2011 Snow Days

We've had 5 (yes FIVE!) snow days so far this school year. (We got 1-2 inches of ice with a few inches of snow on top.) The boys were in heaven. I was in heaven too. On the first day. By the fourth day, I had about had it with the kids. We were all suffering from serious cabin-fever....and I think I was about ready to bash the TV in with a bat! Every time I left the room...I'd hear the TV/video games turn on. Ugh! The boys had had enough of the other indoor activities (games, puzzles, reading) by, like, day two. Why not go outside, you say?

Well, I remember snow days from my childhood were spent sledding, building snowmen and forts, and drinking hot chocolate. Well...the boys were super excited to go outside on that first morning to play in the white stuff and I was pretty excited to see them enjoy it all. And then I'd be ready to warm them with steaming cups of hot chocolate when they'd eventually come in...soaked to the bone. Very idyllic. In my mind, I was a regular ol' June Cleaver.

And that's exactly how it all happened.

All in 10 minutes.

Over-and-done in 10 short minutes. Wicked wind-chills ended it all...all before 9am! It's a good thing I went out and took a few pictures at the beginning of their fun, cause really the beginning turned out to be the ending too. At least there's proof that the boys were brave enough to venture out in the 0 degree weather.

Here's TJ doing his best snow angel:

And the older boys...collecting snow to make a little ramp on top of the ice in which to "surf" down. You can make out their ramp, behind them, a little to the left:

Here they are jumping on the ramp and "surfing" down it...they did it so fast my camera could never quite capture the action (just looks like their stepping over something, huh!):

Here's how far Carson slid before going down on his rump:

And there's no picture of Nixan's landing...but you can see it didn't end well for him. Big bruises on the eyebrow and cheek bones. Proof that, indeed, there was some hard ice under that bit of snow.