January SNOW

Really can't believe it's been two weeks since we hunkered down for a big snowstorm. 

It was a fun one... especially since it was on a weekend. Lots of time for all six of us to be together. 

When it was all said and done, we got about 14-18 inches of snow. It was really hard to measure because of the strong winds. They were not technically blizzard winds, but it sure was gusty leaving snow drifts here and there. I thought we were all set on snow gear, but Aaron has grown like a weed. He didn't complain about his "capri" snow pants but they were not very effective. 

There was a lot of tunnel and fort building. The boys loved this!

Irina, not as much, but she went with the flow. Her favorite is sledding. 

My favorite was actually shoveling. Crazy, I know. That's not to say I didn't grumble a bit about the resulting aches and pains. I just really liked being outside in the snow and working as a team with Darin. The kids were begging to help and they did some, but we only have two shovels. I didn't want to share my time shoveling with Darin. It was a shoveling date. :) Took about 2 hours each time we shoveled on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I had a captive audience for my chatter.

If you can believe it, we still had our Christmas tree on our deck in the tree stand! 

The kids loved watching the birds fly in and out of the tree finding refuge from the storm. 

Of course we went sledding once the streets were passable. Wish we had somewhere we could walk to go sledding. The sleds we bought the kids for Christmas broke the first day in the neighbors driveway. Boo hiss! They don't make sleds like they used to. ha! Thankful for friends sharing their sleds with us. Especially the snow board contraption above. Ethan was in heaven!

We charged forward with our school work the week after the snow when public schools were closed. The kids had mixed feelings about that, but I think they'll thank me early June when they get to hang out at the pool. One of the blessings of homeschooling is that without all our extracurricular activities we can accomplish a lot and still make time to play.