Tuesday, February 22, 2011

How Do You Beat Cabin Fever?

Those of us who live in the Midwest are very familiar with the drastic dips in temperature that winter can bring. Sometimes the cold snaps or bad weather keep us cooped up indoors for days and even the laziest of us (cough, cough...me) starts to get a little nutty.

My husband and I bought an inflatable jumper several years ago when we were preparing for a birthday party for our two older kids. It seemed like a good investment to have at the summer birthday parties...the use over the years would offset the cost. It wasn't a huge jumper, probably 10 foot square or smaller. The laughs were on us at first because the biggest of the kids (including nephews) were terrified of the thing for the first year we had it. We tried everything to get the kids to jump in it but an unfortunate premature deflation accident while the kids were inside the jumper had pretty much confirmed they wouldn't set foot inside.

Once they got past their fears they enjoyed the jumper, and we added the younger siblings. We came upon a frigid winter with two squirrely kids and my husband thought that we should set the jumper up inside the house. Our home is not large, but the living room is ::JUST BARELY:: large enough to set the jumper up in it without the kids bouncing and knocking things over.

We have set up the inflatable jumper in our living room several times in the winter months to get some of the pent up energy out of our kids. There is always at least one bump from someone exiting too wildly or jumping on top of someone else, but when it's too cold or frozen outside to play, this is the next best thing.

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