indoor play activities

With the holidays now neatly put away and the toys well used...I am looking for some activities to do with our boys.
It has been very cold this year so our playtime outdoors has been limited. We try to get them outside daily, but it can be as little as 30 min to one hour....so that leaves us lots of time for other activties...
Currently we trade off doing...playdough, coloring, water play in the sink, kidney beans on a cookiesheet with spoons and cups (I got this gem from some amazing goddess on THIS site-se ret ty to you! We love it).
The boys are just a bit over 2...any other suggestions? I love winter, but it will be so much better when we can enjoy it more!

 

My girls love crafts. Even something "simple" like coloring on a piece of paper and then decorating with stickers or glueing on other pieces of paper/felt/letters/etc to make cards can keep them occupied for a long time.

I also started letting them 'help' bake with me around 2. I let them 'help' (with lots of help from me) measure and pour the dry ingrediants into a bowl and then mix.

We also do dance party at our house. This is great for getting out lots of energy

Finally when my girls are sick of our house (or the sitter's house), we go play at the library or a local book store that has a train table. When they were younger, I'd use the stroller to block off a small area so they wouldn't take off on me.

GL getting through this long cold winter! I feel your pain.

 

Some things we have done to keep them busy indoors:

Chalk Art
Pudding Painting
Bake Cookies or cupcakes and then decorate.
Noodles and muffin tins (let them seperate different shaped noodles, counting, etc....)
Bubbles (we have a cheapy bubble machine from Wal-mart...pure entertainment for toddlers!)

Here is a good site for some ideas- Preschool Express.

 

That looks like a great site, Laura, I might have to try some of those ideas.

When all else fails & they are really bored, I stick them in the tub with a bunch of their bath toys & let them play and splash for awhile. It is amazing how much time they can spend in a bath! And the bonus is that they are clean after!