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2.03.2014

a snowday

M7, snow.  Snow, M7...it's been a while...


Excitement was high Monday after school as teachers had shared with students that we were slated to receive up to eight inches of powder.  The kids were near crazy with anticipation...and if I'm going to be honest, so was I.  I love a good snow day!

As of Monday when we went to bed we were promised that the snow would be in full force by noon and in a perhaps slightly over cautious move, the school system went ahead and closed schools for Tuesday.  Of course by the time we woke up Tuesday morning the snow was predicted to arrive around 2, but that's neither here nor there...the school board was making decisions in the interest of safety of thousands of kids.  Besides later snow gave me a little extra time to make a mad dash calm run to the grocery with my tiny army of consumers, we were really out of bread and milk (happens at least twice a week round here...).  I clearly had a weak moment in snow anticipation and keeping the peace because we left with one junk selection per child to 'celebrate our impending snowstorm.'

Of course by noon they had moved the snow arrival back to 4 and then by 2 it was predicted to get here around 5 and by 5 I was beginning to wonder if we had gotten all excited about nothing.

Finally, just as Ian got home from work and darkness began to fall, the first flakes appeared...and just in case it didn't stick around, the crew went out to catch a few on their tongues.


Thankfully by morning we had somewhere around three inches of powdery wonderfulness.  We started our snow day with a quick granola bar power-up and headed outside.  Maya was not overly impressed, but she was happy to be outside with all seven of her humans.


We had been in the front yard about five minutes tossing snowballs at one another when Caleb heard Abbey's voice in the cul-de-sac, so we went over to 'sled' on the driveway with our friends.




Natalie seemed to know exactly what snow was and how to play in it, but 30 minutes was about all it took for our little spicy girl to decide she was COLD and ready to head home.  Ky and DQ quickly followed behind us but the guys were still game on for more snow fun, so they armed themselves with our sand trucks and had a blast on the slide.



Eventually even our tough guys were starting to lose feeling in their fingers, so wet glove removal and a hot cocoa warm up was in order.


We followed that by grilled cheese, quesadillas, tomato soup, and ridiculous amounts of previously mentioned junk food for lunch.

And after rest time?

Well, more snow play, of course!

There was time for a family snowball fight.  (I *may* have avoided taking any direct hits by holding the camera).  Ian took a few for the team...


Natalie and Daniel continue to show promise for being 'best little buds'.  They made sled run after sled run down our driveway together, giggling and squealing all the way.


And when both big girls started snow angels near one another, I just couldn't resist recreating a picture from three years ago.  At that time there were five kids in the greater family, but only three were mine.

Christmas 2010 at Mama's...my three plus my niece/nephew
Three years and two kids later...


We continued to sled for a while, DQ and Ky took over when Daniel and Natalie eventually lost interest.  Our hill isn't much, but they still had a blast.


And then Natalie declared herself done, so Ian and the four older kids headed back to the backyard for some last fun.



Before long I had four inside warming up with their second mug of cocoa, but one remained outside.  Daniel has been with us three winters now, but this was his first NC snowfall and he LOVED every second of it.

We enjoyed our snow to the fullest that day, and it's a good thing we did.  As is typically the case in NC, just a few days have passed and the whiteness is but a memory.  Each time we hear talk of snow though, we'll be watching the skies, hopeful for a repeat performance.  It doesn't come often around here!


1 comment:

Courtney said...

I would say you guys made the best of your snow days and had lots of fun! We have had more than our fair share of snow in Ohio, so now it feels more like a chore than fun to deal with the snow.