#snoverit

Surprise!  We woke up to about five more inches of snow than predicted!

We baked, played in the snow, exposed Jackson to one of our childhood favorite movies: "Flight on the Navigator," cooked, baked some more, constructed a homemade skeg for Josh's kayak, played Uno, Monopoly Junior, Star Wars Duel, and on the awesome tablets the new library is checking out, read lots of books, put away literally loadS of laundry, enjoyed an adult reward and relaxed with Hulu catching up.  Phew!

And, then it all iced over...

#snoverit

Luckily, we already were scheduled to have today off!  Haircut Day, it was!

Smoothies as rewards for being such good sports :)

A Little #snolycrap Humor...

It feels like we are starting school all over again, so I made special signs for the boys :)

 "I survived snow event #1 of 2016!  First Day Back to School After *8* Days Off!"

"I survived snow event #1 of 2016!  First Day Back to School After *5* School Days and 12 Days Total!"

Mimi Saves Our Sanity!!!

Mimi's trip was planned, but we had no way of knowing when we scheduled it that she would arrive at the end of #snolycrap and in the midst of EIGHT days off of school!!!  Our first adventure out of the house with Mimi was to our favorite Barnes and Noble location with a fabulous train table, a huge selection of books and lots of yummy drinks :)  On Saturday, Kristyn, Arturo, Diego and Aurelia stopped by on their way to visit other friends and stayed for brunch and some playtime.  

 On Sunday, we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History!  The main dinosaur exhibit is closed, but they had a smaller area to visit open.  Someone was a very happy camper...!

 Our goal was to go to Red Robin for dinner after the museum, but traffic was not on our side.  We convinced these yahoos that Five Guys would be a suitable replacement.  I think their faces call that a success :)

 Sees Sucker faces!

 The long-awaited day was finally here when our brand-new neighborhood library opened!!!  We were so excited Mimi was here to go see it with us for the first time!  The building is beautiful, there is underground parking, and the whole place is just so bright!  The boys are standing in the front lobby after riding the elevator up from the parking garage.

Jackson found this fun rocking chair in a little area that will be used for storytimes.  We chekced out quite a haul of new books to read at home.  That was the best part for me: ALL OF THE BOOKS ARE BRAND NEW!!!

#Snolycrap Day 8

We left the house!!! (And, I put on real pants for the first time in a week!!!  HAHAHA!)  Our destination was Pump it Up and we took Izzy with us--it was a fabulous plan--the kids LOVED it! I was impressed with the quality of the inflatables, the cleanliness and the quantity AND quality of supervision. 

 We stopped for McDonald's on the way home.  Crowd pleaser all the way around :)

We had a low-key afternoon--Jackson and Izzy relaxed with a movie and Graham napped. We're ready for Mimi's arrival tonight!!! 

#Snolycrap Days 6 and 7

We are slowing down with all of our fun indoor activities... ahem...  We did get a head start on Valentines! Josh went back to work via Telework, but at least he still could stay home.

frown emoticon

The day ended on a high note for me as as I escaped the house ALL BY MYSELF! Ahhh...

 The boys are tired of TV! That's how you know you've had too many snow days... They mostly played games (Candy Land, Go Fishin', Zingo, Connect Four, and Sequence) nicely while I cleaned the house. They also loved the alien and robot sticker book i got with stickers to make funny faces!  

  Telework Perk: Game Break to finish the game of Sequence for Kids Little Brother abandoned...

This friendship is awesomesauce!  An afternoon playdate was just what we needed, and Izzy and Jackson spent most of the afternoon playing in the melting snow.

They built an Olaf!

 The last activity of the day was shaving cream play in the tub--HUGE hit!  (This was inspired by playing with cars in piles of shaving cream on the table during Preschool!)

 Spiderman can ride his motorcycle in the shaving cream up the wall

 Darth Vader can use the Dark Side in shaving cream too

 Bulldozing shaving cream

More Lego guys lined up and stuck in the shaving cream!

 Oh, and just before lunch, we found out school is closed tomorrow AND Friday...! (To be fair, Friday was already slated as an early release day. We also have a teacher work day on Monday, so it will be ***8*** days of school missed by the time we go back on Tuesday!!!).

#Snolycrap Days 4 and 5

Snow Day #4: No new snowfall overnight! 

Our patio chairs are completely covered under all of that snow!

Delicious breakfast in the works: Egg, Biscuit and Sausage Gravy Casserole!  It was SO good!

Getting ready to roll a snowman!

Because we can!  Eliza is such a good girl :)

I don't know when we'll ever get mail again...  Sigh...  I hope my birthday cards can be delivered IN MAY!

King of the Snow Mound!

Our little hill in the backyard is PERFECT for Graham!

Such a good big brother bringing the sled back up the hill for the little brother :)

We spent our time today shoveling (mostly Josh), sledding, making a snowman, working on the tunnels in our ginormous snowpile, napping, braving the outside world to run to the grocery store, and another evening spent with fun friends eating yummy food and playing games!  Graham was not pleased with the turn of events of going to sleep at Miss Teresa's, but my choice eventually prevailed so we could stay for one more game of Ticket to Ride :)  You know, since we already knew school had been changed from a 2-hour delay to closed for Monday...

Snow Day #5: Back out to play in the snow!  I do love how the kids don't seem to tire of all of this snow... The huge pile in front of the house is very convenient for hours of snow play, if nothing else!

Check out that cool tunnel through the pile!

We mixed up some cool snow paint in squirt bottles and decorated all of this snow that seems to be sticking around for a while...

Josh did some more shovelling and I finally got on top of the snow mound!  It was quite high and VERY solid.

Abstract snow art

A little slide was even worn in on the side of the snow pile

Trying to get the carrot to stick...

"MAIL HERE!"

Buggle in a tunnel!

Kings of the mountain!

Catching a snowball while in a tunnel!

Throwing snowballs at Daddy!

Homemade Snow Cream!

Snow Cream with strawberry syrup, sprinkles and a cherry on top!

Snow Cream approval!

Between playing outside outings Josh did our taxes and I cleaned up Mimi's room for her upcoming arrival on Thursday!!! Early bedtimes for kiddos after a couple of late nights, so that meant more games, a second batch of Adult Snow Cream, and catching up on shows. At 11pm on last night school was already cancelled for Wednesday and at least a 2-hour delay for Thursday...