Baby, it's cold outside

I tried...

I tried and tried and tried...

but no matter what, I just couldn't delete any of these pics from the post.

So, it might be a bit of picture overload, but I just couldn't help myself.

Yeah, it might have been cold out there, 

but when you have an awesome sledding hill to play on,

the cold just doesn't matter.

A little snow in the face... that's okay!

Catch some air?    Awesome!

Total wipe out?!

Lets do it again!

My kids had such a good time.

I wish this hill were in my backyard, but it's all the way in NY in my sister's backyard.

:(

Even so, it was fun while we were there.

Want to make my kids happy??

Give them three snow days in a row just before a four day weekend!!!

Winter break part two!

We'd been waiting all winter for snow.

 Well, we got it today and then some.

It's the really thick, heavy stuff, which the kids were happy about because they wanted to build a snowman.

(They haven't yet, but it sounded like a good idea.)

However... that really thick, heavy stuff isn't so good for things like power lines.

So, last night when our house suddenly went dark, we waited a moment,

hoping for the lights to come back on

and when they didn't we gathered our flashlights and candles and made a party of it. 

 

We are grateful that the piano is not electronic. 

We had music and dancing.

We played apples to apples.

And experimented with the camera and flashlight.

However after an hour or so of this, the novelty started to wear off,

so we were very happy to see these guys!!

It took them a while, but we were lucky to have our electricity back within just a couple of hours.

Not everyone was so fortunate.

For today,

I'm happy to let them play outside

and even happier to enjoy the view from the inside with a hot cup of tea.

It's been an exciting couple of days.

Winter Rainbows

I could spend a few moments complaining about the cold, 

but it seems silly since I know that there are places far colder than it is here.

I'd consider whining about the lack of snow,

(it's always been my theory that cold is only useful if it also brings snow)

but after last winter's Snowmageddon, I can't say that I'm incredibly anxious to get THAT much snow.

Instead I'll talk about rainbows and butterflies.

'Cuz I'm just a regular Pollyanna!  ;)

Or to be more accurate, I'll show you the rainbows...

Winter rainbows!

They showed up in the frost on the window when the light hit them just right.

And I'll share a little quote that a high school friend posted on facebook recently.

"Snowflakes are winter's butterflies :)"

Gotta love her!

Hope you enjoy your winter rainbows and butterflies!

I heart faces: All bundled up

The I heart faces challenge for this week is "Bundled up."

Now that Spring is making it's way to my house, 

I am hoping we won't have to do too much more bundling up,

but with all the snow we got this winter

there were plenty of opportunities to put on every layer of clothing known to mankind.

There is something about  I heart faces that just draws me in.

I tell myself that I don't have a picture for the theme, 

or if I do, it's not good enough,

but I still find myself staring at my photos,
looking for just the right one.

The rules state that a face must be clearly visible in the picture.
Hmmm...
What's your definition of visible?

I mean her face is there and it's clearly facing the camera,
but the only truly visible part is the tip of her nose.

Need a little Spring in your step?

 Goodness!  This winter has packed quite a wallop!

Here in VA we've had more than our share of snow,

but now all of that snow is melting and turning everything to mud.

Mud season... ain't it great.

 

While I enjoy watching the snow falling,

making snowmen,

and getting warmed up with hot chocolate and other comfort foods,

I do not love the look of the dirty snowbanks and mushy-muddy lawns.

 Yuck.

But I feel Spring coming.

Maybe it's not coming soon enough, 

Maybe I've been suffering from a bit of cabin fever,

but it is on the way.

I hope.

 

In the meantime... 

I've decided to create my own Spring and bring some green into the house.

It's the best I can do for the moment.  

I'm hoping that the snow will finish melting

and that the spring flowers will start blooming.

SOON!

Not ALL yellow snow is bad

Sometimes it is part of a rainbow.

 

  

Or a happy smiley face.  

 

  But I still wouldn't recommend eating it.

ewwww...

Digging out and Defrosting

Every time I think that I have a lot of snow, I find someone else's blog where they talk about the 50 or more inches of snow that they've received.
It's amazing!

 This is the snowbank at the side of my driveway after all the shoveling was done.

(Julia is 4'6")

 Digging out of the 36 inches of snow that we got this past week was quite a chore for both myself and for the Department of Transportation.

I have never seen them pull out the "big guns" like this before.  The kids and I spent some time watching them scoop huge amounts of snow from the corner of the intersection and dump it into my neighbor's yard.   

However, no amount of wishing caused them to come my way and dig out my mailbox.  

Oh, well...

I did finally manage to dig through the snowbank and make a path to my door.  

Now, maybe I'll order a pizza. 

But, more importantly, now there is a way for the mailman to leave packages at my door.

I had put my mail on hold until I was able to dig out the front path as well as the mailbox.

The UPS guy managed to find a place to leave this box 

and, boy, am I glad he did!

Boxes and boxes of my favorite tea to warm up the cold winter mornings.

Oh!  

I forgot to make tea this morning....  hang on...

okay, the kettle is on.

Stash Orange Spice Black tea.

yum...

As much as I've searched, no one in this area seems to carry it.  

I have begged for it on Swap bot and
asked for it at the grocery store.

My sister found some in NY and brought it to me.

Finally, I gave in and bought six boxes through Amazon.  

I'm afraid that might be too much of a good thing.
Is that possible?

Oh, yeah... I have three feet of snow in the front yard that says it is!

 

I don't know if these are my best pictures this week, but I'll add them to weekly winners anyhow, just cuz I want to be part of the "cool" crowd.  :o)

Snow Cave

Every kid should get to do this at least once in their lifetime!

Living Egg-stravagantly

People do funny things when faced with a big storm and the possibility of being "stuck" inside for a while.

This past Thursday, our last clear day before Snowmageddon hit the DC area, I took a look at my supplies and decided that the one thing I absolutely needed before the storm hit was more dishwasher detergent.  Getting snowed in is one thing, but getting snowed in AND washing dishes by hand all weekend is something I didn't want to do!

A girl has to draw the line somewhere!!!

I had no intention of going crazy and buying a month's worth of supplies.  I just needed some detergent and maybe some ground beef.
But, then I wondered, "Do I have eggs at home?"

I couldn't remember, so to be on the safe side, I picked up Costco's super-sized package of eggs.  

Only to get home and find that I already had a Costco sized package of eggs in my refrigerator!

Oops!

 

I am now the proud owner of 56 grade A, extra large eggs!

I counted.

  

What does one do with 56 eggs?

 

Well, so far, we have had:

3 poached eggs

2 eggs in a brownie batter

2 eggs for meatloaf

and 

1 fried egg.

Ummmm... that's only eight eggs.

Only 48 more eggs to go.

Anyone hungry?  I could whip you up a mean omelet!

I'm linking this up to Lisa's Chaos for Macro Monday. 

WOW!

The three words that best describe this week are as follows and I quote,

"SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!"

One storm last weekend, followed by another on Wednesday, followed by the "Blizzard of 2010" dropping 26 inches on Friday and Saturday. 

I'm sure that this is the most snow that I've ever seen in my life.  

If you look carefully at the pictures below, you might notice a few differences.

You know... like the road that disappeared, the trees are slightly shorter, the bush closest to the lamp post is no longer visible.  

And we're not done yet!

Looks like we have another storm rolling in on Tuesday!!

 

 So what do you do with all that snow?

Build the world's biggest snowman snowball.

Nice try, kids!

 

 And... what do you do when you are snowed in?

Making homemade pizza fills the time and the stomachs.

 

 Or.... you can take 27 pictures of yourself making weird faces.  

:o)

I'm adding this post to weekly winners hosted by Lotus.

Now that's a lot of snow!!!!!

Ummmmm.... Did I whine about shoveling snow last weekend?

Yeah, well....

I'll never do that again.

 

This is what I saw when I opened the garage door, shovel in hand.

  

I don't know how many inches this is, somewhere around two feet, I guess, 

but it came up to the middle of my thigh.

 

There will be no access to my front door for a very loooooong time!

The kids and I plan to take our time digging out.  We don't have anywhere that we need to go.

My goal is to get all this off of the driveway before Tuesday's storm which is supposed to bring us six more inches!!

Oh, dear...