Blizzard Nemo 2013

This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning ...

 

 

I honestly do not know how many inches we got.  We lost power Friday night around 9pm so didn't have much communication with the outside world.  We were saving our phones to txt with people so couldn't stream the radio and didn't have a battery backup radio. 

Considering the temperature, we quickly went into survival mode.  Jay devised a plan (which ended up saving us!) by which we sectioned off the kitchen and family room.  The gas fireplace did a good job of heating those two rooms.  Boiling water off and on also helped a lot.  Go on the other side of those sheets and it was a good 15 degrees cooler. We got our "tent area" as the kids called it up to around 50-55 degrees.  The rest of the house was in the 40s.  The lowest I saw it was 41.  It hovered in the mid 40s during the day. 

We also had the gas stove which helped so we could still cook hot meals. 

The kids did great, all things considered.  I think they thought it was fun being home together.  A little adventure -

 The sheets -

 Fridge quickly became off limits -

 One highlight of the weekend was when the closet door was open and Marley was on the other side of the sheet and crashed right into it.  We all got a good laugh at Marley's expense -

 Our savior!  We really wouldn't have been able to stay in the house without the heat from the fireplace. We turned it off at night but had it going all day long -

 Lots of books and hanging out by the fire.  We also played lots of board games and made our own version of Pictionary to play -

 Day two - spirits still high -

 We started calling this the "war room" -

 Average temp in the house -

 All the food went outside in coolers.  We taped off the back door and only used the front.  We surely looked like hillbillies with our food on the front porch!

 Wearing hats in the house became a must by Sunday morning (the coldest time) -

 I was glad the kids got hot dinners by candlelight.  You can't tell here b/c of my great camera flash but it was pretty darn dark when the sun when down -

 

We did make it outside to play at least once a day.  It was hard to keep the kids from wanting to enjoy the snow but also hard to get them warmed up after they came back in.

 Our street -

 So happy to be outside but after an hour was so ready to come in, look at his little red face -

 Sunday was sunny.  Look who was enjoying the sun.  Did I mention we looked like hillbillies?

 Always ready to come in and get warmed up after playing in the snow.  Doesn't everyone take a rest in the laundry basket?  Did I mention we looked like hillbillies?

 

All in all, it was a fun little experience.  We were definitely cheering though when the power finally came back on! 

Snow Day - No Problem!

Don't mind if we do....have a little fun on our day off school and work! No one was disappointed when school and even mom's work was closed today. We bundled up and headed over to a friend's house for some skating fun on their pond. 

 

It snowed all day but didn't amount to more than 4 or so inches.  We headed home around 4pm (around the time the governer announced a driving ban) and settled in for the blizzard.   Around 6pm the snow (and wind) really started picking up.

Luke, showing off his moves -

Paige looked the part and gave it her all...but I can't say she actually "skated" per se.  Not too bad for her second time on the ice.  She loved it out there.

Fluffy Hat

One of Paige's little friends at school has a fur hat.  Paige has been obsessed with it since she first saw it.  She attacks it and the unsuspecting poor little boy every time she sees him.  She even started calling the little boy "fluffy hat" in place of his real name and announced that she would marry him because - you guessed it, the fluffy hat. 

So, you can imagine Paige's delight when this little boy's mom showed up for a playdate with a present for Paige.  Her very own fluffy hat. 

She hasn't taken the thing off since she got it.

She pokes on the IPAD with it -

She sleeps with it every night -

She even eats with it -

Super Bowl -

We went to our friends again this year to watch the Super Bowl.  The kids are always very excited to have a "nighttime playdate"

Don't let the picture fool you.  The kids sat for 38 seconds of the first half.  Then we smartened up, went home and put them to bed so we could watch the second half.

Luke's 6th Birthday Party

A bit after the real event, today we had Luke's 6th birthday party with his friends.  He said he wanted to have it at home and with his neighborhood friends so that is what we did.  He picked a pirate theme as you can see down to the cake and decorations.  Luke gets VERY excited for parties, especially ones in his honor.  We basically duplicate the party we had for Paige, much the same friends, pinata, pizza cake and threw in a game of "pin the patch on the pirate" to spice things up. 

 

This and That...

Paige and I were driving to gymnastics and I was zoned out thinking about something.  Paige sneezed.  She waited for a minute then said, "god bless myself."

Paige came running up to me today and said, "Mommy, mommy, I have a HUGE muscle in my back!"  I didn't have the heart to tell her that was her shoulder blade and no it isn't a muscle.

Luke and I were talking about something the other day, I've since forgotten the subject.  He didn't like my response and said, "you have more rules than my teacher"  This was not meant as a compliment but I took it as one of the nicest things he has said to me in a while.

We are Skiing!

We decided that this would be the year for the skiing.  We asking Luke and he said he was all in.  Number two caught wind and was having no part of being left out.  SO, daddy found the closest kids ski program, we got the kids set up with yearly rentals and off to ski school we went. 

 

Luke took to it right away.  He loved it and did great.  On the third week, he was on the magic carpet, even made it to the "big" magic carpet at the end of the lesson.  Lesson four he was on the bigger practice hill the entire hour and a half.  He really loves it and did great.  Although he lessons are over, we look forward to getting him more practice this season. 

 

As much forward progress as Luke made, Paige was almost going backwards...if you can do that.  The first two lessons she was OK.  She started to go downhill (not literally unfortunately!) toward the end of the third lesson when we looked over and she was laying on the snow sprawled out refusing to take part in anything her instructor was doing.  Going into lesson four, we knew it might be touch and go.  She lasted about 23 minutes before she was toast.  Better luck next year Paige!

 

 

Some pictures from various weeks of the program -

 

 

 

So, what do you do when you ditch out on your ski lesson and have a hour to kill??  Play with Instagram of course -

 

 

The bloody nail/depressed dog

Marley had a little bit of a tough go of it today.  Daddy decided to clip his toenails because they were getting so long they were starting to curl.  He is actually very good about getting his nails cut.  Daddy got a little clipper-happy and Marley ended up with a bloody nail.  He didn't cry at all.  Marley must have a high tolerance for pain.  I've deduced this based on the number of time I have slammed his head with the dishwasher door and still every time I open the thing his head is right in there. 

 

Marley didn't get upset until we put a sock, a plastic bag and some hockey tape on it to save our carpets from the bloody nail.  Once the bag went on, he was super depressed.  Most dogs would have figured out to bite it off, this bag was not on all that great, but not our Marley.  He just sulked around the house like someone stole his spirit. 

 

Here he is with the Curt Schilling bloody sock...