March 5, 2015

Who's the scary man with the shovel?

(click here for today's pictures)

• We had made sure that the kids knew even though it had snowed and snowed last night, we were still going to do a bit of school and eat our breakfast before going out to play.  We heard people stirring pretty early but no one came downstairs for a while.  Earlier this year, we thought that it would not snow at all this year and we even laughed about buying our sleds and never going to get to use them but how wrong were we.  I guess this is our 4th or 5th round of sleety/snowy weather this year and I just love it!
• I made chocolate chip muffins with my secret recipe this morning and they were delicious.  The only bad thing about muffins is the recipe only makes 12 so that leaves pretty much none left over for Robby and me.  Keaton didn't eat two and I think Reagan left a crumb or two so we all were able to eat breakfast.
• We didn't have a snow day from school today but after the kids did math and phonics, we all headed back out in the snow.  And even though I really, really love seeing the snow it just takes a bit of putting on gloves and hats and everything else for me to mentally note that I never plan on taking my crew skiing.  And it reminds me that I am so thankful for our mudroom-that room has been covered with gloves, hats, scarves, coats and wet clothes all day long today.  
• My Whitman escaped from me today while I was trying to get him ready and I found him in the middle of the other kids, who were putting on their hats and gloves, but Whitman was only wearing his feetie pajamas which were unzipped and his snow hat-but he was still ready to go outside!
• I guess the sun caused it to not be crazy cold out today but the kids' gloves get wet pretty immediately so their hands were always freezing.  Poor Whitman's hands were the worst and his gloves were soaking wet-mainly because he was shoving snow in his mouth as fast as he could.  I put my good gloves on him once and he wasn't happy about wearing giant gloves but the next time I tried, he kept those on him until he finally convinced Robby to take him in.
• So we had Whitman with giant hands but we also had Reagan and Graham wearing walmart bags on their feet.  Their tennis shoes seem to quickly absorb water so I thought the bags might help them some-well, it just made things very slippery.  Of course Reagan's ankle/foot is still hurting from her Rock Creek fall yesterday, she was quite entertaining to watch and spent most of her time outside crawling around on her knees.  (I know that she did hurt her foot but she is a bit of a drama queen!)
• We had a few snowball fights and then started a bit of sledding.  We went down the side of the yard but it took a lot of pushing to get a path that would work and this wasn't the best sledding we have had on Jacqueline but it was pretty good.  And after everyone else went in, I pushed Graham over and bump that caused him and his sled to go airborne which made it the best day ever for him.  So I had to push Anderson and Graham about a hundred more times before we finally came inside.  
• Everyone then worked school while I made lunch and then shortly after our late lunch all school work was done.  Playing in the snow and a school day all in one trashes the house so we had to work on just downstairs before nap time.  The boys opted to go outside for a bit this afternoon but they were only out for about 3 minutes before they came back in-we caught them and asked what was wrong and Graham was cold.  I found him more pants and another pair of gloves and that did help them stay out for about 12 more minutes.
• The afternoon was kind of quiet around here but the evening was certainly full of excitement.  I had made a crock pot supper and was pretty anxious to try it but was not looking forward to all of the comments that my meal would receive.  Robby quickly nipped it all in the bud and said that those who ate all in their bowl (really about 2 Tablespoons) would get to stay up 15 minutes later and have a snack.  
• My Graham always talks big and no matter what we have always says that he loves it but he is just all talk.  Tonight was no different, he was the last one to finish and spent half time time trying not to gag.  I was telling Robby how healthy our meal was tonight and he said "I know"-he wasn't crazy about it either.  And since I am not a big sweet potato fan I would probably agree but it was pretty good (sweet potatoes, applesauce and chicken)
• Reagan was the first one finished and she went to sit by Keaton and fed and encouraged Keaton as she ate her bowl of food.  Seriously, she had hardly nothing in their bowl but Reagan encouraged and cheered and prodded Keaton on.  I will say it again, the kids can be mean to each other some time but they sure do take care of each other too-especially when dessert is involved.
• So everyone did get to stay up an extra 15 minutes-so we did put Whitman to bed and let them watch one more alligator show.  And we even had a special dessert-I wanted to make crumb cake cookies but I guess everyone thought I had done enough cooking for the day and wanted a break from my cooking!  So Robby opted to make a peanut butter rice krispy something or another and it was devoured by all!  Then it was time for lots and lots of tooth brushing!