Keeping Entertained During a Storm

One of the things we have to deal with over here is some pretty severe storms, some of which that can produce tornadoes or at least a threat of them. When this happens a (very loud) storm warning echos through the area which warns us to seek shelter in the basement. The first time we heard it we were a bit unprepared having never dealt with anything like this before and we ended up just standing around in the basement a bit bored. 

Unlike a lot of the houses over here our basement is not fully finished so it's not a very nice place to be, especially for long periods of time. The worst thing for me down there is the thought of how many (possibly deadly) spiders are lurking in dark corners and untouched boxes that have sat for god knows how long. This fear gets especially bad when I see Calleigh rummaging through them unaware of any danger! 

Unfortunately, as Calleigh doesn't really spend much time down there when we do have to go it is all new and exciting for her and she wants to explore everything! 

Last time the warning went off we made sure we were a little more prepared. We prepared a little bag with things like water, a flashlight, a blanket and something for Calleigh to do. 

Obviously though as soon as we got down there Calleigh was not interested in playing with anything but the boxes and dead spiders! 

So we had to improvise and find some fun for her to do that also kept her safe. 

As we have been using the basement as a sort of graveyard for all her old toys and furniture it was pretty easy to put something together, plus she is pretty easily entertained. 

I got an old box and all of the balls from her ball pit and we played a game of trying to throw the balls into the box. It worked for a little while and then we ended up puling Calleigh around in the box instead! It went a lot better than the first time but there is still work to be done and as we are still in the middle of tornado season I think I will be putting a little something together for any future trips into the basement. I will also be making sure that when it comes to buying our own house, a finished basement will be something we are looking for!