snow day, north carolina style.

A few weeks ago, the forecast indicated that snow would start to fall on Tuesday at noon. So late Monday night they cancelled school for Tuesday. We waited all day but the snow never came. The girls were happy to have a day off of school though. The majority of my day was spent at the DMV getting my NC license. Thankfully Ben was at home with the kids so three hours in line reading a book without kids climbing on me actually felt like a nice break. (Tells you something about my life when the DMV feels like a break.) The snow finally started around 5 p.m. on Tuesday. We got a few inches overnight and school ended up being cancelled the rest of the week, mainly for icy road conditions and a lot of roads not getting plowed. We don't have any built-in snow days so we have to make all 4 days up which is a bummer. We were so grateful for our kind neighbor who has a plow attachment for his four wheeler and cleared our driveway. I'm pretty sure it would have taken us all day to shovel it. (And as I'm typing this, we're experiencing another snow storm. This one seems a little more treacherous. Looks like more snow days to make up.)

Oliver was ready and waiting for snow all day on Tuesday.

Enjoying the first flurries Tuesday night.

It took no less than 45 minutes to outfit everyone in snow clothes.

the warm before the storm.

We had the most beautiful, 70 degree day a few weeks ago. We tried to spend as much time outside as possible. Especially since they were predicting a snow storm the next day.

saturday outing: museum of natural sciences

We decided to check out the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences one Saturday. It was a great museum and much larger than I anticipated. It was also free! But it was also super crowded. It was hard to stop and enjoy many of the exhibits and keep track of the kids because of the crowds. We are hoping to return at a less busy time.

It was so cold that day. I honestly don't know how I survived so many years in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I've become a total wimp about the cold. I guess it's good we moved south.

winter camping.

A few weeks ago we did our annual indoor winter campout. We cooked tinfoil dinners in the oven and also made "banana boats" in the oven (bananas stuffed with marshmallows and chocolate). We considered building a real fire in the backyard but it ended up being an unusually cold night. The real excitement of the night was setting up our tent in the playroom. We watched a movie from inside the tent and the kids thought it was pretty cool to sleep in there.

Checking out the first deer sighting in our backyard.

scooter races + marbles

The kids didn't have school the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day which was good since I woke up feeling really sick. Amelia pretty much took over and got everyone breakfast and then kept Simon happy in the playroom until his morning nap so I could go back to bed for a bit. Amelia made me a sweet "get well" card and slipped it under my door. She said she hoped I felt better soon so we could do something fun. I had promised the kids a trip to the children's museum. I felt a bit better by the afternoon so I loaded everyone up and we headed downtown. We are loving our annual pass at Marbles. It's a fantastic children's museum and the kids have a blast each time we go. I started to feel sick again after a bit so we didn't stay too long but thankfully the kids were sympathetic and didn't put up a fuss about leaving. Ben arrived home soon after which was good since I was pretty much passed out the rest of the night. Whatever hit me was luckily gone in 24 hours.

We have a super long driveway that's perfect for riding bikes and scooters. We live on a dead end street which means we no longer have to worry about traffic and crazy speedsters. Hooray! The kids spent a few minutes on their scooters before we headed to the museum.

Oliver was having fun pushing Simon in the stroller. Simon was amused by his crazy driving.

The girls were hard at work for a long time in this kitchen.

Always determined to get his socks off.

Yates Mill

Our first of probably many visits to Historic Yates Mill. We enjoyed the walk around the water but it was starting to get dark when we reached the mill so we didn't have much time to explore. Beautiful little spot not far from our home.

four crazy kids on a warm january day.

I didn't realize how much I would love having a trampoline. The kids love it and Simon loves being bounced around. It basically acts as a giant playpen for him which is great since he only wants to eat pine needles when he's on the ground. We're already looking forward to adding some water elements to the trampoline on hot summer days and star gazing on warm summer nights (so fun to actually see so many stars here!).