SNOW DAY!!

 You know that feeling when you are hoping for a snow day and it doesn't happen?  Well...three of us had that very feeling last Thursday.  We weren't expecting a lot of snow, but we have learned that, in Oklahoma, it doesn't take much to cancel school.  I checked and double checked the school listings before waking Ben. I was so disappointed!  I was really looking forward to a day at home to play games with the kids.  

Both, Ben and Abby, had to be at school early for band, so Jon took them.  It wasn't until almost 8:00am that I got a call from the school saying that school was cancelled.  Seriously?!  They were already at school!!  It was only a matter of a minute or two before I started getting calls and texts from Ben and Abby.

Ben ended up getting picked up by Emily's mom and went to her house, with friends, for movies and fun.

Abby came home on the bus and I made her breakfast!

Nothing is better on a cold, snowy, icy morning than a yummy, hot breakfast!

 Of course, my little outdoor lover couldn't wait to get out there and play!

 I love the look of the ice on everything.  

 Abby spent a large part of her day catching up on Downton Abbey episodes!  Anna came over and, this is so pathetic, they watched Downton Abbey on their Kindles!  I finally made them come out of the bedroom and be social and watch something together.  Nothing girlier than wedding shows!  I love it!

Jon made my day when he offered to take us all out to dinner at our favorite restaurant!  Hooray!! 

 

I love snow days!!

As I type this, we are under a blizzard warning.  It has pouring rain outside all day, which is supposed to change over to snow and turn into a blizzard!  We are expecting 3-7 inches of snow by morning!  I don't to get my hopes up, but I would love another snow day!!
(I'm sure Ben and Abby wouldn't argue!)

Snow Days, Snow Days, Snow Days....

With all of the snow we've already had, you can only imagine how happy I was to wake up to this:
Seriously?! Another foot of snow?!
The original foot of snow hadn't even melted yet, and now we have that much more! Ugh...
This is what the boys are content to do all day.
Don't you just love the glazed over look of a teenage boy playing video games? I don't!
Thankfully Abby doesn't love to just sit around all the time. Not that she doesn't do that at all, but after having four snow days the week before, she couldn't take it anymore. She had to do something. On this day, Abby ended up making lunch for her and Ben.
She did a great job!
But making lunch just wasn't enough. We found a recipe to make snow ice cream. We had never made snow ice cream before, but it sounded pretty neat.
Abby did all of the work!
And she got to have the first taste! It was actually pretty good!
No, this isn't dirty snow! Abby, is not a fan of vanilla ice cream, so we mixed in some cocoa powder to make it chocolate ice cream.
She liked that a lot better!

Call us crazy, but we don't own a shovel. I know! It broke a few years ago and we just never replaced it. Being in Kansas and Oklahoma we just don't generally get that much snow, so we just let it melt on it's own. Well, FEET of snow don't just melt very quickly! Especially when the lows are really low! When we woke up on Thursday morning it was -28 degrees outside!! That's just insane!
So...I was thrilled when a guy knocked on my door and asked if I would like him to plow my driveway! (For a fee of course!) How could I pass that up?!
Luke LOVED watching the driveway get plowed! The boy loves tractors, so he was in heaven!
Apparently it was "bring your dog to work" day since the guys that did the driveway brought this guy (or girl) too. Luke was pretty fond of the dog too!

Like I said before, Abby likes to do. She didn't have a plan. She just thought it would be fun to be crafty. She went out to the garage to see what she could find. Wood and paint are what she came in with. And she got busy.
The two of us had a fun time doing some crafty things together. Check back soon to see what else we came up with!

"Snowmagedon", "Snowpocalypse", "Snowklahoma"...

Whatever you want to call it, we got a lot of snow! We were expecting 9-12 inches and that's about what we got! I was beginning to wonder if the snow would really come when I hadn't even seen a single snowflake before I went to bed around midnight. The school districts, however, believed the weatherman and called for a snow day the day before the snow even came!
It was a good thing the kids had a snow day because this is what we woke up to! Jon ended up taking a snow day too!
A LOT of snow! And it was still snowing!!
The frozen window looked so neat.
I thought it was crazy how the tree looks like it is in a hole. It's amazing what happens when the snow is blowing and drifting.
Check out the snow in the bottom corner of the window!
Ben finally decided to venture out into the snow. Brave boy!
Ben headed back to the college behind our house to play in the snow drifts.
Time for some shoveling.
Abby wanted to get in on the deep snow fun!
That is some deep snow!
I just took this picture to give some perspective on how deep the snow was. Insane!!
This is what Luke and I did while the others were out in the snow. Thank goodness for modern technology! On the first snow day we went through SIX movies! (We ended up with FOUR snow days from school! I think the kids were actually ready to go back!) I would be ok with not seeing anymore snow for a very long time!!

Snow Day #2

Today, in Bartlesville, the high temperature for the day is 59 degrees! 59 degrees in late January? CRAZY!! (The fact that the high for tomorrow is 67 is beside the point...) It's hard to believe that one week ago from today that the kids had a snow day!
Yep, that's right! We got four inches of snow and had a snow day!
Abby couldn't wait to get outside and play in the snow!
This is her snowman creation. :) The snow wasn't very good packing snow and this was the best she could do.
There's nothing better on a cold, snowy day than this! Aaahhhh.....

SNOW DAY!!

Oklahoma is so different than Michigan. I remember when I was growing up that we had to have something like twelve inches of snow (Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit...) before they would give us a snow day. I know Oklahoma gets the ice that Michigan didn't, but it always shocks me when my kids get a snow day and there is very little snow on the ground. The snow day was good and it was nice to get to do nothing for the day. Ben and Abby couldn't wait to go out and play in the snow. I wouldn't let them go out until Luke went down for a nap, because I didn't really want him to go out. I know, I'm mean, but there is no keeping hats and gloves on that boy! As soon as Luke was down, Ben and Abby were out the door.

They are ready to brave the cold!

Rolling down the (very small) hill and making snow angels are always fun! It makes me happy to see them playing. As they get older, the tend to think that playing is for little kids. It makes me sad that they are growing up so fast!
I love the icicles!
Snowballs!
Again, happy to see my boy playing!
There's nothing better after playing in the snow than some delicious hot chocolate! :)