{ Snow Days }

For the past three days the kids have been at home because of snow days. Even though most of our winters are mild and we flop between 60 degree days and 30 degree days, every few years we actually get some snow. The kids were hoping and praying that before Christmas we would get some, but around here it seems that most of our snow days come between January and March.

On Monday the kids came home from school and announced that they might not have school tomorrow because of snow. I looked out at the cold but sunny skies and thought that maybe they were wishing a little bit too hard. About an hour later we got a call from the school stating that yes indeed there was no school because of the predicted snow storm. What? I felt completely out of the loop, and quickly pulled up the weather online. Sure enough snow was in the forecast.

The kids were SO excited and knew exactly what the weather forecast was-3pm  on Tuesday snow would start falling. Tuesday afternoon Ryan and I were awoke to happy squeals from the back yard. Sure enough the falling rain had turning to snow. Big fat falling flakes of snow. I love Erika’s complete look of wonder as it’s falling and Brooke’s complete look of excitement. When snow only falls every 3 years or so, it calls for some excitement I guess.

Before I could approve any suitable outerwear, the kids had pulled on whatever they thought would be warm and were out the door to play. Those little flakes quickly turned to much larger flakes and within an hour the entire back yard was covered in snow. Five out of the six that were brave enough to go out were now huddled inside wrapped in blankets, drinking hot chocolate, and glad for a nice warm home. Erika said to me, “You know when I said I was thankful for our house, well I meant it, but now I REALLY mean it” Austin’s friends had walked over and he ventured off with them to slide down the street and have a snowball fight. Brianna…well she decided that the best place to be for a snow day was inside where it was warm. She watched the snow fall gently from the comfort of inside with her phone in hand.

 

We made a plan that night as to what might be a bit warmer to wear the next day, dried out coats, gloves, scarves, and hats, and set out layers of clothes for all of my early risers that wanted to venture out in the snow. Aaron called and Tuesday night just happened to be his couple time a month call at the hospital. He normally takes it from home, but in the event that he needed to go in, he wouldn’t have been able to get there, so he got to have a night at the hospital that night. The kids promised to save him some snow the next day.

Wednesday morning we woke up to a beautiful sheet of white covering everything. It really was so beautiful to see everything so white and pure. The kids were nice to me and slept in a little bit, but by 9am they had had breakfast, were dressed up warm as could be, and were out the door to play. Brianna and Scott were the only ones that decided to take advantage of a true snow day and slept in.

The night before Austin and Brooke had filled up a Ziploc bag with water to make a big frozen block to play with that day. It had frozen almost all the way through, but instead of playing with it, they decided to just eat part of it instead. That and some freshly fallen snow. I think it must be a natural kid instinct to eat snow. It really is just too tempting.

        

They played hard, wandering around the yard looking for cool places the snow had fallen and icicles were made, but within about a half hour the first cold victims started trickling in. Brooke was the first and Ryan and Erika shortly followed after. Austin and Abby were the only two to tough it out. They swung on the swings and laid down in the snow. Austin had raided Aaron supply of military winter weather clothes and he was as warm as could be-Abby, I think she was just happy to see snow.

 

When I went out Wednesday morning to take a few pictures, the driveway and road were completely iced over with a thin layer of ice. Here in the south there are very few sand trucks, and almost no snow plows so you pretty much just have to stay inside and wait for things to melt. I was nervous about Aaron driving home from the hospital, and was glad that by the time he was able to come home the ice had started to melt a little. His half hour commute home took over an hour, but the kids were glad he had made it home while there was still plenty of snow to play in with him.

After a second round of playing in the snow with dad, we all decided that staying inside and hibernating was the best use of our snow day time. Brianna had a Disney movie marathon with Brooke. Erika, Abby, and Brooke played American Girl dolls. Austin played for over 8 hours outside with his friends in the snow. Aaron got to actually take a nap. Ryan and Scott played as usual and had picnics in the piano room for lunch. And I enjoyed some sleeping in and blogging time. All around a very relaxing few days. By today almost all of the snow is melted, the kids are back at school, and now the house is very very quiet with only my two little boys at home. The sun is shining today and by Sunday it’s suppose to be back up in the 60’s. I love Georgia!