Mom on the Run's Special snowstorm edition: updated 11:30 a.m.

If you're looking for something to occupy your kids while school is out, your friends and neighbors might be able to help. Dreading another day of board games? Check out your neighbors’ latest suggestions, and send us your own! Find us on Facebook (insidenova.com page) or email your ideas to liannewilkens@hotmail.com.
Update: 1 p.m. Feb. 12
I am overwhelmed by all these great suggestions for keeping kids busy inside. Spaceship beds, spa days, icicle counting contests. And it leaves me wondering: what the heck did I do when my kids were little? I like to think I was creative! Wasn’t I fun? Didn’t I play with my kids?
It’s hard to remember now that my kids are both in high school and essentially (voluntarily!) locked in their rooms. Their rooms are stocked with cell phones, computers with internet access, stacks of books. My son has an Xbox and a “live” connection, so he’s playing games with friends -- across town. Basically we only see them when they come down to watch TV or eat.
And that’s nice, kind of, I have freedom to do my own thing, but it makes me wonder. What did we do?
I remember a big Shrinky-Dink phase. Painting sun-catchers for the windows for all the relatives. How many potholders did we make on those little looms? Our TV room was a veritable factory. And I have very fond memories of evenings spent with reading books aloud, making all the voices for my son on my lap, my daughter and husband working on a puzzle spread out over the dining room table.
It’s been a long time since we had a puzzle around here … teenagers are on the run so much … but hey! Snow is thick and heavy! I know we have a big puzzle around here somewhere ….
Update: 11:30 a.m. Feb. 11I hereby offer, free of charge, a brilliant idea for an invention. Just whoever actually implements my concept and creates the thing, I want one.
I want my home alarm clock to be synced into a computer somewhere, so when my boss wakes up, looks outside, and makes the decision to open the office late, or not at all, she can update the website, which will notify my alarm clock, which will then reset so I can sleep in, and take true advantage of the delay, or closure, or whatever. Obviously, school superintendents can use this technology to reset kids’ and staff’s alarm clocks, and the federal government can buy a license, too.
Sadly, the technology does not yet exist, which is why I was up and walking my dogs at 5:30 a.m. today. It was hours before the voice mail was left telling everyone to come in late today. So I’m up, dressed and ready to go, in fact, and nobody else is.
Almost literally, nobody. Usually when my dogs and I are out at 5:30 a.m., there are good numbers of people warming up their cars, picking up their newspapers, heading out the door. Today, though, I saw only two: one intrepid “essential personnel” (I assume) chipping ice off his windshield, and one truly wonderful man in a little Bobcat, grinding up and down the cul-de-sacs, chopping away mounds of plowed-up snow from the mouths of driveways. Yay, City of Manassas! Yay, Bobcat man!
So then I had a few hours before I have to go in. My house was silent; even the dogs were sleeping after their slippery walk outside. But many houses, I know, are different -- the sunlight is streaming in, but roads are still icy and schools are still closed.

Lucky Sarah gets treated to “a day at the spa” on snow days. “I let her soak her feet in my massaging foot bath and then I give her a full pedicure, then paint her toes and her hands. She LOVES that and says she feels like a “big girl”. Then we do make up and dress up too. She likes to wear my heels, but they have to make noise when she walks in them in our kitchen and foyer, or they don’t make the cut.”
Liz on Facebook says, “My 11-year-old is bowling with an orange and water bottles.”
Amy’s boys don’t really get tired of the snow, they’re still sledding -- and she’s still drying out their clothes. But when that gets old, “we put a few drops of food coloring into bottles of water and ‘paint’ the snow, and our snow sculptures.”
For exhausted parents out there, these are the ideas of amateurs. Some are easy, some are hard. Some are the work of people with far more energy, creativity, and patience than I have. But you are welcome to them! Though a caveat: The News and Messenger does not endorse any of these ideas, particularly those that involve locking children in closets.

Update 8 a.m. Feb. 11
Missy and Nicole built themselves an igloo: “We used buckets to build the walls up. It was big enough for us both to fit inside!”
Alexis made snow cones, took fresh snow and drizzled them with pina colada and daiquiri mix. Yum!
Gayle likes to play hide & seek … “Zombies in the Dark” at night, “with the flashlight under your face to look spooky!” Marion taught her granddaughters to crochet, “though one knew a little bit already.”
Nice one, Maria! “Icicle contest! Who can run around the house and take the picture of the biggest icicle! The funny part is watching them try to run through the snow and the drifts.”

Feb. 10:
From clearly over-achieving Lorrie: “I turned my son’s bed into a spaceship cockpit. I found images of gauges online, printed and cut them out and taped them to his headboard. My boys had a blast going on “space vacations”. I also found a space-themed treasure hunt online and put cookies, juice, and coloring pages into the box as the treasure.”

From Natasha, whose husband is on the Virginia Task Force-1 team that just got back from Haiti: “My five-year-old is digging out a tunnel in a mound of snow. ‘We got to get into this collapsed structure and bring out the Eskimos!’ His daddy was beaming!”

Michelle says, “I made homemade valentines with my daughter, we put them in the mailbox today. Sent them to great-aunts, grandmas, great-grandmas, etc. And we had a hot chocolate party with her friends at our house.” (See? Invite extra kids over. More is better!) “We’re making sugar cookies for her to decorate too.”

“I baked brownies for the first time ever!,” offers Adi, who really isn’t a kid anymore. “One-quarter cup of applesauce substitutes for one egg.” (A tip for vegetarians and people who have run out of eggs and don’t want to go back out!)

Carrie had her kids make snowflakes out of paper and decorate the house. In past snowstorms she’s had “birthday parties” for best friends (stuffed animals), with cake and decorations. “And I always throw a movie in there when Mom needs a break!”

Lots of people like making their kids work: “I taught my kids to take out the trash,” says Tanya. “Cleaning out their closets,” said Nancy, though she also suggested Theme Dinners, where her kids’ friends each bring over a dish and come dressed as their favorite holiday, and scrapbooking.