Another Lazy Snow Day

Today was a truly unprecedented event...Family Snow Day #2!! Both Manhattan USD 383 and K-State were closed due to the 11 (or 12? or 13?) inches of snow that we had received. We were a little braver today and actually ventured outside instead of staying hunkered down the whole time.

We awoke to lots of snow and lots of sunshine. The chairs on the back deck look like they have extra-large cushions with the snow.

View out the front window.

View when we tried to open our front door. There are about 5 steps leading down but it was impossible to make anything out.

The kids continued their Lego Binge. The only possible negative of Legos is that they make a giant mess, but they are worth it in every way.

Annika designed and built a Lego plane. I told her that was a good engineering trait, and she responded that everyone always tells her that. ;)

I failed to defeat Level 70 on Candy Crush. So much for defeating this from my phone. I told Will I thought the level was impossible and he assured me that it gets much, much harder.

But at least I could fail on Candy Crush while still in my pajamas, which is kind of winning.

Will and I (mainly Will) dug ourselves out of Snowmageddon. This was the view when we started - it is impossible to even see where the driveway and sidewalks should be.

Rediscovering our front porch and stairs.

Slow and steady progress. 

Selfie proving that I was there, too. Okay, Will shoveled for 3 hours and I only joined him for the last hour.

Snow Wave. It is hard to see with the shadows but it looked just like an ocean wave only out of snow.

We (i.e., Will) dug out our mailbox! And we even received some mail today as a fruit for our labors.

The finished driveway. We will no longer have to become hermits who are trapped at home.

Daniel decorated his class Valentine's Day box. He would only be in the picture if he could put it on his head.

"Decorated" is a strong word - we had to create a box that could be easily decorated at school. My kind of decorating!

Annika read and read and read. I did convinced her to start The 39 Clues for mother/daughter book club (aka Not Warriors), which she loved once she got into it.

Daniel started to go Slightly Mad from being trapped indoors for so long. He came into our bedroom carrying one of the heavy-ish kitchen stools and I asked, "why do you have a stool in here??" His response: "I wanted to see if there was anything I could climb on." Alrighty then. ;)

Mock Snow Angels.

Doing the splits on the couch. This involved first running and leaping through the air and landing on the couch, and then doing splits.

Will went running for 8 miles through the snow. I have already used the word "insane" so I think I need something stronger here. This was after his 3 hours of snow shoveling, too. I obviously exempted myself from running due to the grueling one hour of snow shoveling I put in.

The kids played in the snow and built a snow fort! The windchill wasn't as bad this afternoon and they were so excited to get outside in the sun.

Daniel stepping in the snow. It was higher than his knee.

 Annika out with a shovel, digging through the large snow piles.

The kids created lots of snow ledges for their plastic dinosaurs and dragons.

This was Annika's territory.

 Annika's proudest accomplishment was tunneling out the snow pile by the mailbox and making a large fort.

Daniel was excited. Always. Excited.

We made snow ice cream! I tasked myself with going out to gather fresh snow, since I wasn't sure if our offspring would return with tainted snow (or yellow snow....).

It was delicious! You mix 4 cups of snow with 1 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Super easy and delicious...and fat-free, no less.

We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Everyone was getting cabin fever after two days at home and welcomed the break. The picture below captures the children's personalities well today....Daniel full of excitement, Annika not.

We received notifications this afternoon that both Manhattan USD 383 and K-State would be open and in session tomorrow. I think we are all ready to get back into a routine. God bless the elementary school teachers tomorrow...

Laziest Snow Day Ever

Today was a very unexpected event...Family Snow Day!! Both Manhattan public schools and K-State (and essentially the whole town) shut down due to a snowstorm. Reports are that Manhattan has received 11 inches of snow so far today, and the snow is continuing to fall. Many people in town enjoyed the chance to go sledding, build snow forts, or at least shovel their driveway. Not us! Family Snow Day meant a chance to all be as lazy as possible.

We woke up to beautiful snow. Snow is especially beautiful when you are inside, and not attempting to drive (or shovel).

View from our deck.

View out the door.

Will and I each went running. Because I am sane, I ran on the treadmill this afternoon and watched part of the pilot for what looks to be an awesome show, Orange is the New Black. Because Will is Insane, he and Charlie went running outside this morning while the snow was coming down hard.

The kids played educational (and non-educational) computer games. Annika really likes Cool Math.

This is some drawing app on the iPad, which is clearly superior to drawing on paper.

 The kids played Wii Sports. The favorite sport was bowling.

I filed our 2013 federal and state tax returns!! This is a terrible picture, because really, there aren't too many pictures that are tax-filing related that can be posted on the Internet...

Annika took many pictures of our cats. Many. Here is just a small sample.

The kids built many Lego structures. There was also much imaginative play surrounding these structures that I never quite followed.

Our family did lots of reading. I was very ecxited that my interlibrary loan book showed up at the KSU library yesterday, the first book (and last for me) by my new favorite chick-lit author Liane Moriarty.

Daniel listened to more chapters of the Magic Treehouse.

I really wanted Annika to read a lot of our book for mother/daughter book group this Saturday.

Alas, she only wanted to read Warriors. She has read almost every.single.book in this 20+ book series in the past several months, and only has a few remaining.

Will got started reading his book for Mystery Book Club.

Will made many tasty homemade goodies throughout the day. First on the list: made-from-scratch pancakes for breakfast.

Next, homemade pizzas with made-from-scratch pizza crust for lunch. Our children refused to eat these, citing the fact that it was Tuesday and "Tuesday is Lunchable Day!!" So more deliciousness for Will and me!

Homemade Chocolate Crunchy Cookies for snack! Will used the recipe from his mystery book club book, The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.

We used chocolate Cheerios instead of corn flakes and it was pure deliciousness.

Some of the best cookies ever! Will definitely be making these again.

Snow continued to fall all day. These were some of the pictures before it got too dark. Our chair out front is almost completely covered.

Snow drift on the roof.

Our front door and step is almost completely out of commission.

We received notice later this afternoon that USD 383 was going to be closed again for snow tomorrow (Wednesday). I am absolutely shocked to report that while I was typing this blog, K-State has also announced that they will be closed again tomorrow, too! So it means that tomorrow will be Family Snow Day #2. We will see if we can top this one and be even lazier.