Some Fun In the Snow

Kids are milking the 2 inches of snow we got three days ago...

The Snow Has Ended

Finally!! Started digging out again at 3pm. Kids quickly learned the king of mountain gain on the piles of snow. I think we got another 10", but hard to tell because there were lots of drifts. The wind was still blowing fierce as I shoveled; overall felt brutal!!
But, I should make out tomorrow and be back at the office. Not the kids; school is already closed for tomorrow and Friday. More king of the hill game.

The Big Cleanup

Without any sign of VDOT with plows for our roads, the neighborhood took matters into their hands and started clearing the roads by hand. Our streets our now SUV passable which means I'm still out of luck. Well at the kids are having fun.

Karen and a neighbor went out in her SUV to the store. The Safeway had no eggs or milk. The only fruit were oranges. Luckily we were pretty set on staples. The six pack of beer she picked will come in handy tonight! The two also reported that even the main roads were in horrible shape. Looks like it may be another day at home.

Very Picturesque Morning

Still all buried.
Out our front porch, sun coming up in the East.
Off to sled the big hill. Notice not a plow path in sight. They didn't even do the major community street yet.


Tipper had a great time out with us this morning.

Sledding In The Park

Made the trek to our park to hit the real hill. After a few trials to create a run, we got going pretty good. Unfortunately with all the gloves, the camera got switched to "compact" video mode. Which means the movies came out terrible.

Snow-verkill!!

Here some pictures of us outside this morning, about 10:30am. Measured about 18" inches on the ground and it was still snowing hard. Supposed to let up sometime tonight.

And Tipper enjoying (??) the snow

Playing Hooky

No sign of a plow today, so I decided to stay home. Some decent melting today, so I should be able to get through side streets tomorrow (only 6" of powder to drive through).
So obviously more playtime in the snow.
 
 
Mom Sleds!!!

Taking with my new Droid.
BOOM!

Snow Fun

Beautiful Day. Shining sun. No work. No school. And almost a foot and a half of snow outside!

My Cutie

BIG SNOW!!!

Fun Day - Breakfast, Party, Snow!

Over dinner tonight Faith said "today was a fun day! We had breakfast at McDonalds. Went to a holiday party. And got to play in the snow." I said let's make perfect and finish your dinner so you can have dessert... no such luck on that note :-)
We had my company's kids holiday party which was a lot of fun. All the 5-7 year old boys quickly learned to get two balloon swords (one for each hand) for a battlerama on the ballroom's dance floor. They all had fun making crafts and playing on the moon bounce. And of course the ice cream sundaes were a hit.




But then it was quick to get home and play in the snow!!!


Reuben clearing the street...

Smiley the snowman...

And faith bringing snowball ammunition to the fight...

Snow Day - Welcome To March

We finally got a nice snow storm in this winter...

Snow Day - The Movie

Last week we finally had a little bit of snow, just enough to close school and get some sledding in...

Cold Weekend

Cold Spring weekend in Virginia. We mostly stayed around the house this weekend. How cold was it...
This was Saturday morning. Yes that's snow! Sunday morning it was still cold so we went to see “Meet The Robinson's”. Good movie, though our showing was not in 3-D. It was probably better that way, considering that Reuben is still scared of movies in general. The 3-D probably would have ended any hope of him sitting through it. In the end, he “liked some of it.”	By the afternoon at least the snow was all gone.
On a Saturday I had a basement guy come in to evaluate the basement for flooding. We had a plumber in a few weeks ago who said he couldn't help us; he said we needed a basement waterproofing company. I was suspect because, as you can see if you followed the above link, the problem is related to the drain leading to the storm sewer backs up. The water doesn't come in to the house at that location but it indicates that the whole water table has risen and it starts coming at the corners of the house. So it was refreshing to hear from the basement guy that I should first try a plumber before spending all my money with him. He gave me a plumber's name that he works with who could snake out the drain and send a camera in to give a visual inspection. The visual inspection could be used, he told me, if my drain is clear. It then could be a county issue with their storm sewer. So stay tuned for what the plumber tells us. Also, I think the cold weather is inhibiting my grass from growing. So far 8 days and no germination. Here are some miscellaneous pictures from this weekend.
Our cold walk to the park.
Tipper, however, loves this kind of weather. We've hardly seen her this weekend. She's always in the yard.
	Faith is still is rarely ever out of her princess dress. The thing is starting to fall a part. Preemptively, Karen bought a second one which will likely be needed soon. The next faze seems to be this hat, which she insists on wearing all around.
Finally, when Jacob doesn't play nice with his siblings he now goes to his room for an extended period to play by himself. So far, he's spent quite a lot of time there ;-) My hope is that he starts to control himself, because he would want to play in a group. We'll see. Meanwhile, at least he showing some creativity in his room. Here is Jacob's cityscape. Our house is the one with the window.

Don't Believe The Weatherman

The weatherman said freezing rain changing to all rain. Well I finally went outside to shovel, and we had close to 6 inches of snow!!
Faith walked around in the snow, but she's still not really a snow lover. After about ½ hour, she went up to the door and told Karen , “I'm done!” and walked inside. The boys are another story...
Reuben was using the dump truck to move the snow and occasionally would use the shovel and help me with the driveway. Jacob also liked using his shovel, but he liked to dig in the piles of snow where I was dumping the driveway snow. He kept moving the snow, back onto the driveway! This was definitely snowman kind of snow. The boys and I (mostly me) built this snowman. Jacob and Reuben collected the rocks for the eyes and buttons. And then Mommy gave us a carrot for a nose.
Tipper was also dying to go out and play with us, so after Layla (our neighbor's dog) went inside, we let Tipper out with us. She had a good time, but I'm always afraid of her eying a squirrel and running off.
Supposedly it is still supposed to rain tonight, we'll see. I've lost some faith in the weatherman. Hopefully things stay as pretty as they are right now.
And nothing like coming in to a cozy fire...

Ode To Tipper - The Movie

Our dog Tipper loves this weather, though I'm pretty sure she more fond of the fluffy stuff rather than the ice sheet we have. Even still we finally had a chance to play with her outside and she was very happy. Most amazingly she was able to run (we call them the puppy crazies, even thought she's now 5 1/2) around the yard in places where it was almost impossible to stand up without slipping.

On to the movie...

Ice Sledding - The Movie

Yesterday, we walked (very carefully) to our park to go sledding down the hill. Everything was frozen solid and very slippery. We had a lot of fun, but there were no soft landings and a bunch of sore tushies. I tried one of the sledding tubes early on and busted it, but I kept the using the flattened tube when I would hold Faith going down. She really liked it, but was afraid to walk around because it was so slippery; I don't blame her. It was very hard climbing back up the hill each time.

On to the movie...

Yeah... Snow Day

Snow day Fairfax. Last night we got maybe 2 inches of snow; enough for Fairfax to cancel school. The kids pre-school follows Fairfax's lead. So the kids were home and got to play outside in the snow.
Here are the boys filling in for VDOT.


Reuben warming up for the iron man competition.


The only way to travel.

After playing in the snow, Karen was still left with a day of bunko. So out come the craft projects. She also baked zucchini muffins which the kids loved, even knowing they were made with zucchini. She was definitely super Mom today.

Faith proud of her puppet


Jacob always willing to play the monster.


Reuben loving the camera ;-)

And now presenting...
The Village People Performing Arts & Crafts