It's funny; I have never given a single thought to Leap Year or Leap Day before. Not a thought. Okay well maybe once back in the old days when I carried a checkbook, I might have written
March 1 on a check and had to tear it up and write the correct date,
Feb. 29. And I've used Leap Year's to mentally tag "election year." But that's it, seriously.
For some reason, this year, it has totally captured my imagination. I am so excited about it! Wound up! Because I simply cannot resist the idea that suddenly, we have an extra day. And we won't have another for four years.
Given all this enthusiasm, I am planning a
surprise Leap Day event for the kids. Now fair enough, the youngest 3 won't have a clue -- they are nowhere near counting to 29 -- but they love all the silliness because they are some silly-billies. None of my kids have ever had a surprise party so that should add to the fun.
Here are my plans right now. I am using a "frog" theme for lack of any other great "leap" themes. Let me know if you have any ideas for me!
- We'll start with Lily Pad pancakes. These will be regular pancakes colored green, with a frog on each plate.
- At breakfast, we'll make a list of words associated with frogs (on green paper, of course) and see if "leap" comes up! Hopefully one of the "bigs" we'll figure out what's going on!
- The bigs will be dispatched to find an interesting fact about Leap Year or Leap Day online
- We will make thumbprint frogs (on cards for later usefulness)
- We will have some sort of race with our pancake frogs
- We will play a game of leapfrog
- We will read a new book, All About Frogs by Jim Arnosky*, to rest up from the leapfrog game. (*Not now readily available - I suggest Frogs by Gail Gibbons.)
- We'll go outside on a frog hunt (sometimes we have tree frogs right next door in the greenbelt)
- While outside, we'll learn the "Thirty days hath September . . ." rhyme
- We'll play musical lily pads
- We'll have a frog hunt (I'll hide the remaining frogs from the package in a couple rooms)
- We'll finish with whichever of our FROGGY! books (by Jonathan London) we can find.
- We'll hit the indoor pool at the Y; frogs gotta head to the water, right?
- For tea-time (after nap), or dessert for dinner, we'll have Frog Cake!
- Spinach enchiladas for supper! Yum. (It had to be green, right?)
- At dinner, we'll talk about where we each see ourselves in four years for the next Leap Day
- After the Littles go to Bed, we big girls will cap of the day with a silly romantic movie, Leap Year.
Thus ends our funny, frivolous non-holiday nonsense day!
Now it's your turn! Got any great "Leap Day" ideas for me?
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