Snow Days

As I said life had no intention of easing us back into things.  9 days post vacation, 17 days into the new year, and we are all very out of rhythm and all very ready to get back into a routine.  The kids, for the most part, are ready to be back in school and I'm definitely ready to get everyone back so that I can attempt again to get our house in order.

This said we're very thankful to have kept our power on all week, to have Wyatt home safely from camp, to have had some extra days with Daddy at home, to have had a little extra time to work on things like speeches for schools and blogging :), and to have made some more great memories playing together in the snow.

This winter storm was unique to any other we've experienced in that it was primarily sleet.  So basically it looked like snow on the ground but felt like tiny pieces of hail.  By Sunday a majority of the sleet had stopped and it had frozen into a solid sheet of ice more or less.  Not good for driving which meant Wyatt got to spend an extra day up at camp and church was canceled, but great for sledding down the driveway.  Over the course of the next few days it just got slicker and slicker and by Tuesday we'd broken a couple of the sleds but they weren't even necessary.  The kids were just sliding around the yard in their snow suits like a bunch of goofballs at this point.

Saturday: Day 1

Sunday: Day 2

Hazel did Aubrey's make-up.  I promise she's not frozen.

Maddie

Evie was a wild woman on the sled.

You can already see how much more packed down the snow was by Sunday.

Cooper

Sadie

Aubrey

Monday: Day 3

I sure missed having Wyatt at home the past couple of days although I know he's having a blast at camp.  It was a weird realization for me that at some point not ALL of our memories will be made ALL together.  There was definitely an element of fun missing without him here but I'm thankful he was safe and had a great time up at camp.

Tuesday: Day 4

School was cancelled Tuesday as everything remains icy and they're predicting a possible ice storm this afternoon.

Like I said no sleds necessary.  It was like watching a bunch of penguins sliding around on the ice.  I love kids!

Wyatt got right to building an igloo out of chunks of ice he broke up off the driveway and a little igloo wouldn't do.  It needed to be big enough for all 4 of his little sisters.  Love his heart and enthusiasm.  Like I said we missed him.  He always keeps us moving.  

An tiny ice storm moved in Tuesday afternoon but nothing major and by middle of the night it was mostly rain so everything was slowly starting to melt.

Wednesday: Day 5

Going a little crazy here today.  Everyone is a little stir crazy, its really wet and rainy out and the ground is still slick, but I think we'll be back to school tomorrow.  The rain is doing it's job, slowly melting the ice, and we just saw a snow plow go by so fingers crossed we'll get a couple of days to catch up on life before the weekend.

In the meantime although the volume of my house is not enjoyable I am enjoying watching all 7 of my kids play together.  After breakfast they all built boats out of the recycling which they then took outside to test.  After that they moved on to coloring i spy pages and I couldn't help but wonder as I watched them how many more times this will happen.  "The Teenager" as we call her at times has very little patience for all these little ones and her "occasionally" annoying brothers and so we will find ourselves wondering if their days of all playing little kid games like this together are over, but then we have these moments and that thought helps me to embrace the chaos, though I'm not going to lie its still A LOT!

Snow Day Video