish was not boat inspired, just left over pizza :)

After lunch, we made little boats. There are lots of different ways to make boats, but here's how we did it! You will need pecan shells, thin sticks or twigs, leaves, Play-Doh or modeling clay.

I broke a pecan shell in half (walnut shells might work too). The biggest/most intact piece became the boat. For the sail, we collected little sticks and leaves from the backyard. I cut some slits in the middle of the leaves and inserted the stick to make a mast and sail. I then used a small ball of Play-Doh to hold the mast/sail upright in the boat. We sailed the boats in the sink, but once the sun came out we went outside and sailed them in the puddles!

• Other ideas: 
• Use a sea shell for the boat.
• Use a milk or orange juice carton (the rectangular kind, not the plastic jugs). Decorate with colored Duct tape.
• Cut a small triangle out of plastic (like a tablecloth) for the sail. You may need to cut the top point off to help stabilize the boat.