Snow Week

Snow, of any amount in Charlotte, means the world, or at least Charlotte, is coming to an end until the snow is completely melted.  It's annoying and ridiculous and I could just scream every time they do it, but then I have to be grateful for the forced family stay-cation.  For a few days that is...then I really go stir crazy.

Last Wednesday night, the first forecast of snow showed up on the news and I started getting calls about cancelling Young Women's because it might snow on Friday.  We didn't cancel.

Thursday night, still no snow, and the weather was actually quite pleasant, but I got the call cancelling school.

Friday morning we woke up to about 4 inches of snow.  And the entire city was closed.  Because frozen fluffy water fell from the sky.  I was in a rather fowl mood.  I really do not like staying home all day and did not like having my plans for the day cancelled for me.

Luckily, Greg also stayed home and saved the day.  He got out the kids snow gear (courtesy of MaKenzie) and got them outside.  Henry refused to wear gloves and lasted about 5 minutes.  We came in, warmed up, made hot chocolate and played for a few hours.

Then we started going stir crazy, so Greg rescued us again.  We got our snow clothes back on (worth every penny MaKenzie spent on them) and we headed out on an adventure in the woods behind our house.  We hiked about a mile before Greg thought he heard a deer and decided to track it with 2 noisy children behind him.  With no deer, we decided to turn back and get some lunch--grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Henry took a nap and the other two watched a movie.  Then dinner and games at home, followed by one last night time forray into the woods behind our house where Greg again decided to track a deer and ended up crawling through the woods for a while.  When Henry and I caught up with every one Greg hurriedly hushed us away as we'd made it onto the neighbor's property.  I said, "Who, the Wheatley's?  They don't care."  Greg looked confused but I eventually convinced him we were only behind the Wheatley's house, and not the next property over.  This explains how Greg got lost multiple times chasing deer during hunting season.

Greg gave Rex a compass and let him be the navigator.

Alice got the flashlights. 

Saturday we actually had more snow so we stayed home again and unlike Friday where the road were clear, we had a few inches on our street.  We played around the house for a while before deciding to do some sledding on the hill behind our house.  The Wheatley's had also decided to sled, which was nice since we don't actually own any sleds.  Henry thought it was great.  Alice refused to sled unless laying onto of Becky, who, as always, was a good sport and let her lay on top of her--at one point Eric decided to jump on the pile to which Alice said, "What were you thinking?"  Rex went down once and then refused to sled because it was too fast and he wanted to have a snowball fight.  So we headed to the Wheatley's backyard and played a big tag/snowball game.  I tried to build a snowman but Alice and Henry kept eating it.  Then we invited ourselves over for hot chocolate and lunch.  Then home for naps, TV, and I even went grocery shopping because I'm not afraid of frozen, fluffy water.

This is the parking lot at the grocery store and the real reason why they had to cancel school for so long--there aren't enough snow plows.  So although it was about 45 and the snow was melting, there was huge puddles every where and when the sun goes down and the temperature drops, it just freezes.

The perfectly clear road I was driving on when I heard that church was cancelled due to fear of black ice.

Sunday, again, because the snow wasn't 100% melted, church was cancelled.  So my in-laws drove over on the perfectly clear roads and we had a little family night with the Wheatley's with cinnamon rolls at our house.  We spent the rest of the day playing, followed by the Panther's game--it's way to dangerous to drive all the way to church but never too dangerous to drive to the stadium.

Monday was also a snow day because of black ice.  And I was starting to get really annoyed and Greg had to go back to work.  I had some things I needed to get done around the house so I didn't want to drive the 20 minutes it takes us to get anywhere, but didn't like the prospects of being stuck at home all day with 3 kidd.  So I put the kids snow boots on them and we headed out on another hike in the woods behind our house.  I tracked it on my phone and laughed when I got home to see where I'd actually walked--forward 2 feet, back 10, forward 5 feet, back 15.  It's surprising we ever got home.

Yes, Alice is in her PJs--she didn't feel like getting dressed.

I do really like that this is our backyard though.  What we don't have in lots of neighborhood kids, we make up for in adventure.

Tuesday was yet another snow day, despite not having a single new flake of snow since Friday night. Some schools still had bits of snow on them.   I was done being home so I found a recreation center we hadn't been to so we did that.  Rex did not have fun, he said.  He was the oldest kid there until some other boys came and called him a Boo Boo, whatever that means.  Alice and Henry, on the other hand, had a great time.

Finally by Wednesday all the snow had melted and the school district was out of days they could add to the schedule, so Rex was back at school.  He was pretty excited as were the rest of us.