This is the snowman the kids made when they got up yesterday morning.

This is the snowman Patrick made at dusk last night in the middle of some of the fastest falling snow I’ve ever seen.  I think he’s the biggest snowman we’ve created to date standing at about 8 1/2 feet tall.

This is the view from the back door this morning. I think we got about 10 inches in 2 1/2 hours last night.

Yesterday we got our first real* snow.

*As in schools were closed, shovel and scrapers were used, and we drove somewhere to go sledding.

It turns out that the older two may have snowboarding in their future.  I was pretty impressed at their ability to snowboard down a decent hill on a 15-year-old, blue, plastic, toboggan.

Introducing L-Bow.  It’s pretty genius in the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that category.  They are waterproof mittens and gloves with an attached nylon liner that goes up to your elbow…get it?  L-bow?

They’ve been great for our kids and got us through last year’s 80 plus inches.  Maybe you can even rush order a pair for the stocking this year and keep your polar bear happy!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming blogging.

This is Mia sliding down the hill on her back.

This is me sliding down the hill on my butt filming the kids on a toboggan.

 Wednesday virtually no one in the state was allowed out but Thursday we were able to find a semi-plowed place to park next to a perfect* hill.
*perfect=big enough to be fun for PJ, not so but that preschoolers need to be carried to the top.

Number of days since our last trash pick up………………………8

Number of days until our next trash pick up……………2 (maybe 6)

Number of days of missed school…………………………………4 1/2

Number of inches of snow since Friday……………………………~39

Number of consecutive days not seeing the out-of-doors………2
I know this doesn’t seem like a lot but it felt like an eternity

Number of hours Patrick spent shoveling…………no less than 10

Number of episodes of 24 watched…………………………so far 18

Number of hours kids watched TV…don’t want to think about it

Number of mental breakdowns………………………I plead the 5th

Out back affter it snowed all night, overnight, at a rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour.

They say it should stop by midnight. Fabulous.

This is Mia realizing she can’t walk without losing her snow boot.

I have a feeling we’ll be doing a lot of this.

And kick our feet up.

Ok, well we did that for a little while, but if you know our family, we can’t sit still for very long.  So we also got in some snow time.  The first snows we got this season were too cold and powdery for much of a snowman, but Wednesday’s snow was perfect even if the snowman only lasted a couple hours before biting the dust snow.

And Patrick taught PJ how to program the Lego robot (who Mia affectionately named Mr. Electric) I put together for work the other night.

Life father, like son.

All-in-all it was a great day with a good balance between laziness and productive-ness.  It’s days like Wednesday that make me think I might enjoy homeschooling if I wasn’t so in love with the classical education our children are getting at their current school.  Then I have days like yesterday where I got to go grocery shopping with only one child and think I’ll just make the most out of the snow days God has given us and send in my re-enrollment forms for next year