Snow: Round Two

   Having already been stuck in the house for two days and then choosing not to go out Wednesday when the kids had late start while Luke's preschool was still closed, I naturally stocked up on food on Thursday instead of that Friday.  I was able to avoid most of the craziness that ensued of Friday as everyone made a run at the grocery stores before we had more snow hit us Friday afternoon.  I did go into a Safeway Friday morning for three things and it was a little intense.  Apparently the first thing to go in a situation like this is bagels.  Otherwise Friday before the store hit I was preparing by going to our local chocolatier, Boehm's.  

   Luke went to preschool that day, but was done at noon.  Daryl tried to go into his office until noon, but he kept getting to me calls in the morning to leave his computer at home.  He wanted to pick the girls up from school even though they had an early dismissal at 1:40 because it was supposed to start snowing before then.  Daryl was home with the girls by the time Luke and I came home from preschool.  That proved to be a very wise decision.  The bus the girls would have rode took three hours to get the kids home, and this was after it got stuck halfway up our hill.  The parents of the children were forced to walk  45 minutes in the heavy snow to go claim their children.  It was an absolute nightmare.

  We stayed home all weekend.  Avery made a run to the store Friday just as the snow started for tortilla chips, but we walked.  We really enjoy living in walking distance to our local market.  I went to the store Saturday and found it humming with activity.  It didn't have any bread left and the milk was slim pickings, but other than that there was plenty of food.  I think the Starbucks was having its best sale day ever too.  A park with perfect sledding slopes is adjacent to the store, so everyone was going there after sledding.  Sunday church was cancelled, so now we are just waiting for round three of snow to come in the evening.  I'm not sure when the kids are going to go to school again because snow is supposed to come almost every day this week.   

Luke and I while waiting to go into preschool.  He had a grand time pretending to drive.

Luke was upset with me for not driving the way home he suggested.

Hitting up Boehm's Candy before the storm hit.

Avery and I walking to the store.

The park on Friday as it started to snow.

Avery holding her mitten up for some reason.

We shoveled a lot of snow this weekend.

The kids staying cozy at home.

The snow stopped Friday night around six, so we went out to shovel and Harper loves helping with snow shoveling.

Daryl and Harper shoveling.  After this we rounded up the rest of the kids and went sledding on the side road next to our house.  It was really fun and kind of eerie with how quiet everything was at seven at night.

Just one of the icicles hanging off our gutters.

Avery keeping busy making name signs for bedroom doors.

Avery did the doors all by herself apparently.

This is what our house looks like currently.  The city has actually plowed the past two days.

Odds and Ends

   The pictures are backwards, so just deal with it.  The last day of the month Avery and Harper were in their elementary school's production of Annie.  The girls were some of the kids at the orphanage with Annie.  They had a great time and loved it; except I heard that there costumes were scratchy.
     Superbowl Sunday our friends Ben and Christie came with Luke's BFF, Zander.  We had seen earlier in the week that there was a chance of snow, but then the day before my weather app decided that it wouldn't snow after all.  Imagine my consternation when Sunday morning the weather app decided it really was going to snow after all that day.  Fortunately there wasn't too much snow, and Zander, Emery, and Luke were so excited when it started they all went out to play.  At that point I was thinking we would definitely have a late start for school the next day.  There was even more consternation when I awoke Monday morning to see that we got dumped on and there would be no school that day.  Then there was no school the next day because everything had frozen over during the night.

Zander, Emery, and Luke

Daryl made some tasty wings with his smoker for Super Bowl which we actually really didn't watch.  We left on in the other room while we played Dominion.

This is what looked like last Sunday when it started snowing.

This was what I woke up to Monday morning.  

This is what the back porch looked like.  It came out to seven inches.

Luke and Emery were super excited for the snow.

Avery was way more enthusiastic about hugging than Harper was.  

Avery is clutching the pink pillow with the black flower on the left, and Avery is on the right with the white dress and the gold shoes with pink laces.

Happy Birthday Harper!

  Harper turned eight a couple weeks ago, and had a great birthday party at the same bouncy place that Avery did.  She had a blast celebrating with her friends the Saturday after her birthday.  Then last Saturday she made the choice to get baptized:  without goggles on.  Thanks to some practice in the pool she felt ready to trust Daryl to safely dunk her under the water for a few seconds.  She also made me promise to have a special towel at the side of the font ready to wipe her face off immediately as she came out.  Harper is super excited to be eight and now be a part of her activity group at church.

Harper's birthday was during the week, so we had a small family celebration that evening.

Harper is really into Lego Friends now and was really excited to get this giant Lego house.

Avery coming down the big slide.

Harper having fun.

Luke climbing.

Harper with her friend's Freya and Nailah.

The birthday gathering awaiting the doughnut cake.

Harper sitting on the birthday throne.

I remembered to take this picture of Daryl and Harper before the baptism.

Then Luke and Emery wanted a picture.

Really Emery wanted a picture of just her and Daryl.