The Two Week Snow-cation

If you recall, I did a post back in February about a little ice/snow storm. We had fun going sledding (or sliding) and having time off school. You might have thought it was a good two day vacation. Well, Mother Nature didn't think it was enough, or something. We ended up with two weeks of winter here in NC, of which the kids were in school for 1.5 days - out of 10! It was crazy. There was the ice/snow storm which kept them out for 4 days, then it snowed lightly and was super cold and then it snowed 6 inches. No school, no work for me, and lots of time at home. We thought it was great but it has been a pain to make up all the missed work and school.

Much like the last post about Christmas, it is a bit weird to talk about February snow in the middle of April when the sun is shining and spring is in full swing but it was a pretty significant event for us AND I got some great photos. So we'll just do another quick winter time blog and then move on to something more current! Like maybe Easter!

First up, the time after the ice and the light snow (~3 inches?) that then turned cold. 

It was so slippery, they were forced to crawl up the hill. And it took several tries to not slip back down!

trying to catch snowflakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess they can cancel school for this. It started coming down at 6 am. It started as a delay, I saw buses on my morning dog walk, and then it was cancelled.

but it wasn't THAT much snow...

but enough for a.....snowball fight!

The next day though, it was FREEZING! We bundled up to try sledding again.

Sledding didn't last cuz it was too cold, but ice skating was fun.

Then it really did snow - 6 inches which is a lot for NC. It was beautiful. We tried several different sledding spots, but I still think the ice sledding was the best.

Watch out! She's armed and dangerous!

this ended up being a very slow ride....

This was Eliza's snowman.

We made a whole family!

The first morning we trekked down to the big hill/open field to try the sledding. Sledding was good but it was NOT a good trek.

Molly fussed almost the whole trip - looking much like this.

Poor Jason became Daddy-Mule to pull the kids home.

But at least Eliza kept her snowball with her.

What did we do during the 8.5 days off of school? All kinds of things!

opened Christmas presents - like excavate your own pyramid....

had smorgasbord lunches....

another Christmas gift project - volcano!.......

indoor picnics (this was due to the fact that I packed lunches at 6:30, when there was still only a delay)....

drank lots of hot chocolate.....

made snow cream for the first time ever.....

even Blizz got to eat snow cream (it was fun but we made a lot)....

made homemade cheez-its (which tasted more like cheese straws).

and warmed up in bubble baths!

 Thankfully winter is long gone here but it was fun while it lasted. Though we did miss having school (Hayden literally burst into tears after one of the first school-is-canceled calls), we did have fun at home. Maybe we can do it again next winter!

Happy Snow Day!

Christmas in April? What?

No, we aren't actually celebrating Christmas in April. That would be crazy! But I did feel like I needed to do a quick blog about the holidays, despite it being FOUR MONTHS since they happened. We had an awesome time. My sister and her family were here over actual Christmas (usually they come up right after Christmas Day) so we had a big old Sanford family Christmas hosted by the grandparents. I think we were all a bit worried about so many people in one house, with so much excitement, but it really went well. The cousins stuck around for a bit while my sister and hubby went to a wedding, so we got extra cousin play time. And we had more friends come to visit right after Christmas. We finished off the celebrations with fondue fun for New Year's Eve. The holidays were busy and fun-filled. Just a few pics that capture the magic.

We started off the festivities with DeRousie Xmas - opening presents from the DeRousie side of the family.

Molly opening a present

Matching outfit for E and her doll - she was so pleased!

Started off the Sanford fun with lunch at Q shack. The kids got to share a piece of cake - and by share I mean, it was pretty much every child for him/herself as they dug in!

the crew! Everybody is growing up so fast!

Santa came!

So many presents, and she choses to snuggle up with a book....

no it's not completely in focus, but it's so cute how they all crowded around for Popop story time!

cheeseball Molly

the aftermath

warm backs, cousin company, and dessert - what could be better?!

seriously, they are getting SO big!

And to think when we met Sarah and Brad, none of these little people existed...

We toured around Chapel Hill and I think dancing on art sculptures and eating at Time Out were the best parts.

We fit in a Duke Gardens adventure sometime during the week.

Fondue fun!

Can you tell she enjoyed it?!

We woke E and H up to watch the ball drop. It was the first time E got to do it and she was quite tickled. She did wonder why there were so many people there when they could just be at home in the jammies!

 Happy New Year to you and yours! Hope 2015 is going swimmingly for you!

Teeth, hearts and toes

Another quick blog from recent events.

First off, we celebrated Valentine's Day last week - over a course of 3 days really. Molly exchanged Valentines with her classmates on Thursday, Eliza and Hayden did Valentines on Friday and Saturday was officially Valentine's Day. The kids did SUCH a good job making valentines for all their friends this year. I was so, so proud of the effort and care they put into them. Molly made these cute star print ones (potato stamping!) I found on Pinterest.

M signed her name on all 17 valentines!

M decorated hearts for her teachers.

Eliza made her own fancy ones with precut hearts we found at a craft store. She wanted to make big fancy ones like in a story we had (pinkalicious I think) but she didn't embellish them quite as much as in the story. But she carefully went through and made one for everyone in their class, and for both of her teachers, putting on decorations and carefully gluing on the chocolate hearts.

Hayden decided she wanted jungle Valentines b/c her classroom is modeled after a jungle and somehow we ended up with monkey valentines. (FYI there are not all that many choices when you google moneky valentine or jungle valentine). We found a version she liked that orginially was made from official cut out pieces (some system we don't own), but she created her own template (with Jason's help) and carefully made 25 monkey face valentines. We put together a snack mix of banana chips (didn't want to find runt candy bananas), chocolate chips and runts to attach to the faces. She also made special Valentines for her current teacher and her past teachers.

can you read it?

We also made Valentine sugar cookies for Eliza's class party. There were sprinkles EVERYWHERE but the cookies looked great and tasted delicious. (Cream cheese cookies with homemade buttercream are the way to go!)

so many sprinkles...

vday party!

Second, Eliza finally lost her top front tooth! I say finally because that tooth has been hanging on for FOREVER. The thing was literally hanging out of her mouth. It was time for it to let go! Eliza remembered to put it under her pillow. The tooth fairy brought her a gold dollar, which Eliza proudly took in to share at show-n-tell at school.

pre-tooth loss - hanging on for dear life

 

smile post-tooth loss

Third, a little over a week ago, we had a crazy burst (especially crazy, since now is a snow day) of warm springtime weather. We went out for a family hike in Duke Forest with Grandma and Popop. The girls had a wonderful time being out in nature - there was hardly any complaining of all the walking! They were especially tickled that we let them take their shoes off and put their toes in the water. Imagine going wading in February! They didn't keep their toes in long but they liked scrambling all over the rocks and chucking stones into the creek. I hope we make hiking a weekend habit as the weather warms up.  

waiting at the trailhead for G&P

all suited up for an outdoor adventure

rock scrambling

testing the waters (literally)

chilly wet toes!

it's f-f-f-f-freezing!

me and my girls from across the river

Hayden found a great walking stick

Sleet Day!

Before getting back into "catch up" mode, how about something current? From TODAY (gasp!)!

We have had a most wonderful snow day. One of those days where things have gone as well as we really thought they might, with lots of fun had by everyone in the family. I guess we all really needed a mini-vacation from all our regular responsibilities and worries. Thanks Mother Nature for making that happen!

We finally got some wintry weather last night and ended up with about 2-4 inches of sleet. (Technically we started with some snow, then sleet, then a dessert course of freezing rain). It looked white, but wasn't soft, and was very slippery. Luckily, our trusty plastic sled works on just about any wintry surface and we made the most of the day off playing in the snow. Hayden in particular had a blast finding any inclined icy surface to sled down.

posing as the sleds are found...

the stairs - completely slick - hence the stomped-on sides near the rails!

trying to get situated in our first minutes out

our street this morning - perfect for slip sliding. MUSH DADDY!

the manhole in the street - you can see how we just have a covering of ICE, not snow.

M tries to give E a hand - she actually slid a little on our flat icy street!

More mush Daddy!

 We started out in our yard, then moved to the street, then the small hill up on the corner and THEN we discovered the sledding possibilities in the new development behind us. There was a spot where you could slide down one small hill, keep skidding, and then go down ANOTHER hill and glide a long time across the snow without fear of crashing into anything. As the kids said, "it was awesome!" The amount of giggling was also awesome!

One of our first sled turns - Blizz did her usual sled guarding

Even J took a turn, and Blizz supervised.

can you see the people way way back? That's where I took off from on the sled - you could slide SO far!

Molly and Eliza enjoyed "butt sledding"!

 

(video from our first sled hill )

When we weren't sledding, we found other fun things to do. We had pancakes for breakfast (perfect for International Pancake Day!), played family Uno, made puppy chow (Chex muddy buddies), and just generally had a nice relaxed quiet day. It wasn't perfect - the bread I was making the bread machine didn't work out so well, Molly had a pee accident IN her snowsuit, nap time took some extra encouraging - but generally we had a great day. And we get to do it again tomorrow! Roads are still icy and it's not going to warm up quick so schools are closed tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have another fun day.

snow man pancakes!

Yay for snow!