Snow day (part one)

There were a couple of times last night when the power turned off with such finality that I would think—in the dark—"This is it. We've got to..."

And then the power would come back on before I even had a chance to think through precisely what we needed to do to make it through the night without power. Laugh all you want—it's not that cold and this wasn't that much snow, but our houses simply aren't built or insulated the same way they are in the north. Our pipes are more likely to freeze and burst. Our upstairs can be incredibly drafty. And that's just how it is. 

But, we were some of the lucky ones. Our power stayed on (for the most part, though it definitely shut off at least a dozen times over the course of the evening).

Anyway, I'm ready for Part One of our Snow Day adventure. The kids are tucked away watching Frozen (Phoebe's first time, in her memory) after coming in from a disappointing second day of snow...it's all melted and refrozen...and just not the same as the fresh snow. So, here are some memories from yesterday...

Phoebe was obsessed with eating the snow. She did not understand how to work her hands in her mittens—although she can recite "Thumb in the thumb place, fingers altogether," and does so while we're putting on her mittens, she tends to stick her thumb in with the rest of her fingers and then her hands are useless in her mittens. So instead she just throws herself into the snow face-first to take in all the snowy goodness.

We don't own a snow shovel currently, but we do have a big telescopic roof scraper (to help get piles of leaves off the roof, typically, although it's designed for snow). Andrew shoveled most of our driveway with it so that our driveway would be clear and dry faster. Though we literally have no where to go for days—church is cancelled! Everything is closed!

The snow wasn't very good for packing when it first fell, but here's Alexander with a snowball he managed to make:

Here's Zoë coming down to join Alex (after going up and down the street to rouse the neighbourhood, I presume):

Here's Phoebe:

And Rachel:

And me:

And Miriam:

And Miriam showing off her green bruise from having her wisdom teeth out:

Here's Benjamin after taking a lovely ride down the hill:

Here's Andrew about to head down:

Here's Alexander threatening to throw a snowball at me (he was throwing snowballs left and right, at everybody):

Here's Phoebe going down the hill on Daddy's back:

And here she is eating more snow...having figured out how to kind of use her hands:

Rachel put a snowball on Miriam's head and then hit it off with another snowball!

Here's Zoë coming down the hill with a friend behind her:

By this time in the morning the snow was warming up enough that it became quite packable, so we made a snowman:

Phoebe named him Olaf (which is why we decided she should probably watch Frozen; she knows who Olaf is because she has Olaf pyjamas, but that's all).

Here's Andrew heading down the hill with Benjamin and Alexander on his back:

And here he is going down with Phoebe again:

She was having the time of her life and kept asking to go down again and again. Her face didn't always show that she was enjoying herself...but we know that she has a hard time keeping her face from looking terrified when she's going downhill. It's been a problem since birth.

Here she is having trouble controlling her face in the swing...

We lost track of Zoë for a bit, but found her on the back deck making a little snowman of her own.

Here she is—with shopping bags still on her feet—after I dragged her back outside so I could take a picture of her with her snowman:

Here's a view of her snowman the following morning, with his little drippy nose:

I made all the inside people come back outside so we could take a picture with Olaf before things got too warm and he collapsed.

Phoebe was really excited when I was taking the picture because Luna Puppy had come outside.

Then our neighbour offered to take a picture with me in it as well.

Here's Olaf with his scarf. He's holding a snowball because Phoebe thought it was very important that he be able to defend himself (from Alexander, probably).

He was throwing snow at everything all day.

And here's photographic evidence that we did get a good two inches of snow!