Snow Day(s)

Originally I planned to go to the mall on Wednesday, which I hate so I'd spent several days hyping myself up for it--I recently discovered that H&M recycles old clothes so I have a pile of stuff to take to them and Alice is refusing to wear most of her pants,  

Tuesday night I got the call--no school on Wednesday due to a winter storm.  The kids were excited.  I was not enjoying the change in plans.

Wednesday morning we woke up to a cold but bone dry yard.  I was annoyed and the kids were sad.  By 8, the snowing was coming down hard and by 10 the kids had done enough chores to merit a romp in the snow.  And I was glad for the change of plans.  I've finally aquired enough snow gear for everyone to have a bib, jacket, hat, boots and the most important addition this year--gloves, funny how warm, dry hands can change a 5-minute snow adventure into a 2-hour one.

We used the sleds that we finally broke down and bought last year and sledded for a while, before being drawn to the Wheatley's where we attempted to jump on the trampoline (not so fun with 5 inches of snow), made some snow angels and built a Wheatley family out of snow.  Usually on snow days we meet the Wheatley's at the sledding hill and sled for a while before wondering over to their house to build snowmen, then Becky makes macaronni and cheese while Parker makes hot chocolate.  We hung out outside the Wheatley's for a while before Alice decided that not wear socks was a bad idea and headed home, followed shortly by the other kids.  Rex and I stayed out a while longer to finish our snow Wheatley's before we got cold and hungry and headed home for lunch.

 While I cleaned up lunch and did a few other chores, the big kids painted snow for about an hour and then we made snow cream, which is tasty when covered with chocolate.  Then we decided to read a bit of a Series of Unfortunate Events, as part of our monthly book/movie series, which we dropped for a while.  Henry fell asleep while we were reading (and so did I).  Rex and Alice suited back up and decided to help Greg shovel the driveway.  I decided I'd lay down for a just a few minutes, thinking that Zora would be up from her nap within the next 20 minutes.  An hour and a half later, Zora woke me up, so I woke Henry up and we suited back up to find Greg and the older two, who'd gone on an adventure to find a bigger hill to sled on.  They couldn't find one so we all sledded on the normal hill until dark.  Henry and Rex got pretty brave and tried all sorts of crazy positions.  We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner and then the kids picked to read more of A Series of Unfortunate Events instead of watch a movie.  It was a perfect day.

 Thursday school was cancelled again because there aren't enough snow plows in Charlotte so we just have to wait for the snow to melt for the buses to be safe to drive again.  Our friends the Turners came over and sledded a bit with us and we built a bigger snow man before introducing them to snow cream.

 Alice and Henry spent the afternoon painting snow again, while I decided to get some chores done and Rex and Greg played video games.  After Zora's nap, I really wanted to go on a hike so we all suited back up but I decided to switch up everyone's snow suits so that Henry and Zora were not wearing bibs that hit them mid-calf.  Henry just about lost it when I put "his" suit on Zora and a bigger one on him, so I had Alice switch him because we have 3 size 4/5 snow bibs, but then Alice lost it because the second one wasn't comfortable and then Rex was getting bored and starting throwing snow balls and then, after 20 minutes of tantrums, I lost it and went inside.  After 2 days of doing nothing but play with children and dry their clothes and make them snow cream all I wanted was a hike in the woods with the family and they couldn't pull themselves together long enough to handle it.  I almost feel bad from ruining the end of our snow day.  I made an early dinner and vowed to put the kids to bed early.  The kids knew what was best for them and stayed outside as long as they could.  Rex actually had to be called in at near dark for dinner.  Then the kids helped clean up and we spent an hour or so recovering from our tantrums and reading more of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Friday school was still cancelled because the snow in the northern part of the county still hadn't melted, but ours was all but gone so we finally left the house and played at rec center not so close to our house for a few hours.

Snow days are fun, for about 2 days.  It's like a forced 2-day stay-cation, which is my favorite kind of vacation, no driving, no packing but lots of family time and built in activities.  But after day 2, it's time to get out.

Monday starts the first full week of school since before Christmas.  It's going to be a rough week.  I love/hate school so much.