Sneaky Snow Day

Our weather here has been up and down. The last two weeks of February were very mild, even getting into the mid 50s and low 60s for a couple of days. It was nice! Of course every time it does that too early, I get a little nervous, knowing that the weather will get really cold again before it stays warm and it will make it extra hard to handle those cold days after such nice weather.

Well, March 1 in the evening, the weather came in like a lion. We got about 4 inches of snow and it was a very wet snow. It snowed, and slushed the whole evening, but the next day was supposed to be 41 and sunny, so we knew we'd have a messy commute the next morning until it started to melt throughout the day. I guess when the person-in-charge-of-cancelling-school checked out the roads at 4 am, they were just slushy and wet, however, around 6am when he checked again, it had frozen over and there was a lot of ice on the roads. About the time Victoria gets up to get ready was when we got the call that school was cancelled. Needless to say, it was a big surprise for everyone. The kids were excited, I was doubtful, knowing how nice it would be later that day, and a lot of people were annoyed. 

We made the most of it. I still went to work and took my kids with me. They always have fun at Red Bell and it was Dr. Seuss' birthday, so there was a lot of fun going on! Most of my students showed up and they love it when I bring my kids. We had planned ahead and brought our sleds and snowboards to Red Bell. The best sledding hill in our area is down the street from Red Bell, so right after work, we went there and not a soul was there! It was a shocker because it's always full of people, especially on snow days. The sun was shinning, we were there after lunch, it was prime time!

We had just gotten two more snowboards from a neighbor's trash pile. They were perfectly nice and had a good slide to them. I was happy I could try more snowboarding than last time since no one was around. I was a little uncomfortable last time since there were so many kids around. I didn't want to squash anyone, nor did I want to get squashed! Victoria, Austin, and I mostly snowboarded and Karissa and Erik sledded, but they both did try the snowboard and once Karissa did, she was hooked!

Finally, a man with his two grandchildren came and the boy played with my boys for a little while and we shared our snowboards and they shared their super fast sleds. It turned out to be a great snow day for us!!

Piano Federation

I have three piano players. They all really enjoy it, though we have our struggles with getting enough practice time in, like everyone does. The girls have done Federation the past few years. This was Austin's first year with the judges. Of course, he was as cool as a cucumber. The girls were a little more nervous. They practiced very hard and it paid off! They all received Superior on their pieces! This is Karissa's third, so she will get a trophy. Victoria had a hard judge last year, so maybe next year she'll get another Superior and earn herself a trophy.

Here's their pieces about an hour before we left. They each made a couple blunders on these. Luckily, they did even better for the judges!

Talent Show

Our computer is back, sort of, but I really wanted to post this of our family act at the ward talent show, the Saturday before I got sick. Austin really wanted to sing Believer, by Imagine Dragons, but I didn't think he was ready for a solo yet. So this is what we came up with. Enjoy!

Under Repair, Actually

I think a better title for the last blog would be "repair" not construction...

Under Construction

This past week, everything was under construction, so the blog didn't happen. It's still not going to happen until who-knows-when? Our computer decided to not take a charge anymore, so it wouldn't turn on. I took it to my friend whose husband fixes fixes computers on the side, but we're still waiting.

I was under construction this week getting over strep throat. The second time in my life I've had it. The first time was two years ago.

Our cars both got flats this week. Jason's (the van) went through some of the many potholes around here and actually messed up the rims of two tires, though since the tires are winter tires, they were fine. Mine, surprisingly, didn't have to do with a pothole, like everyone else's in the area (seriously, the potholes are horrible this year!). I had a bolt in my tire and it just went flat, on the freeway, of all places. 

Here's to a better week! 

BTW, mentioning my car, I never got to blog about our new car, from last May! Hopefully I can soon!

It's Snow Fun!

We got majorly dumped on last week. We had a couple of inches of snow on the ground, then on Wednesday last week, we started hearing about this major snow storm coming.Victoria's teachers were talking about a snow day on Friday, Austin's teacher sent home their weekend Chrome books on Thursday, expecting it to be a snow day the next day. Everyone and their dog was at the grocery store on Thursday, including me, though I only wanted to get a couple of things and mail off the Valentines my kids made. As I left the store that day, the radio station was sounding the severe weather alert alarm in preparation for the big storm on Friday. By Thursday evening we got the email that school was cancelled. Everyone was thrilled!

The weather didn't disappoint. It started snowing early Friday morning, though not as early as I had thought, but early enough, and it just kept snowing. It snowed the entire day. After we received about 5 or 6 inches more, it stopped for the night, but then kept on snowing for part of Saturday. Another 2 inches fell, approximately. Sunday morning we had some freezing rain, so now we have huge amounts of snow with a nice layer of ice on top. It's quite interesting to walk in.

This was taken in the morning still.

This is the front yard later in the day. You can't see the little hill we formed from shoveling for our snow fort. All the whiteness is blinding here!

Friday morning angels.

Smoothing out our hill so we can make that tunnel. Hopefully we can do it tomorrow!

I didn't have to go in to work Friday morning, which Erik was sad about. He wanted to go into Red Bell. So we had preschool at our home. Jason saw about 8 other people in the huge building he works in. Only essential personnel had to go in. I guess he's essential!

Austin, helping Erik read.

Puzzle time!

We went sledding and Austin made a friend who let him use his snow board. Now Austin wants his own snow board. Luckily, I had gotten an old one from someone in the ward a couple of years ago. We tried it once, but it wouldn't slide, so we forgot about it. Saturday morning was busy and everything was taking a little longer with all the snow on the roads and our totally unreliable snow plowers around here, so I didn't have time to take the snowboard in to get serviced before trying it out on Saturday. I ended up just put a little car wax on and we went to the hill again Saturday afternoon and it worked like a charm! Austin loved it and did great, Victoria tried it and also did well, even I tried it! I have to say that snowboarding was fun! I don't think I would like it on a long stretch. I still prefer skiing, but on the sledding hill it was a nice change. I didn't get any pictures because my phone doesn't like the cold and has been shutting down when I'm in the cold too long, like when we were skiing, so I didn't even bring it out of the car. I guess I should try to remember my actual camera again.

Jason and I went out for Japanese on Saturday evening for our Valentines date and then we had a group of friends over that night for a game night. It was a fun tradition that I hope we can continue, now that our house is getting back in order after a few years of Project Basement.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I have to say that I love all my Valentines!

My mom sent my girls and I these dresses. We were excited to wear them Sunday.

For once Erik was sad that he couldn't be in a group pic (the one of the girls and I), so he wanted to get in his own with Jason. This is how he wanted it to be.

Never a dull moment!

STEAM Fair

This year's Science Fair at Gallimore was changed to a STEAM Fair. STEAM is the new STEM. It stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. The students could choose any of those areas for their project, relating it to a typical science fair project. Karissa chose art, of course, and chose to relate it to her knowledge of volcanoes since we got to hike one, even if it was in the rain, in Costa Rica. 

She studied about volcanoes and came up with this trifold board.

She had the basics of how a volcano forms and erupts, as well as the plants and animals that are commonly found on volcanoes, since drawing animals is her forte. At the bottom, she included some pictures of Volcan Arenal in Costa Rica. One in the background of our hotel, one on our hike, and one at the trail head.

I volunteered to help set up the boards, which was the way to go. I was able to get a sneak peek at all the boards before the night of the event, which is always really crowded!

This is her last science fair at the elementary level!

Erik was trying to photo bomb, but didn't quite bomb it totally!