Snow Days!

Disclaimer: Picture overload...I got a little over-zealous with the new camera...

Yesterday afternoon it began snowing, and it didn't stop! :o)

I have not seen a real snow in several years. Chad and I were talking about it, and I think I was a freshman or sophomore in college. So, needless to say, I was extremely excited when I first spotted the white flakes falling from the sky!

I was even more excited to show it to Gracie. When she woke up from her nap, I told her to look out the window. She was so excited! We got bundled up (snow boots, pink parka, and a penguin hat) and headed outside.

"Ooh! Snoooooow!"

This was taken from our front porch at about 3:00 on Friday.

You can see that, at this point in time, it was just starting to fall and hadn't stuck yet.

I love the look on her face in this next one. (Can you tell her coat is a little big? Mom got her a Columbia snowsuit and boots at Belles and Beaus last fall. It will fit her until she's 5.)

She had fun for a little while, but there really wasn't much to play in...just lots of big flakes falling from the sky.
It continued to snow all afternoon, evening, and night.
This morning we woke up and headed outside again. This time we added the snowsuit pants to the getup. She looked like the kid in A Christmas Story...she could barely move!

Daddy was excited too!

This is what the house looked like when we woke up this morning:

The view from the front porch:

Our frozen cars (seriously, frozen...the sleet had turned to ice):

Our mailbox (just thought it was kind of pretty!):

The roads that run in front of our house were sheets of ice! A couple of the students that live next door tried to brave the roads to get food on campus, but we didn't go anywhere.

The back deck:

Jack:

(I took all these pictures while holding him, so I tried to take one of him. Didn't work too well.)
Chad took a real picture of the two of us.

Lilly came out too, but she didn't like it one bit!

We knocked the snow and ice off of the swingset so Gracie could swing.

Icicles!!

She quickly figured out that hands get really, really cold when you don't wear mittens.

She found a small plastic yard tool and used it to "rake" the snow. She kept yelling "Mommy, I playing in snow!"

Chad made a makeshift "sled" out of a piece of cardboard, so she could slide down the hills in the backyard. She LOVED it!

We built some (very,very small) snowmen!
Can you guess who decorated the one on the left?

Doing the "Frosty" dance

Jack found all the excitement to be a bit much...

It is now after supper, and we are toasty warm in front of the fire. It has begun to snow again, so maybe we'll get to go outside tomorrow and build Frosty another friend :o)
Happy Snow Day!