Here's a snow day survival tip for you: give your kids a box. The bigger the better.

Following my Christmas toy suggestion post, I thought I'd let you in on my little secret to survival yesterday. My kids are outside kids. No doubt, if we'd been out of school due to snow, they'd have been out in the snow a lot of the day. But, being out of school for icy conditions just isn't the same. Despite their pleas to go out and play as the rain/sleet came pouring down, I insisted that they stay indoors.

Following are the steps to keeping everyone sane on a day when you just can't get outdoors:

1. take the kids to the garage and show them the giant box your husband salvaged from work

2. bribe them shamelessly (In my case, I asked them to clean the playroom so that I could take a good pic of it for our house listing)

3. Reward their hard work by hauling the big box in and up the stairs to the playroom to the soundtrack of their squeals of excitement (it was like a big parade)

4. Offer up your box-cutting expertise when needed and sit back and enjoy how creative and cooperative they can be

Seriously, this "race car" and the basketball hoop they fashioned out of their cardboard scraps managed to entertain them ALL DAY LONG.

I love this little key they created to show what all the buttons on their steering wheel mean. ;)