How one mom uses easy crafts for kids to have fun when it's too cold to play outside

It’s fairly easy to keep young children busy when the weather is nice. But it can be a little challenging when temperatures drop.

Social media influencer and entrepreneur Ginger Parrish is well aware of that fact. She’s mom to three boys: Jonah, 8, Rigg, 6, and Jack, 3, and she regularly documents her family’s outdoor — and indoor — adventures on Instagram.

“We love going outside and adventuring together as a family,” Parrish tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “With the holidays coming up, it’s getting colder. But we’ve found fun ways to bring elements of nature inside for the boys to do some arts and crafts.”

Parrish says she’ll have her sons gather pinecones and other natural elements on warmer days. “We’ll gather bags of leaves to use throughout the season when it gets colder,” she says. “We tend to pull them out when it’s colder or in the dead of winter where we’re like, “What can we do?’” Those pinecones and leaves can then turn into bases for crafts when the weather isn’t so great.

“It’s super fun to watch them create and use those different elements in little projects that we come up with,” Parrish says. “We’re able to connect and be creative together. It’s fun to watch it come to life.”

The crafts aren’t just busywork for her kids: Parrish says she uses them as decorations around her place. “I love seeing the projects around the house that the boys have made throughout the holidays,” she says. “It’s really magical. It really warms up our space and reminds of us that time that we were able to connect as a family.”

Of course, messes are usually part of the package. “Things get super messy, super quick when paint is involved,” Parrish says. “They get it everywhere and I’ve had to learn as a mom of three boys to just embrace it.” Plus, the entire family can easily clean up with Dial Complete? Spring Water Foaming Hand Wash.

This article was paid for by Dial and created by Yahoo Lifestyle’s branded content team.