Snow in North Carolina is pretty rare according to the natives, so we feel pretty exceptional that this is our second year where they've had "record" amounts of snow. Last Monday was President's Day, so the kids and Jon were off all day on holiday. A big storm blew in that evening, bringing with it freezing rain and snow in some areas. Although Jon had the day off with the military, he still had to go into work at Day and Night in Fayetteville from 5-10 p.m.-- even though we knew nobody would be venturing out into the bad weather to get their teeth fixed! Most people here panic, and then hunker down to weather out the storm!
I was so worried about him driving home late at night on those icy roads, because we knew there'd be a few yahoos out and about not knowing how to drive in snow and ice, but thankfully he made it home around 11:30 p.m., Phew! His car was completely glazed over with about 1/4 inch of ice.
The kids were absolutely thrilled to wake up to SNOW, in addition to the fact that school had been canceled! They wolfed down breakfast and then suited up-- complete with grocery bags over their shoes to "waterproof" them-- and headed out into our winter wonderland! I'm thinking we'd better invest in some winter boots next year.
It had snowed maybe a good two inches around where we lived, but it was then covered mostly in ice! The ice makes the snow on the trees and bushes so heavy there was a lot of breakage around our yard. One of the trees in our front yard completely snapped in half.
Miss Leah didn't want to miss out on the fun, and joined her siblings in their exploration of the wintery world. In fact. the first thing they all did was run over to Josh and Luke's house to see if they could come and out and play! They even have some sleds, and each one got some good runs down our hill before it got too cold.
And one more close-up for good measure. I couldn't resist that little grin!
This is the holly bush right in front of our garage all iced over from the freezing rain! It really does get bad around here, and the roads were so treacherous getting onto base they canceled work for Jon as well. I was thankful because that meant we had an extra freebie day to all stay at home and play!
We read lots of books upstairs in the playroom while Jon and Zach played Wii, and Lucy played at Josh and Luke's house. This is the face Leah makes when we get to her favorite part in "Camilla the Cupcake Fairy." All of the little fairy friends have to wish for magic cupcakes, and Leah wishes right on with them!
Here they are wishing for cupcakes! Don't you think Leah could fit right in with those little fairies? Ha ha!
I took this picture of the weather forecast on my phone to show our week. It just got worse and colder! More snow Wednesday afternoon, and record cold on Thursday with -2 as the low!! This kind of cold is basically unheard of around here for late February. I think a couple years ago there were record highs of it being in the 70's! I guess we got to experience both ends of the spectrum. School stayed canceled through Wednesday and Thursday, due to the ice on the roads not melting and the extreme cold. The kids weren't complaining!
Honestly compared to last year, I gave up feeling frustrated with all the extra snow days and cancellations, and instead just enjoyed a little reprieve in our crazy school schedule and soaked up the extra down time with the kids! School did start back up by Friday, just in time for Jon and a couple of his co-workers from the base to go into Zach's kindergarten class and give a little presentation for Dental Health Month. It's pretty cool having a dad for a dentist after all!
That night we decided to go bowling and have some family fun. The kids love to go bowling and Jon is actually an excellent bowler (big surprise right?)! Here's Lucy during her turn.
Mr. Zach-O!
And even the Wee-Wees got in on the bowling action with her own little pink bowling ball and bowling shoes. She liked it when it was HER turn, but otherwise ran wild during everyone else's in the arcade.
Hopefully Father Winter has gotten all of the snow and ice out of his system and is ready to bring on spring! We can't wait for some good ol' fashioned sunshine and an afternoon at the park! (Hope I don't jinx us like last year!)
